2013 What A Year!!

   Hello from Wild At Heart.  I'm Juniper also known as America's Next Top Bird Model, cause I'm so cute. I am an American Kestrel Falcon and have been Wild At Hearts top Kestrel since 2010.  I arrived at Wild At Heart with a fracture to my wing, The wing healed but not well enough for me to fly (I hop really well though!)  I make my home in the hospital room at Wild At Heart, it's kind of cool because all the volunteers make sure to come in and say hi to me everyday.  Which is as it should be.  I also get to see all the birds come in and out of the hospital throughout the year, and what a year 2013 has been.  We have had over 468 birds of prey come in this year, some orphans, some injured and some that ran afoul of environmental issues.  Let me introduce you to a few of my friends from 2013.
In June of this year I met a very brave little owl.  We named him Survivor.  Survivor and his mom came to us from Goodyear.  They were picked up by volunteer Michael Artemis.  Survivor and his mom were found in the street, where they had their burrow.  Survivor just narrowly missed being hit by a car, unfortunately his mom wasn't as lucky.  His mom had passed on by the time Michael was able to rush them to us but Survivor stayed strong and wouldn't give up.  He was later moved out to an aviary where he has made new friends and will be released with them in the spring into a new habitat.
Park and Ride (what a name I know, the big people around here aren't very good at this whole naming thing), is a Red Tailed Hawk that came to us from the Park and Ride facility on Happy Valley Road.  He was found hopping around on the cars, too young to fly yet, and brought into Wild At Heart.  He was released back into the wild earlier this year.
You met my friend Mags in the last blog.  He has officially been requested from U.S. Fish and Wildlife as an educational bird for Wild At Heart.  He's a little strange, but a good soul and will do a great job of showing people it's ok to be special. I met a lot of unusual friends this year that we don't often see at Wild At Heart.  I met Zona the Zone Tailed Hawk who came to us with an eye injury and a broken leg.  Poor Zona he was in the hospital forever with pins in his leg and three surgeries on his eye.  He is now living outside in an aviary and has been requested from U.S. Fish and Wildlife as an educational bird.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Mandela a Ferruginous Hawk who came in with two gunshot wounds one to his leg and one to his wing.  He has been seen by our fabulous vet Dr. Soltero at Saguaro Veterinary Clinic and is healing well in the hospital.  Tundra came in just a few days after Mandela.  He is a gorgeous Tundra Peregrine (of course he's not as good looking as me!)  He came in with a fracture to his wing which is healing nicely.  Tundra Peregrines are very rare in Arizona and we are excited to have him here while he heals.
I'm lucky (so they tell me) to have another Kestrel Falcon in the hospital with me right now.  His curtain on his hospital kennel is opened everyday so he can see outside the window.  His name is Weebles.  Weebles has a little bit of a wobble (he tends to fall over backward easily) so he is in the hospital while we get this figured out.
One of the best friends I made this year was a little Elf Owl, many of you know him as the former author of this blog.  Widget unfortunately passed away in November of this year due to an unknown genetic problem.  He was a little owl that made a big impact on everyone he met (even me).  We all still miss him everyday, but unfortunately we can't save everyone even though we try our very best.
What a year!  2013 has been an exciting year with many successes and some losses, although we try our best for the raptors that come in here everyday and will continue to do so in the future.  Caring for all of my friends is no laughing matter, it takes time, love, commitment and of course money (you wouldn't believe what a bag of mice is going for these days!)  This job is too big for one little Kestrel and our volunteer big people, we can't do this without your help.  To help all of us here at Wild At Heart, donations can be made through http://www.razoo.com/story/Wild-At-Heart.