As some of y’all may have noticed, LWR is having a raptor-heavy year. That means an extra-expensive year: We’ve needed rodent orders every 2-3 weeks since February so we can keep these birds fed —and each order has been a minimum of $500. Add to that the boxes, liners, gloves (do y’all KNOW how much exam gloves cost in this Covid-crazed world??? It’s insane!) and other essentials for healthy birds, and we’re running low on funds. I’m aiming at one big fundraiser this month, and if we meet the goal, there won’t be another fundraiser for the remainder of the year. The goal? $3000. I’m counting on y’all to help keep the raptors LWR takes in well-fed!

​The barred owl who’d been possibly hit by car is ready to go; because he’s an adult and his finders say he’s one of their neighborhood owls, they’re picking him up tomorrow to release back in his home territory.

​The screeches are also good to go; the mini-pen door will be left open tonight to give them their freedom.

​The MIKIs are ready to be moved to the raptor flight. Yes, their box is filthy—the photo was taken before I moved them into a clean box because I knew getting a decent shot of them after the stress of being handled would be impossible.

​The red tail will go in the mini-pen if the screeches seize the freedom offered them tonight. He still stargazes badly, even after steroid injections. This is gonna be a long haul with him, I suspect.

​In new intakes, a red shoulder pulled from a truck grille had no external injuries but his right shoulder was shattered. He required euthanasia.

​This sweet little barn swallow leapt or was shoved from the nest at my grandparents’ house I’m renovating and when the parents didn’t coax him to a safe place after an hour and sunset was approaching, I brought him home with me for safekeeping overnight, with the goal of reuniting him with his sibs ASAP. Sadly, the poor fellow died overnight.

​A barred owl was found in the road with a broken wing. Unfortunately, it was an open fracture and the bird required euthanasia.

​Yesterday evening, as mammal rehabber Charydi Gambill was on her way home from work, she saw a blue jay attacking this nestling mourning dove. Seeing no nest around, she retrieved the dove and brought it to LWR. His crop was hard as a rock, which had me worried he might also check out overnight, but he’s doing well and his crop feels normal again today.

​And of course, we can’t end without an update on the black vultures, recently released and now inviting their friends to the party. Three times this week I’ve seen two adult black vultures hanging out with the twins, and at least once a turkey vulture joined the festivities. Meanwhile, I’m threatening to give my family exam gloves and trash bags for when they see fresh road kill...

Yup, you read that right! Used to be, LWR would see a bald eagle every 4-5 years; for the past several years they’ve been coming into rehab at least once a year and frequently more often.
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This one was a three-and-a-half-year-old bird; we know this from the mottled head and tail feathers. It had bands on both legs; the numbers on those were reported to Bob Sargent, head of Georgia DNR’s Eagle Program (he found out the bird had been banded in Florida in 2018). It weighed 8lb, 10oz on intake and was alert but docile and unable to stand and its breathing seemed shallow and labored.  Vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital noticed a small fracture of the left radius and pointed out that the left lung also looked cloudy.  Additionally, as we positioned the bird for x-rays, it sliced the nastiest, smelliest pea soup-green, gritty poop I’ve ever seen or smelled from an eagle. 

Given the bird’s increasing lethargy, I was eager to get it transferred to Auburn’s Raptor Center for more extensive care than LWR can provide. Volunteer transporters Doug and Joy Daniels came through at a moment’s notice, literally, both coming straight off full days of work to transport the eagle to Auburn. We were all honestly afraid it would die en route.

The good news is that according to Auburn’s case updates, the eagle is eating on its own and more alert but not yet standing. They suspect “organophosphate toxicity with secondary trauma,” meaning the bird likely has some form of insecticide poisoning along with the physical injuries. Their exam caught a coracoid fracture we missed in our focus on that cloudy lung, and they noted a very low heart rate, which has since begun improving.
For the full details on the eagle’s treatment at Auburn, go to http://w2.vetmed.auburn.edu/rm1/html/2021-203.html. Their most recent updates are at the top, so you’ll need to scroll down and start reading from the bottom of the page up.
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DNR also delivered another MIKI, this one slightly younger than the one that came in the previous week, so they’re both remaining inside till the younger one is ready for the raptor flight.

