August 24th, 2016

Grebe Acres is NOW Native 
Bird Care of Sisters, OR

First, I have rebranded from Grebe Acres Wild Bird Care to Native Bird Care of Sisters, Oregon. It was needed...what is a grebe anyway!

To quickly catch up on the summer special visitors, Luna the loon and the killdeer....Luna got released late May successfully at Wickiup Reservoir in the Mountains of Central Oregon. She is still there as her injuries, while we saved her life, likely made her feel less than confident in continuing her migration north and breeding. We hope that next year will find her with babies somewhere where loons go. 

We have had 3 killdeer released of our 5 this year. The tiny ones - not so tiny now - have a couple more weeks to go. The killdeer were released at Summer Lake, which is a beautiful wildlife refuge for shore and water birds down in the central part of the state. If you have not gone...and are in Oregon, this place is a phenomenal place to bird. And there is a wonderful lodge, and a lodge with hotsprings nearby, nice!

Killdeer and loons are some of the most stressful birds to rehabilitate. I consider myself lucky to be able to release them healthy and able to go on to reproduce. Many of these birds languish in care, often through no fault of the rehabber. They require specialized care and facilities. 

I currently have songbirds as well that will be released soon. It has been a busy season, as usual. 

My next posts will be about what it takes to do wild bird rescue and rehabilitation. If you have ever wondered about what we do...well tune in. 

Thanks for loving birds!

Here are a couple more pics. 

Luna was released at Wickiup Reservoir, Central Oregon. We are lucky to  have such incredible habitat to release birds back to. She is safe, tons of fish, and its a nice summer. 

Always nervous about waterproofing with these kinds of birds, even if you have floated them on water for several hours or even over night. Luna here is already looking for fish, YES! If she had been breaching (standing up and flapping her wings over and over), that could have been a sign of lack of waterproofing. I could not have caught her again, so it is so very critical to get these birds fully waterproof before release. Giving them pools to stay in is the only real way to do that with confidence. Go Luna!

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And here is another pic of the group of 3 killdeer released at Summer Lake. This one is already relaxed and grooming. Lots of bugs and other shorebirds, including killdeer, for them to hang with. Good luck little ones...

More releases to come.....