Baby woodpeckers saved from storm damage

By Caroline Cummings

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    LEXINGTON, Minnesota (WCCO) — Severe storms that tore through the town of Lexington this week forced an evacuation for four tiny residents.

Community service officers with Centennial Lake police were called to a neighborhood after the storm — not to help the homeowner, but baby woodpeckers nestled inside a fallen tree branch.

The department shared the rescue in a post on Facebook on Thursday, showing part of the branch with the birds sitting in the back of a squad car. The officers transported them to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Roseville for care.

Brittney Yohannes, communications and development director for the animal hospital, said the story is pretty common this time of year when severe storms happen more frequently: Birds fall out of trees that are knocked down due to high winds. The center cares for about 200 woodpeckers a year.

The medical team used a saw to get them safely out of the branch. The birds, which are only a few weeks old, are now nesting in an incubator, monitored by staff and fed every 20 minutes.

“Not everybody stops to think if there’s wildlife in these downed trees and branches. Luckily woodpeckers are pretty noisy,” Yohannes said.

The woodpeckers will likely spend the next few weeks – even months — at the center before they have enough strength to fly and can be released back into the wild.

“Getting to release these guys is such a special moment for all of the members of our team,” she said.

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