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Well, luck takes many forms this week!  First it came as a four leaf clover–discovered next to some poison ivy, …

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Well, luck takes many forms this week!  First it came as a four leaf clover–discovered next to some poison ivy, …

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 4 Stars

Squirrel Rescue

Jennifer Keats Curtis

Schiffer Publishing

No. Pages: 32      Ages: 6 to 9

 

Back Cover: A baby squirrel that has fallen out of his nest suddenly interrupts a spring game of catch. Knowing what to do, the two boys demonstrate how to handle the furry mammal properly and what to do when they find the squirrel’s sibling. Placing them safely in a box, the two boys retreat to the house so as to not to scare the mother away while she recovers her babies.

Matt and Andy are outside in the backyard tossing a football. Matt catches the spiraling ball and Andy yells for him to toss the ball back, but never finishes his sentence. Andy looks down to see a small squirrel climbing the leg of his jeans. Soon, the squirrel, obviously a baby, is tucking in under Andy’s chin, safe and warm.

Matt tells his friend he’ll be back and when he returns, he is carrying a box with old t-shirts on the bottom. He carefully takes the baby squirrel off Andy’s shoulder and places it inside the box. The two boys look for any other babies, and then the tree with the damaged nest. After placing the box at the base of this tree, the boys went inside and eagerly watched what happened next.

Squirrel Rescue is a nice primer on backyard wildlife care. Jennifer Keats Curtis has written several wildlife books for children, including one on owls (Baby Owls Rescue) and another about baby turtles (Turtles in My Sandbox). She has become an expert on writing about wildlife for children.

Baby squirrels falling out of their tree nest is common. Recently, a baby squirrel, now named Violet, fell out of her nest and broke an arm. Matt and Andy do a great job taking care of the two baby squirrels they found. I thought it was interesting that human scent does not prevent the  mother squirrel from rescuing her babies, as some animals do.

The illustrations look incredibly life-like. The first time I read the book, I thought the boys and the backgrounds were photographs with illustrated squirrels. The next two times I read this, I came to realize that the entire book is illustrated. Laura Jacques is an award-wining illustrator and it is easy to understand why after seeing what she did for Squirrel Rescue. I think the illustrations are incredibly life-like.

I like Squirrel Rescue because of the interesting story. I did not know the mother squirrel carries her babies. Two young boys stop what they are doing to rescue one baby squirrel and have the foresight to look for other babies. I like that they not only helped the mom find her babies, but they were interested enough to hang out for at least two hours to watch her rebuild and then reunite.  Matt and Andy receive an education that can’t be bought. Plus, the boys knew they had stumbled into something important. How many of us would have done what they did?

Squirrel Rescue will appeal to boys and girls in the lower grades, especially if they are doing a report or simply love animals. Kids wanting to know more about the animals in their own yard can start with Squirrel Rescue. There are not many neighborhoods without some type of squirrel. If your child’s school library is in need of good wildlife books, get it Squirrel Rescue. Every child can benefit from reading this book. This adult did.

**Ms. Curtis donates a portion of the proceeds from Squirrel Rescue to Chris’ Squirrels & More, a wildlife rehabilitator who help the author on this book.

Squirrel Rescue

Author: Jennifer Keats Curtis   website
Illustrator: Laura Jacques  website
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing  website
Release Date:
ISBN: 978-0-7643-4246-2
Number of Pages:
Ages:
**Chris' Squirrels and More   website

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Filed under: 4stars, Children's Books, Library Donated Books, NonFiction Tagged: animals, backyard animals, children's books, nonfiction, rescue groups, wildlife

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Do you love animals, and want to help wildlife? Meet Victoria Campbell a rehabilitator from Wild Things Sanctuary featured in Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators. Victoria shares her dedication and the rewards of working with natures amazing creatures.

