Monthly Newsletter
Marathon Wild Bird Center
P.O. Box 501328
Marathon, FL 33050
MM 50 at Crane Point Hammock
Phone: (305) 743-8382
Fax: (305) 743-8172
Welcome to the Marathon Wild Bird Center's monthly e-mail newsletter!
It's our 13th Bird-day!
Having originally set up a stabilization center here at Crane Point (MM 50) in 1995 makes this year our 13th Bird-day as the Marathon Wild Bird Center! We continue to be proud to offer our community - both the wildlife and the folks who live and visit here - a much needed service at no charge. It has always been our mission to reduce the suffering of sick, injured, and orphaned wild birds throughout the Middle Florida Keys and to educate those around us. Over the years, with the help of other local wildlife rehabilitators, we have become knowledgeable in the triage care of other types of wildlife including bats, snakes, raccoons, and opossums (and who could forget that 30-foot whale shark that stranded itself on Duck Key in 1998!). However, because we specialize in wild birds, we are continually grateful to these other rehabbers for allowing us to transfer animals to them once they are stable. In fact, we've treated more than 7,500 (2,500 more if you count our two-year presence in Key West). It is because of generous contributions from individual donors, foundations, local businesses, the City of Marathon, and Monroe County that we can continue to be here to help both the wildlife and people who want to help them.
In honor of our 13th Bird-day, contributions (of any amount) can be made to the Marathon Wild Bird Center either by snail mail, P.O. Box 501328, Marathon, FL 33050, or through our website. If you'd prefer to give an item as a gift this year, we always need paper towels, Dawn dish soap, isopropyl rubbing alcohol 70%, hydrogen peroxide, 8-10 fish for Oliver our Osprey, fresh bait fish (glass minnows and/or pilchards), printer/copier paper, HP ink cartridges (tri-color 95 and black 96), and gift certificates to local gas stations, K-mart, Publix, Winn Dixie and Whalton's Pet Shop. You can drop items off at the Crane Point Gift Shop (MM 50) or call the Bird Center at 305.743.8382 for fresh bait drop-off instructions. And thank you for being there for us all these years!
New program launches at Hawks Cay Resort
Thanks to volunteer Karyn Buckley who has initiated a monthly post-breakfast program at Hawks Cay Resort for the Bird Center. Karyn spent two hours on the morning of July 5, 2008 talking to resort guests about how Sweetie, our American Kestrel of Cuban descent, came to live with us and on educating both kids and adults about the wild birds of the Florida Keys. Later that evening, director Kelly Grinter and volunteer Dana Child responded to a 9:00 p.m. rescue call regarding a Laughing Gull that was still hanging out, in the dark, near the lagoon at Hawks Cay. As our rescuers were searching for the bird, inquiring of the resort guests if they had seen it, several mentioned that they had attended that morning's presentation and had enjoyed it. We soon located the bird, admitted it to our hospital with contaminated feathers, and released it a week later. A bird may lose its ability to fly if it cannot properly groom its feathers. Birds often bathe in parking lot puddles, after heavy rains, but fuels that leach into the puddles can contaminate their feathers. Lots of self-bathing in pools of freshwater can quickly remedy the situation.
A virus is a virus is a virus!