​A concussed barred owl came in Tuesday and, after a couple of days of being too out of it to eat, he started eating well and will go in the raptor flight for a few days just to make sure he’s flying well. 

​Unfortunately, two other barreds weren’t as lucky. Both came in with fatal wing fractures requiring euthanasia. The second of the two, a juvie, came in the same day as the eagle and was euthanized at Smalley’s.

​A first-year red tail came in with a swollen right eye and stargazing, but no fractures. Vet Peggy Hobby also examined him and concluded the neurologic symptoms were treatable with time and steroids. The steroids we’ve managed; the time—well, it will take care of itself. The good news is his depth perception is improving as the swelling in the right eye slowly goes down, and the stargazing isn’t as severe as it was. He’s able to pick up mice he drops in the bottom of his box now; two days ago if they fell from his beak as I hand-fed him, I had to pick them back up and hand-feed them to him again. Baby steps!

​The screeches are enjoying the mini-pen, although it’s hard to tell that from their expressions...

​And, of course, the recently released black vultures are still hanging around being goofy juvies and sunning—a LOT—and I’ve seen a couple of adult vultures starting to check things out.

The black vulture twins finally feathered out enough to release and, well, let the games begin! Those of y’all who’ve been with LWR for a few years now remember the fun we had with the previous vulture twins. These two are proving just as intelligent, nosy and mischievous—they’re into EVerything!

So I might’ve gone just a wee bit overboard with vulture pix, but LOOK at those gorgeous babies—just LOOK at ‘em!

With the vultures out of the mini-pen, the screeches moved in. The adults are going through a molt at the moment so they look a bit rough, especially the red phase male.

The poor juvie just looks shell-shocked; it’s his first time outside since coming into rehab as a downy baby.

The MIKI has moved into a larger box and I’m trying to keep the raptor flight open for him, as probably by the end of next week, he’ll be ready to begin flight conditioning in it.

The string of euthanasias continued with two red shoulders four days apart. The first had been pulled from a truck grille and while there were no open wounds, his wing was shattered at the shoulder and his hip was in just as bad a shape.

The second red shoulder had an open wing fracture.

A juvenile Cooper’s hawk—or possibly sharp-shinned hawk—came in early in the week, a probable window-strike victim. His weight suggested sharpie but his body length suggested Coop. Despite a steroid injection, he never regained use of his legs, although he could flare his wings and flick his tail. His breathing remained labored, as well. I was debating a second steroid injection or just euthanizing but he took care of it himself, checking out between meals.

And in what has to be one of the funniest cases of species misidentification I’ve seen in a while, this mocker came in identified as a magpie. A caller from the local Air Force base said they had an injured magpie. Well, magpies are Western birds; we don’t have them in Georgia—at least not naturally or legally. But the caller’s number showed as from a Western state, so...hmmm...Silly me didn’t ask for a photo.

Volunteer raptor transporter and licensed small mammal rehabber Charydi Gambill works on the base and was as curious as me about a supposed magpie in Georgia so, like me, she didn’t ask for a photo; she just picked up the...mocker. When she sent me the photo of the juvenile mocker she said she didn’t really see anything wrong with it but was bringing it anyway.

Sure enough, the independent juvenile had no injuries, but because we had a massive thunderstorm sweep through that afternoon, the “mocker-pie” wasn’t released until the next morning. And Charydi and I had a good laugh—much-needed this time of year.

It was a fairly quiet but not necessarily great two weeks—what, you thought no July 4 update meant LWR took a break? We don’t get breaks, except occasionally from posting blog updates!

Let’s start with the upbeat, shall we? After TS Elsa moved through the Laurens County area, DNR delivered this adorable pre-brancher Mississippi kite, aka MIKI (the standard abbreviation, which also makes a great nickname for the species), found in a parking lot near a small pecan grove. He was hungry, stressed and vocal on arrival but is well-fed, calm and mostly quiet now.

The crow and blue jay were released and quickly merged into the wild populations of both species that are abundant around LWR.

The screeches are ready to go in the mini-pen as soon as the vultures are released, which should be early this week—between Elsa’s wind and some rain and a week of normal seasonal thunderstorms, their release has been delayed. They’ll most likely hang around for a few months, if past experience is any indicator.

