LWR is now housing 20—yes, TWENTY—raptors of various species. My earlier joking comment about stackin’ ‘em like cordwood ain’t lookin’ so funny now, as they’re everywhere I look and the songbirds are tucked into corners where there’s not a raptor box. And just last week alone, another 17 birds came in… The inn is rather full at the moment, but we’re not hanging the “no vacancies” sign just yet.

I’m not even sure where to begin…

We did have one release last week, the big juvie female great horned. She was happy to go, and it freed up the raptor flight for the barred owl who’s been at LWR since January.

I honestly didn’t hold out much hope the barred would really fly again, given the severity of his wing fracture; even though it had healed, it still looked like an awkward mess on x-rays. To my delight, he’s actually flying well and will be released pretty soon here, to make room for some of the other raptors waiting in the wings…oohh, no pun intended…

And who’s waiting in the wings? Three adult screeches, two juvie screeches, an adult great horned, two juvie great horneds, two juvie barreds, four red shoulders and two juvie black vultures. Three adult barred owls are recovering from injuries that require cage rest at the moment, so they’re on the back burner for the raptor flight.  Still, I need a flow chart or something just to figure out priorities here…

At least the songbirds pay well together and can all be placed in the flight together. These are the four mockers and brown thrasher from last Sunday’s update.

I guess the logical approach for the update is by day of intake last week.

Monday an adult barred owl came in with her shoulder slit open. She’d been found in the road, so she probably whacked someone’s side-view mirror just right to rip the skin. Luckily for her, she had no fractures, but there was pure muscle exposed. Vets Jim and Peggy Hobby and I debated, as there was no way to suture or Dermabond the wound closed—bird skin is thin, anyway, and right there on the shoulder, she’d be constantly ripping it open again every time she moved. We opted for heavy meds, topical sprays and lots of prayer. Thus far she’s actually doing better than I expected.

Tuesday a fledgling cardinal came in; he was reported as lethargic by his finder but was fairly alert on intake. His eyes, however, looked weak. He ate really well for one feeding, then had to be force-fed the remainder of the afternoon.  Something just wasn’t quite right, and he died overnight.

Also Tuesday, a nest of five Carolina wren hatchlings came in. The finders had watched the nest all day without seeing either parent, and after a day of no food the hatchlings weren’t in good shape. Once they were warm, they eagerly took food and seemed to be digesting it properly, but all died within 24 hours of intake: two overnight and the remaining three by the next afternoon.

Wednesday another young great horned owl came in, this one from a colleague who specializes in squirrels. She saw him sitting in an open field on her way somewhere else, and when she came back he was still sitting there. When she got out to check on him, he didn’t attempt to fly; he ran, and not very fast. After she described his situation to me, I felt it was best to remove him from the field for his own safety.

Thursday a cat-attacked nestling grackle who’d been kept for 24 hours and fed cheap cat food, judging by the crap all over his face, came in. As a reminder, cat saliva contains bacteria that’re fatal to wildlife if antibiotics aren’t administered promptly. Twenty-four hours is the outside window for treatment, and in this poor bird’s case it was too late. He died within an hour of intake.

A cat-attacked mocker also came in Thursday, with what appears to be a broken shoulder. Smalley’s was closed Friday for a long weekend, so the mocker gets a reprieve till we get x-rays.

Friday an Eastern bluebird fledgling, also cat-attacked, came in with a broken leg. I honestly don’t think the leg is fixable, but we’ll wait for x-rays to be sure.

Are you seeing a pattern here, people? KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS. An indoor-only cat cannot maim or kill wildlife. If you care at all about the safety of the wildlife in your area, you will keep cats inside. I have two indoor-only cats. They’re perfectly happy to use the nearest window as their TV.

Saturday was a bumper-crop day, with 6 intakes in under 8 hours.

A barred owl was pulled from a barbed wire fence. The flesh is pretty ripped up and the right wing, which wasn’t drooping on intake yesterday, is drooping today. He’s another candidate for x-rays.

The people who brought the nestling robin deserve a medal for going above and beyond. The entire nest fell a week ago. Unable to replace it near where it fell, they sat it on a windowsill and placed the babies back inside. Within minutes the parents were feeding their babies in the relocated nest. For the next week, however, the runt of the litter kept getting pushed out by his larger sibs. And every day, multiple times a day, they placed him back in the nest. After a week of this, and seeing that he was behind his sibs developmentally, they gave up and called LWR. He’s a perfectly healthy, happy little fellow who probably hatched 24-48 hours later than his sibs, putting him at a developmental disadvantage. His rescuers said his sibs were ready to fledge; he is not. His wings aren’t even fully feathered out yet. But now that he’s not fighting older sibs for food and constantly getting kicked out of the nest, he should be fine!

Sadly, the nest of hatchling barn swallows who also came in Saturday were true orphans. Their finders said the parents were feeding the previous evening but the mud nest was shattered and the babies scattered on their porch the next morning, with no parents in sight. One baby had died on impact; another had obvious bruising and internal injuries. He died within hours of intake. Another died overnight. The sole survivor is struggling but I’m hopeful.

And rounding out Saturday, another mocker fledgling with a broken leg came in. His leg looks pretty trashed but I’m waiting for x-rays on him, too.