Name: Victoria Campbell

Name of organization/clinic: Wild Things Sanctuary 

State: New York 

Specialty/special areas of experience: Mammals, baby animals 

Years as rehabilitator/volunteer: 6 

Busiest time of year: April-September (especially May-July)                             

Number of hours you work per week during your busy season: up to 140! 

Number of volunteers in clinic: Varies. At the moment, I have 3.

Why did you become a rehabilitator/volunteer: I became a wildlife rehabilitator because I feel a great empathy for the wild animals who do not have owners to look after them and who can get very badly sick and injured and orphaned: they need help too! Also, most patients are in trouble because of human related causes (e.g., cars, pets, construction), and I felt that it was part of my duty as a human to give back to these animals who need help.

Most rewarding aspect of rehabilitation: Having an animal learn to trust me and building an understanding between me and the patient. And it’s pretty fun nurturing the baby animals as well! 

As a rehabilitator, what is the most common question you are asked? How did you get those scratches? What’s the biggest animal/worst bite you’ve ever had? When do you sleep? How do you know all this stuff?

Favorite animal story: Too many to think of! Pretty amazing releasing an animal and seeing it run off smiling…or when a pregnant mama gives birth at Wild Things! 

What advice would you offer to children considering a career in wildlife rehabilitation: Learn as much about animals as you can and see whether there are any places where you can volunteer and learn more about wildlife rehabilitation. Wildlife rehabilitators need to know about animal behavior, veterinary care, animal husbandry, and even skills like cooking and carpentry: there is lots to learn! Also, make sure you have a support system of people who can help you: it is hard work! And reach out to others who are interested and/or who are wildlife rehabilitators as often you learn the most from other rehabilitators and their work. Finally, know that sometimes you need to love the animals enough to make difficult decisions; wildlife rehabilitation is great but it can be very sad too.  

Visit http://www.sylvandellpublishing.com/ beginning October 1st Read Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators for FREE all month.

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As we continue to feature wildlife rehabilitators this month on the Sylvan Dell blog, this week we meet Kim Johnson from The Drift Inn Wildlife Sanctuary. She shares with us the trials and tribulations of rescuing wild animals.

Texan Kim Johnson often works with her veterinarian husband and a tiny volunteer group at her Drift Inn Wildlife Sanctuary in Driftwood to care for a wide variety of mammals, including raccoons, squirrels, deer, fox, skunks, even bobcats. “Every year is different and I never know exactly what to expect” says Kim, one of a small handful of licensed rehabilitators in her state, “During Hurricane Ike, 200 squirrels were delivered to my front door.”

Despite her hectic schedule caring for wild animals, many of them babies, for 14-18 hours a day, seven days a week, Kim never seems to lose her sense of humor. “If it’s native and it lives in Texas, it’s been in my house, and maybe even if it’s not native,” she quips.

In many of the pictures that Kim submitted for possible use in Animal Helpers, she is wearing a big smile and very heavy welder’s gloves. The grin is, of course, because Kim loves her job. The gloves are because she is smart and seasoned. After 33 years as a rehabilitator, Kim is keenly aware that those gloves are mandatory equipment for handling fuzzy babies that have big paws, sharp teeth, and claws.  

Name: Kim Johnson

Name of organization/clinic: The Drift Inn Wildlife Sanctuary

State: Texas

Specialty/special areas of experience: Mammals, raptors

Years as rehabilitator/volunteer: 33 years

Busiest time of year: May-July

Number of hours you work per week during your busy season: 18+ hours a day 7 days a week

Number of volunteers in clinic: 4

Why did you become a rehabilitator/volunteer: For the love of nature and animals

Most rewarding aspect of rehabilitation: Release days and seeing an animal we thought would not pull through survive and be released!

As a rehabilitator, what is the most common question you are asked? If I touched it, will the mother come back?