And the screeches...well...they’re screeches. Below you can see their melodramatic reactions to having their boxes cleaned and freshened.

But of course, it’s never all happy news in wildlife rehab...

This gorgeous male indigo bunting was a cat-attack victim. He came in beak-breathing and rigid already and died within minutes of intake. Say it with me, boys and girls: KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS.

When a Middle Georgia landfill called and said they had a red tail with a broken wing, I figured it was probably a mild fracture—something we could work with. When they delivered the bird, however, his right wing from the wrist down was lying beside him in the box. He’d hit a power line and it amputated the “hand” and cauterized the wound at the same time.

Federal law allows for wing amputation at the wrist, and he was a well-fleshed first-year bird who willingly ate a mouse for me (because I can’t stand the thought of a bird dying hungry), so I began mulling over the complicated process of applying for an education permit as I continued his exam. BUT...he also wasn’t standing. Could have been stress or trauma, but when I picked him up, it was immediately obvious his right hip was shattered, too, and there was no neural response in the fight leg or foot. That couldn’t be fixed. So although it hurt like hell to do it, I euthanized him.

The very next day, a mature red tail with an open wing fracture came in and also required euthanasia, as did as a pre-fledgling mourning dove whose wing was broken right in the wrist joint after a fall  from the nest during a storm.

And let me tell you right now that anyone who says euthanasia gets easier over the years is a bald-faced liar or has no heart. If anything, it gets harder. But all too often, a release from suffering is the only release we can offer these birds...

YES! All six barreds were finally released midweek, when the rain predictions for the next three days were low-to-nonexistent.

There’s a mix of release videos and post-release photos below; I didn’t try for six release vids. That wasn’t gonna happen with these birds. Honestly, I’m surprised any landed close enough by for post-release photos. They were ready to skedaddle!

The grackle was also released and, because Nature abhors a vacuum, the very next day a pre-fledgling blue jay came in. He’s already progressed from contentedly sitting in the nest to perching.

The vireo has officially fledged but refuses to attempt self-feeding yet. His flights aren’t great and his perching skills need a little work, as well. He’s also in near-perpetual motion, so getting decent photos of him is nigh impossible. These are the best of a week of attempts.

The crow is testing his wings now but refuses to attempt self-feeding. Corvids can be slow about that.

The juvie screech is looking utterly adorable. Sorry, still no pix of him doing his upside-down “bat-screech.” He hops back to the bottom of the box every time I try...

The two adult screeches have totally opposite reactions to the camera, as you can see below.

Another week should be enough to let the vultures start roaming the yard. They’ll remain in the mini-pen till then. One pen requiring intensive cleaning is enough, thank you—and as much as I love the rascals, they take messy to a whole ‘nother level...

And finally, a housekeeping note: There will be no update next Sunday, July 4.

Technically, it’s not really an early start, as hurricane season officially begins in June; it’s just that usually Georgia doesn’t see a lot of wind or rain from tropical storms or hurricanes till September and later. So this current wind and rain we’ve had going on since yesterday, courtesy of TS Claudette, just feels early. And it’s resulted in a couple of intakes.

Mid-morning a caller reported a downed crow she was pretty sure was a juvie. Yep, he’s pre-fledge, just slightly, based on his wing feathers. She saw no nest or adults around, so no telling where he came from. But he’s safe at LWR now, and y’all KNOW how I love a crow...

Sir Crow was followed by what appears to me to be a vireo, possibly yellow-throated, found this morning  in the rain with no parents or nest to be seen. He’s alert and vocal...except when he’s napping...

The barreds’ release was postponed last week, as we knew from early in the week this weather system was in the making. This week also looks to be a washout, but we may see sun toward next weekend so these birds can “get gone.”

The grack is looking really good, eating some on his own, and flying well; he’s close to release and might be releasable by the end of the week—we’ll see...

The screeches are all doing well, adult and juvie alike. Junior has decided it’s fun to hang upside down from his box; apparently he missed the memo that he’s a screech and not a bat...Haven’t managed any photos of his antics yet, but I’m trying! The adults just hate me, that’s all.

