CONGRATULATIONS TO JIM MCVOY, WINNER OF DELAWARE GOVERNORS AWARD Proving once again that Tri-State has some of the best volunteers anywhere, the 2015 Governors Outstanding Volunteer Service Award committee has chosen to honor longtime Tri-State volunteer Jim McVoy. A Tri-State volunteer since 2006, Jim works a weekly clinic shift on Friday mornings, retrieves and transports birds, helps with oil spill response, trains new volunteers and mentors less-experienced volunteers, and speaks to community groups as part of our educational outreach efforts. Truly one of our most dedicated and versatile volunteers, Jim will receive his award on October 6 at a dinner and ceremony to be held in Dover. Please join us in congratulating Jim for this well-deserved recognition.

COME TO THE GIANT YARD SALE! Please join us on Saturday, October 3, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Aetna Fire Hall in Newark for Tri-States Annual Giant Yard Sale. The items are priced and organized, all we need are shoppers eager to make this years event the biggest success ever.

Once again, we are requesting that all shoppers consider making a small donation of $1 as they enter the sale. For early-bird bargain hunters, we will have an Early Bird Raffle, allowing winners to start shopping at 7:40 a.m. before the doors open to the public. To secure your chance to snag the choice items, arrive at the fire hall by 7 a.m. and purchase a raffle ticket.

We are also still looking for volunteers to help with the following activities:

Baking sweet treats to tempt our hungry shoppers

Setting up on Friday, October 2, starting at 8 a.m.

Staffing tables and cash registers the day of the event, October 3. The first shift runs from 7 to 11 a.m., and includes getting ready for the shoppers. The second shift runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and includes helping with cleanup.

Cleaning up, packing and loading unsold items, and recycling cardboard from 1 to 3 p.m. on October 3. Our second-shift volunteers will still be around, but cleanup is a big chore, so wed like to have extra hands onboard.

Call Julie Bartley at (302) 737-9543, extension 102; e-mail her at jbartley@tristatebird.org; or sign up on the sheets in the Volunteer Room.

Finally, you can help us make this annual fund-raiser a resounding success by joining us for a fun day of shopping and bringing your family, friends, and neighbors, too. After all, its all for the birds!

WELCOME BACK, DANENE BIRTELL Danene Birtell has re-joined the Oil Programs team staff as Interim Manager while Sarah continues her recovery. Many of you will remember Danene from her previous time on staff at Tri-State as a volunteer, then an intern (in 2007), and then a Coordinator on the Oil Programs team, a position she held until 2011, when she moved to Texas. We are glad she has migrated back to the East Coast and has rejoined the flock!

Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research MONTHLY FLYER

A Volunteer Newsletter October 2015

Celebrating 39 years of excellence in wildlife rehabilitation and research

Photo by snyders/moonbeampublishing Editor: Loretta Carlson

Staff Photo

Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research 2

LIGHTS OUT! WILMINGTON The black-throated blue warbler pictured below recently came to Tri-State after striking a window at a Pennsylvania office building. Fortunately, Good Samaritans spotted the bird and quickly brought him to our clinic. Yet he is only one among the millions of migratory birds that travel by night to their winter and summer grounds each fall and spring. Lights from buildings attract and disorient them. Birds caught this way circle the buildings until they succumb to exhaustion or hit the buildings and are injured or killed.

A study conducted from September 2002 through November 2005 at a single high-rise on Delaware Avenue demonstrated that the fall migration period represents the deadliest time of year for birds migrating through downtown Wilmington (www.lightsoutwilm.com/theproblem.html).

In response to this problem, Wilmington joined other U.S. cities that have taken steps to allow safe passage for these migrating birds. Building owners pledge to extinguish decorative and external lights and upper-floor interior lights from 10 p.m. until daylight during peak migration periods. Not only do these building owners make a safer environment for the birds, they also conserve energy and save money. The Lights Out! Wilmington period for fall migrations extends from August 20 to October 25.