Having cared for wildlife for so long, Kim cheerfully tells wonderful stories about the creatures that have come through her clinic, such as: A 7-week-old bobcat came to us on Christmas Day.  He was cute as a button, cute in the “I have claws and teeth and know how to use them” kind of way. For some reason, people still think that all little wild animals drink cow’s milk. (Unless they arecows, they do not do well on cow’s milk.) After getting his weight up, this bobcat soon started to fit right in with the rest of the crew.  He ate mice in nanoseconds, soon was jumping up on everything and getting more mischievous by the day!  Seven weeks later, it was time to move him to a larger facility.  This bobcat had grown four times the size he was when we got him. He was ready to mingle with his own kind.  We transferred him to a much larger facility outside of San Antonio where there are 12 other bobcats. He will be released onto a 1,000 plus acre refuge.  We will miss him; but, as with all of our animals, we feel blessed to have them and to be able to give them the care they need for the time we do. 

Favorite animal story:  We got a call that an adult raccoon had his head stuck for the entire night and half of the day in a bird feeder in a tree.  As I got there sure enough, he had wedged himself to where he could rest on the edge of the feeder as he contemplated his problems.  I told the lady that I could save the coon but not the feeder.  She suggested that they have a warning for purchasers of said bird feeder that it could also capture raccoons.  I got on a ladder and proceeded to unscrew the feeder and remove it from the tree.  So far so good.  I quickly realized that the coon was not coming out of the feeder without a chisel or saw and some serious drugs (for the coon of course).  I decided to put said coon and feeder in the back of the SUV and take him the eight miles down the road to the house where Dr. Johnson (Ray) could tranquilize him and we could then figure out how to release the raccoon from his feeder.  Halfway home, I have visions of the coon releasing himself from the feeder and kicking my tail in the car all the way home.  Luckily, for both of us he was quite stuck and we made it home.  Ray was almost laughing too hard to sedate the bugger but we got it done and although he never completely passed out, he was docile enough to unscrew the rest of the feeder and chisel the wood from around his neck without so much as a scratch on him!  He looked at us and groggily ran off without so much as a thank you.

What advice would you offer to children considering a career in wildlife rehabilitation?

Become a veterinarian who specializes in wildlife.  There are few out there and more are needed!

Remember Animal Helpers: Wildlife Rehabilitators is FREE for the month of October at www.sylvandellpublishing.com, or Read it on your iPad, by downloading the free app Fun eReader in iTunes and entering the code: 2WZ637 in the red box on the App Registration page.

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Since Cooper and Packrat as sooooo into nature, I’ve decided to begin posting a Nature Pic every Tuesday.  Some will be past favorites . . . some will be new.

This Tuesday’s picture is of our 2012 Eagle Triplets.  The oldest is on the verge of flying . . .

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Dear Readers, you are not . . .

I repeat, NOT . . .

going to believe the amazing, awesome experience I had wandering the property today.  Honestly, I couldn’t have put it all together better myself.

I have to say that this was supposed to be a quick walk to the lake to give Cookie some exercise.  Down and back, I’d told myself, as I’d planned to work all afternoon on tweaking my school visit presentation.  It needs to be done so I can practice on a 7th grade English class Tuesday.

It didn’t get done.  And here’s why . . .

I headed down the usual lakeside path to check on my eagles.   When I first trained the camera on the nest, I sighed in disappointment.  No eagles.

Then, I saw movement on the ice, and there, halfway across the lake was the eagle feasting on a fish.

 

I wonder if he stole it, or it was a gift from, one of the ice fisherman on the lake.

He flew off, but I found him perched along the edge of the golf course.

I tried to wait for him to return.  But the wind was whipping down the lake across the ice, and the wind chill was ferocious.  My fingers were so cold, they hurt inside my mittens.  I decided I’d been lucky enough with the camera for one day.  I called to Cookie, “Home”!

She started down the second half of the trail, then turned to look at me hopefully.

“No!” I called sternly, nodding up the camp road.  “Straight home.”

She took one last look at the trail, sighed, and followed like the good girl she is.

When I reached the house, I let her in, then decided what the heck, I should get the trail camera photo card. “Put the coffee on, please,” I called to hubby.  “I’ll be right back.”

