Atlantic Wildlife Institute saves chimney swifts, owl

The Atlantic Wildlife Institute has taken in a trio of chimney swifts and a grey horned owl.

Chimney swifts are small birds, who, as the name implies,live in chimneys, and these ones were found in the Fredericton area.

Unlike many of the animals that the AWI takes, nothing happened to these bird's parents. Instead the birds kept getting themselves in situations where their parents couldn't get to them.

The birds were placed back with the parents, but kept falling down the chimney. It was decided to bring them to the institute.

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"There was definitely something that went wrong there in that chimney area," said Pam Novak, who works at the institute.

The birds are finally eating, and are doing okay, although thatwasn't easy.

"For the first couple of days it was really quite delicate because I actually had to force feed them, because they wouldn't open up and gape for me," said Novak.

Novak says it will take at least another two weeks before the birds can be released back into the wild.

The grey horned owl was found in Coverdale near Moncton, and appears to have been abandoned by his parents.

While owls usually keep to themselves, this one was making itself noticeable, going as far as to not move for 48 hours.

"Finally when he was approached, just to kind of get a closer look to see how he was actually doing, he actually fell right out of the tree and on to the ground," said Novak.

The owl was emaciated with little body mass or energy. When the Institute received the owl they sent him directly to the vet, where he was immediately put on IV fluids.

The owl probably wouldn't have survived if left for only a few more hours, but he's in better shapenow.

"He's been re-hydrated, he's perky, he's got a little bit more of his energy back and we've got him to the point now where he's actually self-feeding," said Novak.

Shift - NB9:16Caring for abandoned chimney swifts

There are three young Chimney Swifts being raised at the Atlantic Wildlife Institute, plus one emaciated Great Horned Owlet.