Rain Leaves Houston Wildlife Homeless

If you think traffic on I-10 was a bad repercussion of yesterday’s downpour, try being washed away from your nest. You would have to be a bird to have experienced that, but you get the idea.

Rain storms usually cause a lot of phone calls to come into Wildlife Rehab and Education, a non-profit organization, and yesterday was no different.

Among those the group rescued Monday were a family of cottontail rabbits flooded out of their den, a variety of songbirds washed from their nests, a young squirrel, a baby screech owl, even a bird normally at home in the water: a young, yellow-crowned night crane found floundering in a Deer Park backyard, too waterlogged to stand.

The organization is made up of a network of volunteers who rescue the animals after a call comes in. They nurse them and get them back into tip-top shape, then set them free. With babies who are rescued after a rain like the one we had Monday, they often have to stay longer. Executive Director Sharon Schmaltz explained that when a baby needs medical attention and they’ve had to intervene, that they “have to finish being Mom.”

The orphaned birds will be moved to a large flight cage where they’re taught to fly and hunt. You can “adopt” a bird by going to the group’s website.

Wildlife Rehab and Education Hotline // 713.643.WILD (9453)

Photo by flickr user Trev vG