Animal weekend

It was a good weekend for wildlife.

Pardon the terrible pictures.  I didn't have my good camera charged.

Female downy woodpecker:


Male downy woodpecker:


Red-bellied woodpecker:


White-winged doves:


Goldfinch:


Mystery bird.  It hung from the suet feeder like a nuthatch.  We think it might be a Carolina wren:


 . . . and again:


The highlight of the weekend, though, was this:  I played hookey from the bake sale at meeting, and it's a good thing I did. This little guy was in the gutter next to his road-kill family. Because I'm ghoulish by nature, I poked him with a discarded French fry container to see if he were really dead.  He started freaking out and hissing, which meant he had a lot of fight left despite having had a really bad night.  He was tiny and barely old enough to hold himself up.

Now he's at the wildlife rehab center. Realistically, his odds are not that great, but they're better than they would have been in the street, right?  I am desperately glad they have hours seven days a week.  He was in pretty good condition when I found him, considering, and I was afraid I'd have to watch him fail all day because he was too stressed to eat or drink, until I could get him somewhere on Monday.

(I also got to get uncomfortably close to an Eastern screech owl and a red-tailed hawk in the lobby of the wildlife center.)

Unofficially, his name is Jack. In the Box. After the French fry container in which he rode home.


Comments

tinyjunco said…
Yep, looks like a Carolina wren to me. Check online and take your location into consideration to be sure. I love wrens, we get the Bewick's around here and i looooove them!

Good for you for saving possum! i used to volunteer at a wildlife center, most have longer open days/hours at this time of year because of all the babies. Some die-hards will bring in road-kill possums so they can check for wee ones in the pouch.

We used to do talks with a possum who couldn't be released, they sure have wonderful personalities. I'm glad you took the time to give little one a chance. steph
I got an email from the wildlife people this past week: He's eating like a little pig and will be released when he's older. (He or she.)

We're in Houston, which is well within the western part of the Carolina wren's range, so I think it's kosher. At least two people who know birds far better than I do think it was a Carolina, too.