And the vultures continue to grow apace. In another few weeks they’ll be feathered enough to allow them to just roam the yard, freeing up both flights, one for the screeches and the other possibly for the crow, as he is pretty close to a fledgling now.

Still swamped with editing but it’s slightly more manageable this week. And we even managed a few releases over the past couple of weeks!

The grackle, blue jay and both cardies were released, as was the red shoulder. While there’s no release video, I did manage a quick post-release photo of the red shoulder.

We also had a couple of short-term guests: a mourning dove and a flicker who both had slight concussions but were good to go within a few days.

Yet another grackle came in, a nestling. Within the past week, he’s matured beautifully and is perching—well, most of the time.

In older residents, the barred owls are good to go as soon as we have a few days with low rain chances—although no one is complaining about the rain; we desperately needed it. There are still six barreds, but I was lucky to get five in one shot; they don’t tend to cluster together too much these days.

I finally managed new photos of the adult screeches.

The juvie screech is looking great, too.

And then we have the adorably goofball vultures—just look at the difference in their feather growth over the past couple of weeks!

Quite a few intakes, releases, and the usual baby season insanity, so let’s dive right in...

The great horned owls were released Monday evening; as y’all can see from the release videos below, they wasted no time heading deep into the woods.

The brown thrasher and phoebe were released late in the week—no photos or video of their release.

Early in the week, a nestling cardinal came in, cat-attacked. I started him on meds and he seemed to be doing really well but died overnight.

Then a nestling grackle came in. For y’all who may not remember, grackles are among my favorite birds. The babies are awkward, ungainly-looking things; their voices aren’t pretty by a long shot...but they’re just so sweet. And they do grow up to be gorgeous adults.

Shortly after the grackle, a nestling blue jay came in, most likely dog-attacked. Dog saliva isn’t as deadly as cat saliva but there’s the risk of crushed bones so I wasn’t sure what internal injuries this fellow might have, but he was a very lucky little fellow. Again, most of y’all know I utterly adore corvids and blue jays are in the corvid family, so...look at this sweet baby!

By the end of the week, the grackle and jay were perching happily together.

Then this as-yet mystery hatchling came in. Birds this young don’t always do well in rehab, but I remain hopeful. So far he’s holding his own.

And the week ended with two pre-fledge cardinals who were NOT happy campers on arrival. They’ve since settled down a bit. Apparently their nest was blown out of a tree in a storm a couple of counties away.

A recently fledged red shoulder came in, emaciated and weak, and couldn’t even keep a slurry down. He died within 24 hours, despite regular small feedings that he nearly immediately threw back up. His throat was clear so I don’t suspect frounce, but he could have gotten into some sort of poison.

And a recently fledged osprey was quite literally DOA. The folks who brought him said they heard him call out and thrash around shortly before reaching LWR but rigor had already started setting in when he arrived only a few minutes later.

With the great horneds’ release, the barreds moved into the raptor flight, where late this week they all miserably failed a live prey test. I mean, totally failed—ignored the live prey altogether...We’ll try again later.

The formerly nestling screech is now a fledgling screech who just started totally self-feeding yesterday.

The adult screeches remain sulky and pissy—pretty typical screeches, in other words. No new photos of them.

No new photos of the fledgling red shoulder, either, because he’s bouncing off the walls and needs to be in a flight pen, but the mini-pen is occupied by the vultures, who are quite happy to have more room to move around. Look at the feathers coming in on those wings!

No, that’s not a mistake; sometimes headlines are just not forthcoming from my tired brain. Today I just think instead of spring fever I have early-onset summer malaise.

ANYway...on to the birds...

LWR had two new intakes last week: a nestling that I’m pretty sure is a mocker and a brown thrasher.

The nestling was found on someone’s front porch—no injuries but also no nest in sight and the homeowners either had outdoor cats themselves or had free-roaming cats in their neighborhood. The bird was started on antibiotics on intake, just in case we had a cat-attacked baby. Thus far he’s doing well but such young birds do have a tendency to appear to be thriving and then just crash, so we’ll see...

The brown thrasher is a fledgling and under normal circumstances the rule of thumb is to leave fledglings alone for their parents to finish their jobs. However...the callers indicated this bird had a broken leg—was dragging it behind him and couldn’t perch. Obviously, this called for intervention.