It must be a slow news day around the country when CNN calls director Kelly Grinter to do a recorded telephone interview regarding a dove die-off in the Florida Keys. Not to make light of the topic, but Eurasian Collared Doves have been found dead or dying during the last two months throughout the Florida Keys, from Key Largo to Key West. The culprit? A virus called Paramyxovirus. In an epidemic similar to one in upstate Florida in 2001, this species-specific disease has taken the lives of countless doves. It's Mother Nature's way of culling out the weak, kind of like a blizzard, hurricane, or drought. Luckily, our native Mourning Doves, Ground Doves, and White-crowned Pigeons, do not seem to be affected. The virus is only affecting the Eurasian Collared Dove, a bird introduced into the United States in the 70s and now found in every continental state. Although the bird competes with native doves for food and nesting sites, it has also become a staple part of the diet of birds-of-prey. Raptors that once feasted on mice and rats may now hunt doves because of the lack of small mammals humans eliminate for being pests. To help to control the spread of the Paramyxovirus, people who feed doves at feeders and/or offer bird baths in their yards are asked to stop feeding or watering the birds for a period of two weeks. The virus spreads through the bird's fecal matter. Unfortunately, the success rate for this deadly virus is less than 1%. Because the virus is species-specific, if you own pet birds, don't panic. However, don't take any chances either. If doves perch on top of your pet bird's outdoor cage, put a roof-like cover on it for the time being. Or, if your bird can reach through the floor of its cage and pick up fallen food that may also be a treat for wild doves, raise the cage or cover the floor. Remember, the virus spreads through the birds'fecal matter and they aren't exactly careful where they go! If you find a sick bird, call the Bird Center at 305.743.8382. If you find a dead bird, pick it up with a plastic bag covering your hand and dispose of it in the trash. Wash your hands well afterwards, especially if you have a pet bird you may handle. If we all stop feeding the wild doves for a few weeks the virus should run its course and then the outlook for the remainder of the summer will be, what else, sunny!
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Make 13 a lucky number for us by acknowledging our contribution with one of your own. Because we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, your check is tax deductible. Please mail a check small or large to Marathon Wild Bird Center, P.O. Box 501328, Marathon, FL 33050 or donate online at www.marathonwildbirdcenter.org. We will use the money to support our work in Marathon. However, you can specify that we use it in Key West simply by writing a check payable to the Key West Wildlife Center. Remember, if you ever find a sick or injured bird, please give us a call at 305.743.8382. We answer this line 24 hours a day.
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Egg-specially frustrating!
Hortence and Harold are two long-term permanent resident Herring Gulls that have lived at the Bird Center for several years. A few months ago, we segregated them from the rest of our permanent gulls and terns for misbehavior! Apparently the two were trying to acquire a room of their own because soon afterwards they dug a hole in the sand, lined it with feathers, and laid four bluish-green eggs with brown splotches! Though we hoped the eggs would hatch, after four weeks of constant incubation the birds dragged each egg out of the nest, one by one, and smashed them. Although we enjoyed watching the pair maintain their nest and incubate their eggs, we weren't surprised that the eggs turned out to be infertile because we have long suspected that Hortence and Harold (now officially referred to as Harriet) were both girls. Male Herring Gulls are supposed to be larger than females and our two are just about identical in size.
Summer Library Program
Every summer, Marathon's head librarian, Gloria Goodman, calls the Bird Center and requests a presentation as part of their Summer Library Program. We've been accommodating this very special Monroe County library program for so many years we've lost count. This year director Kelly Grinter was joined by volunteer Amanda Ruano as they talked "mommy bird, daddy bird" to a packed room full of kids. Usually we schedule the program for June, but this year decided to try July. However, our plan backfired just a tad! In June we are inundated with numerous baby birds of several species that we share with the children - touching on topics such as how and why different birds make different types of nests and why some baby birds leave the nest sooner than others. But this year, in July, we had a dilemma: we were just about baby-birdless when the date of the program rolled around. Not to fear, instead of baby birds we presented two species of birds in their "juvenile" stages - a Least Tern and a Rock Dove - and rounded out the program with our ever-present American Kestrel, Sweetie.
Key West Chapter Update
Baby bird season is still hopping along down in Key West at our chapter facility, the Key West Wildlife Center. Seems that site should be called "the little city that never sleeps"! Susan Prince, our fabulous facility director, continues to take in numerous baby doves in addition to more baby Mockingbirds and Least Terns. The City of Key West has completely installed the river rock in the new aviary and the final layer, silica sand, has arrived and is awaiting installation as soon as the separator sheets are in place. With almost 200 chickens in-house at the moment, a run to our safe haven farm in upstate Florida is scheduled this month. Being baby season, dozens of mama chickens are being dropped off every day with their broods. With locals working long hours and snowbirds up north, our volunteer list is running on empty. If you have some time to spare, please call Susan. She needs volunteers to occasionally pick up captured birds and/or supplies, organize fundraisers, and clean cages and habitats.