For more information on the Lights Out! Wilmington program or to find out how to register your building, contact Bill Stewart of the Delmarva Ornithological Society at (610) 864.0370 or bird-del@earthlink.net.

BANDING TOGETHER TO BENEFIT THE BIRDS The time is drawing nearer for Tri-States annual Benefit for the Birds. Returning to the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, this years benefit will be held on Friday, November 6. In addition to the popular Dessert Auction, Silent Hawktion, and Big Card Draw, we are adding a wine-bottle ring toss. Guests will buy chances to ring a bottle of wine and win that specific selection of wine.

General admission tickets are $150; benefactor tickets are $225. Tickets include dinner, cocktails, hors doeuvres, and caricature drawings. The event is open to all friends of Tri-State, whether you received an invitation or not.

To purchase tickets online, visit www.tristatebird.org/benefit. You may also purchase tickets by sending an e-mail to Duke Doblick at ddoblick@tristatebird.org or by calling him at (302) 737-9543, extension 108. Dont miss this opportunity to help save birds lives while enjoying delicious food and desserts, raffles, the Silent Hawktion, and more.

RECENT RELEASES Young birds often get into trouble as they learn to navigate the world outside their nest. On August 27, workers at a Dover restaurant found a juvenile black vulture trapped in a vat of cooking oil. In addition to contaminating his feathers, the oil also irritated the young birds skin and eyes. After stabilizing him with pain medication and fluids, we washed the vulture, and he began self-feeding by the next day. On September 2, we observed the young vulture flying well and noted that his waterproofing was good. Jackie Kozlowskian avowed vulture loverreleased the vulture in Dover in time for him to celebrate International Vulture Awareness Day on September 5.

Another youngster in trouble was a juvenile clapper rail found by the side of the road in Millsboro on August 23. Not surprisingly, the thin and debilitated rail was neurologic and dazed on arrival. Although his shoulder palpated as lax and the humeral heads were displaced, radiographs revealed no fractures. We treated him for parasites and prescribed cage rest. The rail proved to have a good appetite and soon was strong enough to move outside. On September 2, we banded the clapper rail and released him at Dragon Run in Delaware City.

Staff Photo

Washing the black vulture Staff Photo

Monthly Flyer, October 2015 3

Among the last baby birds to come into our clinic, cedar waxwings fill the nursery with their buzzy song well into September. We recently released four young waxwings: a nestling with a wing fracture, a juvenile that had been hit by a car, a fledgling cat-attack victim, and a birdnapped fledgling. The nestling with the wing fracture came to us on July 28 from Wilmington. We pinned and wrapped the wing and administered antibiotics and pain medication to help the healing process. The next day, the juvenile waxwing came to the clinic after it was apparently hit by a car. Although its breathing was labored and the youngster had a bruised right shoulder, the waxwing had not sustained any fractures. We prescribed ten days cage rest and carefully observed him as the injuries resolved and he began test flights. We started the cat attack victim on a course of antibiotics and housed him with the other waxwings to encourage their social behavior and give them plenty of opportunities for flight practice. We were able to release all four cedar waxwings onsite at Tri-State on September 9.

Sometimes it takes a villageand a really big bucket truckto save a bird. On September 17, a caller reported seeing a duck hanging from a tree near a golf course in Coatesville. Volunteer Jim McVoy quickly went to the site where, to his dismay, he realized the duck was a cormorant with a fishing hook embedded in its back. The bird, struggling to free itself, was in a pine tree more than 60 feet off the ground. An electrical contractor working nearby volunteered to retrieve the bird with one of his trucks. When the ladder on the truck proved to be too short, the contractor returned with a vehicle that had a longer ladder. Once the workers reached the appropriate height, however, they still had to use chain saws to remove branches to they could retrieve the cormorant. Back on the ground, the contractors transferred the bird to Jim, and he quickly transported it to our clinic. Amazingly, the bird suffered only soft tissue damage, and radiographs confirmed that the juvenile had sustained no orthopedic injuries. We removed the hook and sutured the injury site while the cormorant was anesthetized. Only

eight days after admission, this young cormorants injuries had healed, and it was ready for release. On September 25, Jim McVoy released the cormorant into a suitable marshy habitat.

