On Thursday, September 1st, while most of us were monitoring weather maps, gathering food, buying ice, and stocking up on batteries, birder John Murphy noted the arrival of a Magnificent Frigatebird on Alligator Point.

In the olden days, before the Weather Channel, people in the tropics and Florida watched closely for the strange inland appearance of this pelagic species (a bird that spends most of its time at sea) that they called the “hurricane bird.” A sighting of this large, black bird with a deeply forked tail was their sure sign of an approaching hurricane.

Other pelagic species were found in our area just after Hermine, including three exhausted Sooty Terns, two adults and a juvenile. They are now resting comfortably at St. Francis Wildlife. One is being treated for a broken leg.

My husband, Bob was in Miami when Katrina made landfall in South Florida. As the eye of the storm passed and the winds temporarily subsided, he stepped outside for a breath of fresh air, but what he saw took his breath away. A flock of at least 100 Barn Swallows flew overhead, in the same direction the storm was traveling.

As a hurricane develops, birds sometimes get trapped in the eye by the towering, fierce wind in the eye wall. In effect, the eye wall becomes a tropical birdcage until the hurricane begins to fizzle.

Fortunately, hurricanes usually strike after “baby season,” which is spring and early summer for most species of birds and mammals in our area. But in 2005, Hurricane Dennis, which swept through the Gulf Coast on July 10th, didn’t play by the rules.

When the storm roared ashore, strong winds and waves completely wiped out a nesting colony of Florida Brown Pelicans on Lanark Reef in Franklin County. The fledglings, unable to fly, tumbled through the surf and were blown up into the thick vegetation along U.S. 98.

Staff and volunteers from St. Francis Wildlife and the Wild Mammal Center in Crawfordville worked together from dawn to dusk to rescue 120 baby pelicans.

Most perching birds survive hurricanes by hunkering down on a tree branch. Their strong leg muscles keep their feet locked until the storm passes. Not much chance of it being blown away, unless the branch snaps off. St. Francis Wildlife did receive some injured birds after Hurricane Hermine: a Red-shouldered Hawk, Cattle Egret and a few Yellow-billed Cuckoos and Northern Cardinals.

In a bird’s survival bag of tricks is also the ability to detect the air pressure changes that signal a coming storm. We waited until Thursday at sunset to stow our bird feeders because the regular diners — cardinals, chickadees, woodpeckers — were stocking up like crazy. It rivaled the frenzy I had seen earlier that day at Publix.

St. Francis Wildlife was blown away. Not by Hurricane Hermine, but by the overwhelming response of our community to the hundreds of orphaned baby squirrels that they received. Unfortunately, hurricane season coincides precisely with “baby squirrel season.” St. Francis Wildlife had 150 orphaned baby squirrels on Thursday. Right after the storm, 260 more arrived.

“We were so grateful to see FWC wildlife officer Shon Brower,” said St. Francis Wildlife director, Teresa Stevenson. “He showed up Friday morning to check on us and removed a huge branch from our road so we could drive up to the hospital building. He also helped us set up the generator.”

For two days, St. Francis Wildlife staff and volunteers worked day and night to feed hundreds of orphaned babies by lantern light and keep them warm on heating pads and in incubators powered by a fading generator.

By Saturday night, over a million people had read their Facebook post asking for help and thousands shared it. The next day, two hundred wildlife lovers, who had not lost power, drove up to the wildlife hospital just outside of Havana — a few from as far away as Jacksonville and Orlando — to get a hands-on lesson in squirrel care and take home two or three babies.

“Michelle, the Squirrel Whisperer at St. Francis who gave me a tutorial on their care and feeding . . ., held squirrel babies in her hands as easily as a master knitter maneuvers yarn. She administered B12 to the sick ones and a pain med to one with a broken leg all the while coaching new volunteers,” wrote Susannah Lyle in an email. She took home two babies.

Others, who were not able to foster babies, made donations and brought up supplies and food for staff and volunteers. Goodwill sent up hundreds of old t-shirts to be used for baby squirrel bedding.

Volunteers will nurse the babies on special formula and slowly wean them to nuts, fruit and other natural foods. When they are about three months old and able to crack a pecan or acorn with their new teeth, all will be set free in safe squirrel habitats.

St. Francis Wildlife has power now, as do most people in our area, and all of their “adoptable” baby squirrels are in loving hands. A week after the storm, they have “just” 57 left, mostly the sick or injured babies who require hospital care.

This has been a challenging week, but we are so fortunate to live in a community where so many care about their neighbors, both human and wild.

How you can help



What to do if you find a baby squirrel:

- If it feels cool, but appears otherwise healthy, warm it up. Put the baby in an old t-shirt in a shoebox. Warm up a plastic water bottle, wrap it in another t-shirt and place it in the box. Or put half the box on a heating pad on the low setting. Never try to feed the baby or give it milk.

- When it is warm, try to reunite it with its mother. For instructions, go to stfranciswildlife.org/IFoundAWildAnimal.html (scroll to bottom of page and select “Baby Squirrels”).

- Call St. Francis Wildlife for advice: (850) 627-4151. Drop off injured, orphaned or sick wildlife* to St. Francis Wildlife, 5580 Salem Rd., Quincy (4 miles NW of Havana), or in Tallahassee go to Northwood or Allied Animal Hospitals 24/7, or North Florida Animal Hospital during their regular business hours.

* Never touch common rabies vectors such as raccoons, foxes and bats; always call St. Francis Wildlife.

Become a St. Francis Wildlife volunteer:

Call (850) 627-4151 or go to: stfranciswildlife.org/GetInvolved.html.

Make a donation:

Send a check to P.O. Box 38160, Tallahassee, FL 32315, or make a secure online donation with PayPal at stfranciswildlife.org/Donate.html. The wildlife hospital’s washing machine just expired after cleaning huge piles of animal bedding, and their dryer is almost dead, so the rescue group would really appreciate a commercial washer and dryer.

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