I’d set up the trail camera behind the house, which is lower and more wooded than the campground’s marked path. “Warmer too,” I thought, letting my fingers out of the mittens. I took my time, looking around for any signs of the owl or pileated woodpecker.  I found the trail camera still trained on the den of what I think might be a fischer, collected the camera card and put a new one in.

Those of you who read my blog, but not my Facebook page, wouldn’t know that late last week I found what I think is an owl perch.  The base of the tree is littered with 1 inch long, smooth, oval shaped pellets.  I figured, why not swing by it, and take the long way home?

Alas, no owls were roosting there, or anywhere I could see.  I remembered the coffee waiting for me, and headed for home.

Just as I stepped out of the woods and into the circle of campsites, I heard crazy chickadee calls. Lots of them.  Right off the back of site 126.  I tried to see what was going on, having remembered reading that owls and other large birds of prey are often harassed by smaller birds, when he flew!  A large, silent, gray swoop between the trees up toward the main road of the campground.

I followed slowly, cringing with every crunch of my boots in the snow.   I searched the trees, not daring to hope . . .

And then I saw it . . .

 

Isn’t he gorgeous!!

I met David at the house door with a huge grin!  I couldn’t believe my luck!  I must have taken forty pictures!

As we sipped coffee and I told David of my travels, I popped the trail camera card into my laptop.  To my surprise, this is what I found . . .

Here’s the den I’ve been watching.  I think it’s home to a fisher . . . or that’s what past photos, (not very clear because the camera was further away) have indicated.

 

Obviously, this fox is interested in the den too!  There’s six photos total of him around the hole, but not going in.  I think he’s stalking whatever lives there.  I’ve left the camera in place, and time will tell.

I feel so fortunate to be able to wander my property and study great animals, such as these.  I will never take it for granted . . .

 

 

 

 

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 Twenty-one years ago, shortly after moving to Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania (a Pittsburgh suburb), I was wandering around my neighborhood with my one-year-old son in a backpack when I met another mom with her young son in a backpack. We shared a nice long walk that afternoon -- and have been walking together ever since. Mary Lou and I have covered a lot of ground, both literal and figurative, in the intervening years. Monday through Thursday evenings most weeks, we log five brisk miles over hilly terrain, usually close to home. On Saturdays, we frequently hit an estate sale somewhere not too far away and walk the surrounding neighborhood afterward.

But our Sunday morning walks these days are my favorites. A few years ago, we decided to walk every street and alleyway in our town. It took nearly a year of Sundays to finish Mt. Lebanon - and then we branched out into surrounding communities. In the years since, we've covered a good many neighborhoods all around Pittsburgh, and I've learned more about my city from our hikes than I'd learned in the fifteen years plus before that. We especially enjoy cemetaries, the steep hillside neighborhoods where steps often replace sidewalks, and the quirky older communities with interesting architecture and mature landscaping.

Today we visited Chatham Village, a planned community in the Mt. Washington section of Pittsburgh that's on the National Historic Register. It was developed in the 1930s in the model of the "Garden City" movement launched in England. It's as lovely and well-planned today as it was then. You can read more about it here and here.
 
 The community consists mostly of townhouses grouped in clusters around common greens with curving sidewalks, giving it the feeling of a college campus, I think. And each cluster has a lovely "folly" like the one shown above to house communal garden implements.
 The homes have lovely details - red brick, slate roofs, copper gutters and downspouts, limestone around the windows, and crests above the entry ways. And each cluster of townhomes is a little bit different.

 Around the perimeter is a large park of virgin forest (dating back to colonial times and before) with paths that curve and wind along the hillside. We saw plenty of wildlife today, including a large buck with an impressive rack.

1 Comments on Sunday Exploring: Chatham Village, last added: 11/25/2010

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pizza naples said, on 11/25/2010 5:41:00 AM

nice post thnx.

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