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MRWC sees a large number of Great Gray Owls admitted annually as our facility is right within their range. We are even fortunate enough to have a pair of Great Gray Owls nesting on our property. The most common injury is impact related damage such as concussions and fractures as a result of collisions with vehicles.
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We regularly receive a few pigeons each year, but the cold last December brought more than usual. 20 injured, freezing, and orphaned pigeons have come to us in the past couple of months.
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Commit to a monthly donation of whatever amount your choose and help us reach our goal of 50 new donors in February.
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Our summer intern program is fully back and will be up and running April through October of this year.
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Can you spare a few hours a month? Our Drink Container Pickup Service is need of more volunteers in the Central Alberta region.
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Looking for a beautiful, nature inspired gift and want to give back to wildlife at the same time? Limited time only!
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Migration can be a difficult time for some birds as the juveniles sometimes are not strong enough to make the long journey.
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The end of August at MRWC is year end for patient stats as both federal and provincial permits are due in September. Each year, it’s interesting to see how the patients, injuries, and successes compare to previous years.
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This is Oscar, the newest addition to our education team. He is a baby Great Grey Owl and lost the ends of both his wings and will never fly again.
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When returning wildlife back to nature after their stay in a wildlife hospital, there are actually a few styles of releases. Examples include, a release back into the same family that a juvenile has come from, calling in a new parent to take care of a juvenile when their parents are gone, the release of an adult into appropriate habitat, and then there is the "soft release".
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Our small reception and gift shop will be opening to the public again this Tuesday, July 6th!
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A huge congratulations goes out to Amanda Haustein from Erskine on her big win in our 50/50 Cash Raffle. She is the lucky winner of $4745!
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Sales have opened today for our very first online 50/50 raffle and we're so excited!
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As long as winter may feel here in Alberta, it never ceases to amaze us as to how quickly spring arrives on our doorstep.
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Our virtual auction gives you the opportunity to not only get a beautiful item, but give back to our wildlife hospital operations as we approach the busy spring and summer seasons.
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Each year our staff make use of special deer masks to disguise themselves when raising orphaned deer or moose.
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Migration often brings unusual species to MRWC. Some are passing through and some are blown off course as they travel. This year's visitor was a Long-tailed Duck.
Long-tailed Ducks breed in the far north and pass through parts of Alberta as they head for salt water to winter. These attractive, little ducks have three different plumages over a year and are capable of diving to depth of 200 feet!
This duck was found late last fall on the ground in Red Deer, in terrible condition. It was very thin, had sustained internal damage, and unfortunately did not survive. We did, however, learn a lot about this species in the short time it was with us.
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This spring brought five moose calves to MRWC, all within a few days. Moose may be big animals but very easily succumb to a stress related illness called capture myopathy. All the calves were placed together in a quiet, natural enclosure but three did not survive due to the extreme stress they experienced before arriving.
Two however, thrived. We don’t name our patients but do reference their identification tags. "Big Blue" and "No Colour" drank the specially developed ungulate formula readily from the remote bottle station and spent hours browsing in the forested enclosure. Wild moose were occasionally seen visiting through the fence. The calves always panicked and ran when humans entered the area.
Early October is the time of year that two important things happen - local moose begin to gather on MRWC property and calves are weaned off milk. Once these things happen, it is time to open the enclosure doors and let the moose leave to join with others and become truly wild.
Big Blue and No Colour have been seen several times around MRWC's 493 acres, sometimes by themselves and other times in the company of as many as six other moose, but not once have they shown any interest in people. The staff did a great job following protocols and we smile each time we see the calves doing what moose are meant to do.
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Every fall MRWC receives patients that arrive late in the season, recover, but miss their chance of migration and have to overwinter, even though they are healthy and releasable. In past years, MRWC has cared for such things as Sandhill Cranes, ducks, or Great Blue Herons. This year is no different. We are currently housing a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Cedar Waxwing, American Robin, juvenile Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawks and a Cormorant.
Many of the species we house are relatively simple to care for but some, such as the Cormorant, require a bit more attention. Our Cormorant cannot be kept in our pond with the other waterfowl due to his easily stressed personality and the way he needs to feed. Instead, he is kept in a quiet, private room with a large rubber container filled with water. Clean water and fish are put into the container each day an he spends much of his time perched on the edge, dipping fish. We are very grateful to Smoky Trout Farm for the donation of 250 pounds of lovely trout to keep him fed.
Most birds that are overwintered leave Alberta and cross borders during migration and with current regulations this makes it impossible to send these patients over those borders to their normal wintering grounds. Our Cormorant, however, can spend his winter in the lower mainland of British Columbia. This may seem easy, but there are still borders to cross. MRWC has begun the process to put export and import permits into place and hope we will not have to keep this guy for the next five months. I’m sure he feels the same.
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Alberta has 6 types of Grebes ranging from the tiny Pied-billed to the larger and very vocal, Western Grebe. These birds are built very much like loons in that their legs are placed at the end of their body near the tail leaving them unable to stand and walk like other birds. They need a long run on water to be able to take off taking about 20 steps per second. This leaves grebes at an advantage if they find themselves on land. We often see “grounded” grebes on roads after a rainstorm. Wet pavement can confuse them into thinking it is a river, so they land on a very hard surface and are grounded, rarely doing any major damage.
We see most of these grounded grebes in the fall and spring as grebes are migrating. People often mistake these birds as ducks and can’t understand why they aren’t flying. This fall if you see a bird with a fat body, long beak, and possibly red eyes, on the ground that isn’t flying, text us a picture for ID and we’ll help direct you as to what to do.