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Monday, August 19, 2013

It's Been A Busy Summer!

I'm back from a summer hiatus  :-)

For those of you who don't know, I'm the communications director at one of our nation's leading wildlife hospitals. And, summer is our busiest time of year. Crazy busy. Like 80-120 new patients every day kind of busy.


So, linking up with Our World Tuesday, I thought I'd share what's been going on in my world lately.

I spend the summer working incredibly long hours but learning so much about more than 180 different species of wildlife. Furred, feathered and even scaled, we get everything at WRC (Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota).

Since I spend my days taking photos (all these are taken by me), blogging, updating our Facebook page and sending out emails to our distribution list, I'm kind of burnt out on the social media thing by the time I get home from work. Plus, I wanted time to unwind and enjoy the outdoors when I wasn't working - therefore I put my personal blog on hold. Thanks for coming back to see what's new - I appreciate it!

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of my favorite critters from this summer:

These are baby garter snakes. Aren't they beautiful? Did you know they give live birth? And the record for number of babies is 90? Wow! (thanks Chris Smith for that cool stat!) You can read more about them, and see add'l photos here.


One of our more beautiful patients at the Center are Grey Fox. They are the only fox to climb trees! It's pretty amazing to see. This poor little kit stuck his head into a discarded container and became stuck. He's fortunate someone saw him and brought him to us. There's a blog post about it here, including before/after photos.


I don't know if there's much cuter than a group of fluffy swallows. We have five swallows in Minnesota (Tree, Bank, Northern Rough-winged, Barn and Cliff). These are juvenile Barn Swallows, just about ready to fly.


This adorable guy is one of only two hares that we have in Minnesota. It's a young (maybe only 3 days old) White-tailed Jackrabbit. Both it, and our Snowshoe Hare, are considered precocial because they're born furred, eyes open and are up hopping around within hours of their birth!


Saw my first Fisher up close and personal this summer! This young one had been hit by a car and a kind-hearted person stopped to see if it was still alive. Fishers are pretty cool: They're basically pregnant all the time due to embryonic diapause. More here.


As a medical center, we see some pretty fascinating things come through our doors. Think that's one of the reasons I love my job so much: All the new things I learn each day. This was a pretty interesting case study that I wrote up a few weeks ago. A young Herring Gull traveled from Duluth for surgery to pin a fractured leg. But when we took x-rays we had quite the surprise! This links to the case study. Just click through the slides to learn all about it.


You can join me on my adventures at WRC via WRC's Facebook page or through The Pulse (WRC blog). And, if you're as fascinated by wildlife medicine as I am, take a look at the Case Studies I write up.

Thanks again for coming back to visit and a big thank you to Lady Fi for hosting Our World Tuesday. Be sure to check out all the other great bloggers who participate. Hope you all had a great summer!




31 comments:

  1. What a cute bunch of critters. I am glad you are there to help save these babies when they needed help. Wonderful photos, thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks for coming back and checking in on me, Eileen! Looks like you've had a wonderful summer so far :-)

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  2. Fascinating post!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  3. Wow Tammy; you're an encyclopaedia of knowledge and experiences. Thanks for sharing these!

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  4. The herring gull case is amazing; thanks so much for sharing these authentic x rays and medical hx. This is such an exemplary hospital with such high standards; I can tell from all the images you shared and my heart goes out to all those injured.

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    1. I cannot tell you how hard it is to get good photos of x-rays! We don't have a digital x-ray (some day!), so for now we have the films. They always catch the reflection of the camera in them. Let me know if you have any suggestions, Maria. And thanks again for the kind words - love my job!

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  5. Hi there - I think I know what you mean about blogger fatigue - I'm not sure I'll be as active once its light when I get home from work!

    I'm trying to do more black and white images.

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne.

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    1. Your b/ws are beautiful, Stewart. You captured so much detail in that tree/chain one - amazing. Hope your winter is winding down nicely. Looking forward to catching up more w/your posts!

