Wheels for Wildlife, Transport #1

I got a call yesterday from Sam, the wildlife rehabilitation manager at Hawai'i Wildlife Center. I am a volunteer driver for the Wheels for Wildlife program that they run. Someone had picked up a Wedge-tailed Shearwater chick that they thought was abandoned. Now it can't be returned (they don't know exactly where it came from) so it needs to go to the Hawai'i Wildlife Center to be raised. Since the facility is on Hawai'i island, and the bird is on O'ahu, it needs to be flown over. I picked the chick up at Feather & Fur Animal Hospital in Kailua to start its trip to the Big Island.

If you ever need to find this place, it's behind the Texaco station in the Aikahi Shopping Center.

The chick in a basket, covered by a towel to simulate a burrow.

Our first stop was the Plant Quarantine inspection office at the Honolulu Airport. This is a different place than the other quarantine places I had taken the cats to; its a lot farther in the airport than any of the other offices. The chick needed to get a "Passed" sticker in order to be flown to Hawai'i island.


Then it was off to Hawaiian Air Cargo. I had to leave the main part of the airport to get there. There was a whole bunch of paperwork in order to send the chick to Kona, but Sam had sent all the information I needed to fill them out. In the meanwhile, the chick decided to climb out of the basket.

The chick, just before it jumped out of the basket.

Happy Birthday to Tom, Hot Dog Bruce, & Shelly!