OTHER RELEASES IN SEPTEMBER In September, we also released an American kestrel, a red-shouldered hawk, a black-crowned night heron, mallards, a fish crow, a chestnut-sided warbler, a common yellowthroat, an ovenbird, a red-eyed vireo, chimney swifts, a red-bellied woodpecker, a northern flicker, Carolina wrens, American robins, northern mockingbirds, gray catbirds, American goldfinches, house finches, a song sparrow, and mourning doves.

VOLUNTEER ANNIVERSARIES 39 years: David Mooberry 17 years: Becky Hargrove 15 years: Marion Stelzer 13 years: Russ and Loretta Carlson, Jonathan Greenblatt, Pat Robertson, and Arlene Rockwell 12 years: Chris Petersen 8 years: Lisa Coyle 7 years: Bob Bryant, Gary and Sherrie Robinson, and Warren Young 6 years: Ro Francis and Joanne Stickle 5 years: Wendy Taylor 4 years: Cameron Heagy 3 years: Joe McCann 1 year: Ray Bryant and Rand McIlvaine

Welcome to the twenty-two new volunteers who joined our ranks on September 12.

FEATURED BIRD: DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT Double-crested cormorants are fish-eating birds that live around both fresh and salt-water habitats across North America. Although the adult plumage is all brown to black, cormorants also have bright orange-yellow faces and distinctive aquamarine eyes. The double-crests that give this species its name are visible only during breeding season. Some birders have described their appearance as being a cross between a goose and a loon, but cormorants are more closely related to frigatebirds and boobies.

Two of four young barred owls transferred to Owl Moon Raptor Center for banding and release. Staff Photo

Staff Photo

Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research 4

With small heads atop long, kinked necks, cormorants are gangly birds on land. However, in the water, they are expert swimmers and divers. Using their feet for propulsion, cormorants are able to stay submerged for as long as a minute or more when they chase the fish, crustaceans, and amphibians that form the bulk of their diet.

Because their wing feathers are not completely waterproof, cormorants stand on docks, rocks, or trees with their wings spread open to dry. Experts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology surmise that the wet feathers, far from being a liability, make it easier for cormorants to hunt underwater.

Nesting in colonies on islands or in patches of flooded timber, cormorants form monogamous pairs. The male chooses the nest site and then attracts the female by showing off the crests and bright colors on his head. When the female approaches, the two open their bills to expose the inner blue color of their mouths, while shaking their heads and hissing. The female then builds the nest of sticks and debris, typically placing it in a tree near water. Cormorants have two chicks a year, which stay in the nest for about a month. They then congregate in groups with other young, although they may return to the nest to be fed by their parents until they become independent at around 63 to 70 days old.

Learn more about the double-crested cormorant at the Cornell Lab of Ornithologys All About Birds Web site, www.allaboutbirds.org, as well as in Birds of North America, published by the Smithsonian Institution, or your own favorite birding book.

UPCOMING EVENTS Giant Yard Sale. Saturday, October 3, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Its hard to believe, but the time for our annual yard sale is upon us. See the article above for more details.

Adult Bird Care Upgrades. We have scheduled bird care upgrade workshops for volunteers trained in April and May who so far have worked primarily with baby birds. If you would like to continue to volunteer with us through the fall and winter (and we hope you do!), you will need to attend one of the two-hour Adult Bird Care Upgrade sessions to learn about adult bird care, which is very different from baby bird care. Sign-up sheets will be posted in the Volunteer Room. Experienced volunteers who would like to refresh their adult bird care skills are welcome to attend.

Banding Together: Benefit for the Birds. Friday, November 6. See article above. Contact Duke Doblick in the Development office at (302) 737-9543, extension 108, or via e-mail at ddoblick@tristatebird.org if you would like to help with this important annual fund-raiser.

Photo by snyders/moonbeampublishing