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  6. I can almost hear the oohs and aahs from here CG. Lovely pictures, especially the bundle of garters and the little fox.

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    1. Thanks, Phil. Funny story on the garters: One of my reception desks volunteers was there when I was taking photos and she said, in a very excited voice: "Tami! You need to get photos of their little tongues sticking out." I looked at her, waited a bit and said "Really? You want my job?" She laughed and then when I saw I had managed to capture those little tongues on film, she laughed even harder :-) Thanks for visiting, and for the kind words!

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  7. a marvelous set of photos of fabulous creatures and birds! i can only imagine how much time you spend each day on social media. i admire what you do.

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    1. Thanks so much! I do love my job, just get burnt out doing it personally, too :-)

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  8. people like you are a blessing to our wildlife. these are all amazing stories. i followed the links and my favorite is the little fox kit in the plastic jug.. keep up the good work. you are in charge of letting us know what is going on out there.

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    1. Thanks so much for visiting, Sandra! The man who brought that fox in to us didn't even know what it was - just knew it was an animal in trouble. People's kindness humbles me.

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  9. You're wonderful! These animals are all so beautiful! The gull is one lucky bird! It's so sad that there is so much pollution. I've done some wildlife rescue in my time. I carry the injured or helpless animals to the professionals. :) My son will not pass up an injured animal either. :)
    All of you are truly a blessing in the Wildlife world.:)

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    1. Wow - that's great, Marie! People like you and your son are the only reason we exist. Truly. If people didn't care about sick, injured and orphaned wildlife, we wouldn't be here. Thank YOU for all that you do to help our furred, feathered (and scaled!) friends.

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  10. Wow!!! Amazing phtos!
    I envy you.
    Happy Evening, Wieczora (◔‿◔) | my photoblog | Meine Projektseite

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    1. Thanks for visiting and for the nice note! I do love my job - it's great to learn something new every single day.

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  11. Oh my goodness!!! You are doing such good in the world..... Thank you :)

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    1. Hi Kerri! I have to tell you that your photos have kept me smiling throughout the summer. They're so amazing. Thanks for visiting again and for dropping me such a nice note.

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  12. Wonderful stories, great photos. I worked in the Avian Nursery there a few summers in the '90s and it was always a thrill to be there so close to these wild creatures. Even more thrilling was to be present when they were released back to the wild.

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    1. What a small world, Cynthia! We just did a public release of Avian Nursery birds this morning. It is thrilling to send them back out into the wild. Thanks for visiting - and for the work you did with us!

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  14. Fun update on your summer - WOW!! Love all the photos & stories.
    Just this morning, I've been a little perturbed, because there's been a bear cub in a tree in a residential area of the town about 12 miles from us. It's been filling the local facebook feed.. I wish they'd just let the poor bear be, so that mom can come get him & they can be on their way. Animals are amazing, we need to remember that this world is their home just as much as it is theirs.

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    1. That poor bear cub! I hope it's been reunited with its family, Amanda. Thanks for visiting my blog and for caring so much about wildlife.

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  15. Thanks for doing such good work!!! I took my dog to the vet once and there was another customer there with a big box. Turned out it was a big turtle...needed x rays for a possible broken leg...first time I'd seen that outside of a zoo!!!

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  16. So good to see you back Tami! What a productive summer you have had.

    I'm sort of on a forced hiatus from my blog because of a move from one hosting provider to another and I am (im)patiently waiting for my blog to repopulate on the new server.

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    1. I saw that you're migrating your site, Mia. I have to do that periodically at work and it's always nail-biting until it's fully up and running again. Hope it all goes smoothly!

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  17. Hi... What a fantastic work you are doing, but we all need a break from something that gets overwhelming!!
    I just can't say in word how precious your photo's of the little ones are!! I don't like seeing snakes, but even these are cute ...lol

    Grace

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  18. Super post! Thanks for letting us know more about you..What a fascinating job..and you do it so well!

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