Sunday, January 24, 2010

Mother Nature is The Bestest Artist



LW and I are volunteers at my friend Martha Armenta's NGO (Non Governmental organization), CONREHABIT. The organization's mission is the rescue,rehabilitation,release of the Mexican dry forest's endangered birds and mammal's, and educating the human mammals. Back in April of 2008 one afternoon Martha got a call from the federal government. They told her that a truckload of 496 parrot hatch lings had been confiscated at the border, when the poachers attempted to cross with counterfeit papers. The Department of Wildlife Protection wanted CONREHABIT to take 272 of the parrots to rehabilitate and release. These little guys weren't more then a few days to a week old. The one above sitting in LW's hand is one of the older ones with feathers. Some of these guy's didn't even have their chest feathers yet.

  

Our little band of volunteers shifted into high gear to find cages, food, equipment and people to care for these guys. Mind you we have never had this many birds at one time and all these guys had to be hand fed. We have a 1 hectare piece of dry forest at the edge of town where the aviary is, but these guys were way to young to be left out in the cool air. They also needed to be fed every 2-3 hours. Birds and animals that are taken to the "rancho" need to be fairly self sufficient because we don't have 24 care for them. By the time Martha returned (4hours) from picking up the babies we had organized a great group of "foster parents" This is Martha feeding babies, baby parrot gruel with a syringe. By the time we had everyone fed we were covered in gunk and it was time to start feeding the first bunch again.



Now this is the look of a happy baby with a full tummy!! :)



When the babies got big enough to maintain their own body temperatures and feed themselves, not to mention that the older ones were busy trying out their new fangled wings every chance they could, we transferred them out to the aviary. And we began maintenance care until the youths were big enough to release. Because these birds were confiscated by the federal gov. we had to care for them until someone from the department of wildlife protection to come out band the birds and officially sign off on their release. Sooooooo after a couple of elections, and changing of the guards and well you know (red tape) 21 months went by. Yep we still had these parrots well okay there were some that made their own escapes when doors were opened, and we did loose a number of babies from malnutrition/dehydration and birdy colds.

Finally someone stopped long enough to listen to Martha and decided maybe they better come out and check and release the now adult parrots :) Soooo yesterday was the BIG day Yaaaaaaay We made sure everyone had their flight wings on tightly and sporting their identification bands.



Ahhhhh LW our babies are all "growd" up :) The DFWP representatives were there and they brought along the newspaper and TV press. There was a number of Foster Parrot Parents, CONREHABIT members and a group of school kids studying conservation there to watch the kids receive their flight orders. :)






So at the designated time we said goodbye to our little charges and open the cages.

 




But like all kids who first leave the nest they were more comfortable to hang around in the near by trees. Well who can blame them, they knew were the dining table was always set. :)
Here's were my title fits in. Look at these guys are they not perfect? And their colors I don't know of any crayola colors that can even come close. That ol Ma Nature she has more gifts and talents for creating then any human can ever hope to come close to. See how she colored these guys so they match their neighborhoods????





It's going to be a bit quiet around the old aviary these days, but I have a feeling that some of the kids will hang around to continue to call this little protected piece of dry forest home! But my oh my who would have imagined that those little guys would grow up to be such beautiful birds, I ask ya??







And on that note the only thing left to say is:
 Today is a good day to create where ever in the world you are  p;) 

9 comments:

Barbara Lewis said...

Beautiful birds. You did a good deed!

Olde Dame Penniwig said...

Parrot blackmarketing is a terrible problem. People don't realize how immoral it is. Lots of people who have no business with a parrot get them and then discard them later. They are extremely intelligent and can't be mistreated or they are doomed. I'm so glad they were rehabbed and finally released.

LW said...

Working with Marth and Conrehabit has really been an adventure. You can't help but catch her energy, whether it's working with rescued parrots or baby jaguars.

Here's a link to an article this weekend in the local newspaper. You may wish to use something like Google Translate if necessary:
http://www.noroeste.com.mx/publicaciones.php?id=550767&id_seccion=6

If you'd like to know a little more about Conrabit, here's the site:
http://conrehabit.org/index.php

If each of us does just a little, everybody will benefit.

LW

Silver Parrot said...

Awwww...they are SO CUTE! And bless all of you for taking such good care of them for so long!

pam q said...

Oh, what a wonderful story!

At least it ended good, anyway....

I always love to see the rehab turtles released on TV and now I've seen parrots!

Such beautiful pictures!

Thanks for sharing!

SummersStudio said...

It is not so difficult to imagine how few of these guys would be alive today if they had not been rescued. I had no idea how fragile baby parrots were, especially the little naked ones. It must feel so good to have been part of the magic of nursing these babies to adulthood and then seeing them do what nature intended, fly! How incredibly beautiful. You've brought a lovely bright spot of colour and happiness into my day!!!!!

Vintajia Adornments said...

Bravo Pattie!
Having had a similar experience raising nearly 400 baby flyingfoxes (fruitbats) last year, I KNOW the shear hard work, the sacrifice in time and money, putting yourself and your family last, the endless mixing of formula, cleaning, the joy of prizing death's jaws open and snatching one precious life back (the sorrow when you failed) The shear wonder of observing a beautiful creature up close and personal and best of all the final outcome - release back into the wild.
Wishing that they all live long and prosper.
We all need to fight hard for the children of the wild world, as my husband says "doing nothing is not an option"

LuLu Kellogg said...

BS, you and LW are so wonderful for helping these little babies. You have a HUGE heart, both of you.

Love to you from LS, The Commander and all our Furbabies (#2 too) xoxo

Leslie @ Bei Mondi said...

Oh, what a perfect story. I bet you are already missing the feathered friends. They are just breath taking with those magnificent colors. What type of bird are they? I have a sun conure named Picasso and he looks to be about the same size as your babies. I know you were sad to see them go but take pride in the job you did as substitute mom.

Blog Widget by LinkWithin