so as always, it's been a busy year here at liberty. babies are everywhere you look and of course many of them are the cutest little things you've ever seen. we have gotten in a lot of mammals this year. unfortunately we don't keep baby mammals at the facility since they need 24 hour care, so most of them go to other rehabbers. the little peccary was one of the cutest things but already wild and nippy. it's amazing how long and razor sharp a 1-week old babys teeth can be! the ground squirrel, on the other hand was as sweet as can be other than the loud crying for food. poor thing. we even got in a kitten that was so tiny and soft that it fell asleep in the palm of my hand! of course we don't take in domestic animals but that doesn't always stop people from dropping them off!

it's also fun when we get in precocial babies. quail and killdeer are some of the funnest examples but we also get in ducklings and goslings from time to time. precocial means they can eat on their own and walk around as soon as they're hatched and dried off. these guys are always cute fuzzy versions of their parents and are nice because we don't have to spend as much time feeding them as the altricial babies.

speeking of altricial babies, we have tons of those as well. some of my favorites are the house finches that come with a fuzzy mohawk as soon as they hatch out of the egg! it's tough to miss-ID those guys. we also get in lots of mockingbirds who grace the orphan care area with their "MEEP" noise. i still laugh every time i hear it despite having heard it a million times. due to our contract with the transwestern pipeline, we've gotten in lots of eggs this year of various species. one of my favorite hatches was of a little towhee that popped up with the top of the egg shell still on its head!

we don't just get little guys in though. we recently got in a nest of hatchling ravens from prescott valley that got caught in a freak snow storm a couple weeks ago. they were completely covered in snow and came in ice cold and sopping wet. unfortunately hypothermia caught up to most of the chicks, but one made it through and is now a big, screaming, blue-eyed, and feathered nestling. he's doing great! we also recently hatched our very first roadrunner from an egg. coincidentally, we got in a 2-week old roadrunner the same day. we let them hang out together a bit to make them feel safe and comfortable. they have the cutest method of begging. i will have to tape it and put it up here.