Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center

09/10/2026

TW!l: Worms, roaches and flies oh my! Come learn about the important role insects play in caring for our insectivore patients.

09/08/2026

Autumn promises cooler weather and amazing events! Come join us this season and support conservation, wildlife, and the community.
Will we see you there?

09/05/2026

Happy National Wildlife Day! Come take a look behind the scenes at some of the animals we’re caring for right now, and your donations at work.

09/02/2026

Peter Nguyen captured these amazing shots of some tropical migrants we’re already seeing as an effect of warming ocean waters El Niño brings.

Original caption: “El Niño continues.

The parade of birds used to the tropics continues in Orange County waters. Pelagic birding involves going out to sea to look for sea faring birds normally further out than our near shore where the water is deeper, colder, and more nutrient rich.

This Nazca B***y was hunting bait fish along side a huge pod of Common Dolphins. The majority breed off of Galapagos Island and to see one as an adult in OC waters is a treat.

Scripps’s Murrelets are part of the Alcid family of birds, which I fondly think of as Northern Hemisphere flighted penguins. This family includes puffins and fill the niche of penguins in the northern waters. “

Thank you Peter for letting us share your beautiful photographs and for shedding some like on one of the many impacts El Niño has in store for us this coming season.

08/28/2026

Diving bird releases are not always the most climatic as they often immediately do what they do best: dive! Birds that spend their whole life on the water are one of the most difficult to rehabilitate due to their unique needs and challenges, so getting to be a part of their success is a triumph all around- regardless of the “splash” they make at their release!

This Pied-billed grebe was found crash landed in the parking lot of a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (sponsor us? 👀). We don’t know how it ended up there as donuts are not typically part of their diet… But crash landing is quite common for water birds as they can mistake moisture on blacktop for a body of water.

Special shoutout to Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy for letting us send him off in Magnolia Marsh 🫶🏻.

08/27/2026

AMGO? More like AMGLOWUP.
(AMGO is birder slang for American Goldfinch).

08/20/2026

Caption these photos!
This stunning Red-Footed B***y will be on its way home soon, and we can’t wait to share more about its journey and how it may be a calling card for what El Niño will be bringing over the coming months…

08/14/2026

What an amazing release we had today! Thank you to everyone who came out and witnessed this inspiring event. And thank you to KTLA 5 News for joining us and spreading the word about what we do.

Several Brown Pelicans rescued amid a mysterious starvation event along the Southern California coast returned to the wild Friday after being nursed back to health in Huntington Beach. The Wetlands…

08/12/2026

Just when we thought we had seen it all!
As some of you may know, we are located almost directly across the street from a protected and monitored Least Tern nature preserve. And luckily for this one, Richard Zembal and some other volunteers were monitoring the site that day.

They noticed an individual apparently in distress and were able to carefully capture it. Once they had the bird in hand they realized something shocking. Tangled up in the Tern’s mouth was the head of another young Tern!

They were able to rush it over to us for prompt removal as the bird was in severe distress. Our veterinary team found additional tissue that was lodged further down the throat and cut away the excess so it could finally breathe and swallow again, and was cleared for release shortly thereafter.

As strange as it may sound, they have a theory on what may have happened. They have noticed a Barn Owl hunting in the area recently and have found similar piles of… well… Least Tern pieces scattered around the beach. Something that is common to see from raptor hunts.

This may disturb some people, but we think it’s important to show all sides of the animal kingdom. Though the outcome for the one Least Tern was not good we were able to save another (which is important as they are endangered!).

Finally, Zembal notes some inspiring news: they counted 218 nests with 23 being currently active. They observed 28 older chicks and 104 fledglings.

The California Least Tern was listed as an endangered species in California in 1984 with breeding pairs having dwindled to just 600. Now, there are over 6,000 breeding pairs. Though these numbers are an accomplishment, the species numbers continue to decline at a rate of about 5% annually, necessitating continued conservation efforts.

Data source: The California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Photo credit: Andrea Carpio and Helen Lin
Shared with permission from Richard Zembal, Principal Investigator and HBWC Board Member