On intake, a quick exam revealed the leg was, in fact, NOT broken. The poor bird’s body was a series of massive ruptured air sacs, and one right at his hip had forced his leg straight out behind his body. As a reminder, birds have air sacs throughout their bodies; those and their hollow bones contribute to their ability to fly. When trauma—a cat attack or a fall from a nest—occurs, these air sacs can rupture and the escaped air migrates to the skin surface, forming what look like air-filled blisters called subcutaneous emphysema. If the “blisters” aren’t in locations likely to cause the bird problems, they can just be left alone and will eventually deflate on their own. This poor fellow needed intervention, though, so I manually deflated his “blisters” and within an hour he was able to perch again, as his leg was no longer pushed out into an awkward position.

Typical sweet brown thrasher, he’s adjusted well to his new digs.

He was joined by the phoebe, who’s now perching and fluttering those wings as hard as she can, but she hasn’t attempted flight yet. Bless her little heart, she's not the most photogenic phoebe I've ever had--every photo of her seems to be at an awkward or unflattering angle.

The great horneds are slated for release early this week; no photos of them from last week, as they’ve been completely uncooperative. Hopefully we’ll have good release videos next week.

The barreds will move into the large raptor flight once the great horneds are out; they really need the extra space to build up their flight muscles before their release in a few weeks.

Once the mini-pen is empty of barreds, the vultures will go in it. They’re starting to pin out on their wings and tails!

The red shoulder is proving to be a high-strung, picky eater so he’ll stay inside until he’s self-feeding consistently.

The adult screeches are showing more signs of life now that they can hear the nestling screech calling, and sometimes it sounds like one of them is attempting soothing sounds toward him; he’s not self-feeding yet, though, so I’m reluctant to place him in with them. Below is his typical pose when not demanding food. Again, for those who may not remember, young owls just sorta fall forward face-first to sleep. The progression below is: a) Eyes open as he senses his box open; b) Looks up at me like “WHAT?” c) “Go away; I’m sleepy.”

And a final note: In an ongoing effort to “convince” me to pay for features I don’t need and will never utilize, Weebly keeps “relocating” blog comments awaiting approval. I’ve found their latest hiding spot and approved all pending comments, and tried to at least briefly respond to each one.

Nah, not much of a size difference there at all, right?

This little hummer nestling came in Tuesday after having been close to 24 hours without food. He was weak and lethargic but ate well, pooped normally and seemed to perk up considerably by lights out, so I had high hopes for his survival.

Sadly, he died during the night. I was really hoping, given his overall improvement after intake, that he had a chance...

The nestling phoebe who came in the same day, however, is thriving, although she doesn't look like it here; she was raising her little butt up to poop over the side of her nest!

And just today, this sweet little screech came in after falling some 40 feet after an apparent rat snake raid on his nest. There don’t appear to be any injuries; he cast a pellet while en route to LWR, which is a good sign his parents had fed him recently, and he ate well on arrival. However, he’s not pooped yet and he’s a bit lethargic, so...we’ll see what the night brings...

The woodpeckers and house finch were released and wasted no time skedaddling.

The adult screeches are still sulking big time about being back inside—I mean, sit-in-the-corner-with-your-lips-poked-out sulking. (Okay, stop being so literal; I know birds don’t actually have lips—it’s a figure of speech. Yeesh!)

All six barreds are finally perching!

The great horneds really need to pass the live prey test so I can release them and move the barreds into a larger flight. The Three Stooges seldom perch near each other anymore; I’d walked in to feed them and startled them into occupying the same perch at least until I left the flight.

If the red shoulder didn’t have the standard red shoulder mouth (I mean, he only shuts up at night!) I’d swear he was a Coop, because he acts slightly psychotic. As you can see...

And the vultures, although you can’t see it in photos yet, are starting to feather out on those stubby little wings. I made the mistake of giving them a favorite vulture treat last night, and they didn’t eat it all before lights out. When I walked into the rehab room this morning, my sinuses were cleared and my eyes purely burned and watered.  Oooh, it reeked, for hours after I cleaned up the leftovers... They won’t get that treat again till they’re in an outside pen!