Blog

It’s not every day your nest gets struck by lightning. However, that’s exactly what happened to our featured patients this month: four nestling Red-headed Woodpeckers! 😮

We’re true Swifties at Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary! Now, we don’t mean fans of Taylor Swift (though, admittedly, some of our staff members certainly are). We mean fans of the original swift: the Chimney Swift! 👏

Our wildlife patients get only the very best when it comes to wildlife rehab haute couture. We were privileged to bear witness to a true fashion statement from Northern Mockingbird 25-514 this month!

Well, summer has certainly arrived in full force! 🥵 This month, we’re sharing how our wild neighbors keep cool on sweltering days…without popsicles.

June’s Patient of the Month came to us last Friday in quite the predicament. Meet patient 25-356, an Eastern Ratsnake who came to RWS literally tangled up in knots! 🪢

As birds flit to and from their nests, fox kits dash around their dens, and humans call the RWS hotline all day long, one species is taking things slow…very slow. Cumbersomely slow, in fact. We’re talking, of course, about the charming Common Snapping Turtle!

We spent late March wondering, “Where are the fox kits?!” Typically, we admit our first orphaned kits shortly after the spring equinox. While opossums and baby songbirds began pouring in, our rabies-vector species nursery was comparably quiet. Until…

There are new residents at Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary, and they’re neither orphaned patients nor education ambassador animals. They’re Eastern Phoebe parents-to-be!

As temperatures rise and animals begin raising their young, we’re seeing a familiar wave of “firsts” roll in: the first squirrels, the first baby cottontails, and, of course, the first raccoon kit. 🦝