80 squirrels at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center.

A typhoon of squirrels - that’s how Debbie McGuire described this week at the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach.

McGuire, the executive director of the center, said they usually take in about 600 squirrels a year, but this week they’ve taken in 80 of the curious creatures. Most of them are orphaned juveniles whose mother either abandoned them or got injured.

Her busy week continued on Wednesday. Newport Beach Animal Control called her with a juvenile Great Horned Owl that fell out of a tree along the city’s border with Costa Mesa.

McGuire coordinated with Newport Beach to get a cherry picker so they could place the owl back in the tree. When she and veterinarian Liz Wood arrived they found a big owl’s nest and the mother owl sitting on a branch seeming waiting for its owlet. Wood said she thinks the bird fell out of the tree while learning to fly.

As Wood took the owl out of a cardboard box with the words “I ‘heart’ my pet” on the side, the bird flutter it’s wings then settled on a branch. The owl took several leaps up to higher branches and with each leap Wood jumped too,  nervously watching to make sure the owl didn’t fall again.

Next week maybe just as busy, the center is planning to release three American White Pelicans so they can get the recovering bird in the air in time to migrate.

On May 1, the center will hold its Virtual Wildlife Baby Shower fundraiser. For info go to: www.wwccoc.org

(Video by Jef Gritchen/Orange County Register/SCNG)

Видео 80 squirrels at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center. канала Orange County Register