Tom Sweets, executive director of the Key West Wildlife Center, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM this morning to talk about what’s happening at the center.
Key West Wildlife Center is a non-profit wildlife rescue.
Sweets said, “Our specialization is birds. We do rescue some other species as well. We handle from mile marker zero to about mile marker 31, just past Big Pine. We operate through donations, private donations, through the public and we’re happy to be out there supporting not only just the public, but our military, law enforcement. We get calls from everybody. So quite a quite a busy time this time of year, once our baby bird season is sort of winding down.”
The center rescued an ovenbird recently.
Sweets explained, “We did have a Key West Police Department call yesterday morning from the ferry terminal in Key West, and that call was regarding an ovenbird, which again, that lets us know that we are getting towards the end of the nesting season, and really the beginning of the migration south for the winter. They’re starting out early right now. So we just had an ovenbird that had impact, probably hit a window or something, and we were able to get down yesterday morning, get that bird. That bird recovered in our clinic and has already been released. So that’s good, back on the migratory trail. We’re really getting to the tail end of the season, and most of our song birds, our mockingbirds and our grackles, King birds, other birds that nest here, they are pretty much getting to the end of probably their third cycle of babies, so they’re wrapping it up now. We still are getting a lot of white crown pigeon fledglings. They sort of go later into the year, into the next season, really. So we still do get some pigeons and some doves, some morning doves, white winged doves. We still do have some nesting activity. But finally, it seems like it’s been a long, long baby bird nesting season that’s finally coming to an end now that we’re starting to see some of these migrants moving through.”
The Naval Air Station Key West called yesterday about a black racer.
Sweets said, “That’s one of the other types of animals we will rescue. It’s a native snake. I’m sure everybody is familiar with it, the little black snake that moves so fast on the ground. This particular snake got caught up into a cast net, a fishing cast net that was sort of on the side of someone’s house on Sigsbee Naval Air Station. We were able to make that rescue. Thankfully the snake hadn’t been in there that long, so there was really no major injuries or damage. We were able to just cut him out of the net and get him back to his home territory on Sigsbee. A lot of different agencies and people out there doing their jobs, and then they find wildlife in distress. So we appreciate all of those agencies that we support in that mission. A lot of times, if they’re stuck in there for a long time, that netting will start to sort of cut into their skin. But thankfully, we got the call quickly and got the snake out quickly so there was no injuries, and just right back to the home territory. We try to get all those animals that are territorial back as soon as we can, as soon as they’re cleared to leave the clinic and get them back out there so they can thrive without having to spend too much time with us.”
A juvenile green Heron was treated for a bite wound recently.
Sweets explained, “It could be any type of an animal. These young Herons, they will come down from the tree sometimes, a lot of times, you’ll see the youngsters, they call it branching where they’ll be sort of moving around on the branches of the tree before they’re fully fledged, and they will end up on the ground. Certainly, they can get bit by a number of different animals. I mean, you name it. They can get bit by it, cats, dogs, and then even, other wild creatures, sometimes can get a hold of them, especially the youngsters. So yes, that Heron is still with us. He’s doing fine. He’s responding to treatment, but he’s probably going to be with us a little while, just for that bite wound to heal. Those bite wounds and those scratch wounds, they can really do a number with bacteria. So we’re just making sure that this young Heron is recovering and good to go before we would get that bird back out there.”
The new clinic is a real help to treat injured animals.
Sweets said, “We still have to keep saying thank you to the community for supporting our raising the roof campaign that allowed us to build the new clinic and also refurbish our wild bird aviary, where the birds go after they leave the clinic, to get some flight time. So yes, this facility is really already showing its worth by being able to help us. It’s just better equipped, larger and everything is new, which if anyone had ever seen our older clinic, it really wasn’t the case. We were struggling, sort of just to do basic things sometimes because the facility was so old and weathered. But it’s nice to have a wonderful new facility where right now we’re working on getting our digital X-ray up and going. It’s not finished yet, because we’re still sort of outfitting it, and we’re certainly stocking it for hurricane season. But yes, we have to say thank you again to the community for allowing us to really build this new cutting edge facility.”
Sometimes charter fisherman help rescue animals.
Sweets said, “We do thank all of our partners out there. A lot of people out on the water, they will grab birds. In fact, we just had an Osprey last night that was down in the water and waterlogged, which can happen, if it’s a young Osprey learning to hunt, they can actually get bumped into the water, or they can get knocked into the water by other birds, or they can hit something and fall into the water. There are a lot of people out there, charter boats, tour boats, they’re out there, and they will grab a bird out in the middle of the open water and bring it back in. We really appreciate everyone out there. We’ve had a couple of frigate birds in the last month from boaters that picked them up down in the water, and we were able to get two frigate birds released, two Ospreys. We just now have two new Ospreys in care, one of which was waterlogged. So yes, people out there on their boats, on their charters, we really appreciate that, appreciate them looking out for birds in distress, and making the call.”
Donations are always needed.
Sweets said, “You can really handle both of those in one, one location, on our website. There is a portal for donations, which we’re always looking forward to support our nonprofit rescue operations. And then, as well, if you have time, if you’d like to volunteer, we are always looking for quality volunteers.”
Migration season will be upon us soon.
Sweets said, “It won’t be long. We’ll start to see the Raptors come in and once we get closer to the fall, once we get into sort of the Christmas season, and we’ll start seeing a lot of pelicans. So yes, the cycle never ends. If you see wildlife in distress, sick or injured birds, especially, call our 24 hour hotline at 305-292-1008.”
For more information, click here: https://keywestwildlifecenter.org/