Now that spring is here and the weather finally is changing, Mother Nature is holding her annual baby shower -- showering the woods, fields and other not-so-wild places with baby animals.

	A three-week-old squirrel is one of the first baby animals of the season to take up residence at the Animal Rescue League Wildlife Center in Verona. (Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette)

This also is the season that a deluge of orphaned and injured creatures starts hitting the Animal Rescue League Wildlife Center in Verona.

"The days after a thunderstorm are a nightmare here," says the center's director, Jill Nadzam. "Because everything falls out of the trees."

That is, baby birds, from robins to raptors. Possums. Just now arriving: squirrels.

People bring them to the center, one of the few local places licensed and equipped to handle most kinds of wild animals.

This season's first newborns-in-distress arrived March 13: three early bunnies. Two of them, whose ground nest had been disturbed by a dog, arrived the size of fingers and hairless, with parts of their umbilical cords still attached.

"Their eyes just opened this morning," Nadzam said last Friday. She offered a peek into the incubator where they were being nurtured during a tour of the center just before its annual "Baby Shower" open house last Saturday.

This "nursery" is just one of many rooms where animals are treated, rehabilitated (there's a tub for teaching baby ducks to swim) and re-acclimated to the outdoors before those deemed fit enough to survive are released into the wild.

Of the 2,000 animals brought here each year, many don't make it, and many must be euthanized. Some -- such as the red-tailed hawk missing an eye -- go to zoos, and others -- such as the short-eared owl missing a wing -- stay to appear in education programs at the center.

While the center works with some of the other licensed rehabilitators in the region, its staff is just Nadzam and, this summer, one other full-time worker, plus lots of volunteers.

So the center can use all the help it can get from the public. It tries to educate people with handouts on "Simple Things You Can Do To Help Wildlife," from controlling pet cats and dogs to being alert while driving and mowing the lawn.

To protect baby animals, Nadzam advises that you take care this time of year when you cut down trees, clean out gutters, even open sheds -- all places where critters may have nested.

If you do see a baby animal, "The best thing is to not do anything at all," she says. "Call somebody before you even touch it."

The center has only one phone line (412-793-6900) and workers sometimes have their hands too full to answer it. But leave a message because they return all calls. They can assess the situation -- is the animal bleeding or shivering?-- and can talk you through specific steps for specific animals.

Even if a baby animal appears to be abandoned, its parents probably are nearby or will return soon, Nadzam says. "Parents don't stay with baby animals 24 hours a day."

If you find a bird with a short stubby tail hopping around on the ground, it's probably a fledgling, going through a normal stage of being too young to fly but too old to stay in the nest. They don't need to be "rescued" by anyone.

Nadzam says she and her colleagues call these babies "bird-napped" and usually tell their rescuers to take them back and release them. "People get mad, but that's the best thing."

Contrary to popular belief, if you place a baby bird back in its nest, the parents will still care for it. If the nest has been destroyed, you can even replace it with a nest made from a margarine container, with holes for drainage and a lining of tissue or pine needles.

Birds have hardly any sense of smell, and even mother rabbits won't necessarily abandon babies touched by humans.

That said, Nadzam advises always wearing protective gloves. Adult and injured animals can be especially dangerous, but even babies have teeth and talons.

"They all may be cute, but they're all wild animals."