Today a mallard duckling came in with a totally missing leg. It was a fresh wound; probably a snapping turtle got him, poor baby. He was alert and trying to move around on that one leg, but realistically speaking, a duck cannot survive with only one leg. And federal regs also require the euthanasia of any bird with only one leg. He was humanely euthanized.

The black vulture babies continue to grow and eat everything in sight. I’m (only half jokingly) threatening to start collecting road kill for them.

The screech twins are starting to test their wings.

The red shoulder quartet is as mouthy as ever, and so melodramatic about their food—to hear them tell it, they’re starving to death. The 30-40 small mice or 15-20 medium mice they inhale daily tell a different tale, though!

The adult barred with the leg fracture is doing great; the wound has completely scabbed over and he continues to put weight on that leg.

The older of the juvie great horneds still under care is insistent that he wants out of his box, and he really does need to be in the raptor flight. I’ll probably put both juvies and the adult out there next. Maybe. There’re too many raptors vying for that same space at the moment; maybe I should do a raptor lottery to see who gets their turn next!

And I think that sums it up for the past week…Maybe I didn’t leave anybody out…

Last week’s sole raptor intake brings the total raptors at LWR to 18. Plus five songbirds. And two recent songbird releases still demanding handouts…
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Starting with the raptors, midweek DNR brought an adult barred owl found in the road. While his wings appeared to be fine, his right leg was broken and scraped raw on the back. He had his foot balled, often a sign of nerve damage in a leg fracture, but it was, of course, worth an x-ray to see what we had going on. Since he’d come in late in the evening, I stabilized the leg until the next morning.

​Lo and behold, the next morning he was flexing his claw and putting weight on that leg! X-rays at Smalley’s confirmed a pretty nasty break, but vet Peggy Hobby said since he was doing so well with just my stabilization, we’d maintain that, changing the bandages to prevent infection from the raw spot on the back of the leg.

He’s eating well; the raw spot has scabbed over nicely and, most importantly, he continues to put weight on that leg and flex that foot.

The songbirds who came in the day before and after the barred weren’t as lucky.
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A fledgling Eastern phoebe was seen dangling upside down from the nest; when her finders pulled her down, they discovered her leg had been caught in the nesting material. Sadly, this had happened while she was still a nestling and the lower portion of her leg was already black and withered from lack of blood supply. She couldn’t stand on her one good leg, so humane euthanasia was required.

​And an adult barn swallow was found in the road in a neighboring county, with no outward signs of trauma.  On intake, I suspected a coracoid fracture, as the bird favored the left shoulder a bit but I could feel no fractures. Again, since this was a late-night intake, the goal was x-rays at Smalley’s the next morning, but the swallow apparently had internal injuries and died overnight.

​Then someone called with a nestling songbird of indeterminate species, cat-caught. He’d taken it from the cat the previous night and got it to LWR late the next morning. HOWever…he’d been feeding the bird all this time, a mixture of water and dog kibble. Hard dog kibble. As soon as I took the bird from him, I could hear the click-breathing that indicates aspiration. The poor bird vomited water and bits of dog kibble for the entire two hours it lasted after intake, struggling for each breath. I started antibiotics immediately, but it was a lost cause. Birds, especially baby birds, have tiny lungs and it doesn’t take much to aspirate them, causing them to literally drown from the fluids that enter their lungs.

THIS is why I cannot stress enough NOT to feed a bird until and unless you’ve been given CLEAR, DETAILED instructions from a rehabber on a safe emergency diet, and NEVER attempt to give them water. No bird should have to suffer like this because of someone’s ignorance.
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A nest full of mockingbirds ended up at LWR after the tree their nest was in was cut down without anyone checking to see if there were any nests in it.  The people who cut the tree did at least call the game warden to see what they needed to do. Then they tried to get me to give them gas money to bring the birds to LWR…

As a reminder, LWR is a home-based rehab facility and receives no state or federal funding, i.e., no salary. Further, if I ran out to pick up every bird I received a call about, when would I care for the ones currently under my care? It is the finder’s responsibility to get any wildlife needing assistance to a properly licensed rehabber; we simply do not have the time and resources to pick them all up.
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And Friday night, people brought a nestling brown thrasher found in the road. There was no nest in sight.

The weather and my work schedule haven’t cooperated for the juvie great horned release; there was about a three-day window last week with no rain predicted but tight editing deadlines prevented me from releasing her. She’s not an unhappy camper, really, just aggressive and bored in the raptor flight. Fortunately, I was able to snag her live prey several days last week to further hone her skills and help alleviate her boredom.

The adult barred and all the others—the adult and brancher great horned, the brancher barreds, the three adult and two brancher screeches, and the half-feathered black vultures—waiting in line, as it were, for the raptor flight, however, are most definitely not happy.
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Speaking of the vultures, look at how they’ve grown!

​The two brown thrashers in the songbird flight did finally decide to fly the coop and are still hanging around for handouts. The one Carolina wren left in the songbird flight also utilized the “escape hatch” and quickly took up with a clutch of recently fledged wild Caros, so she only came for handouts one day.

The kingfisher died—no clue why. He was eating well, alert, aggressive…and then dead. I suspect it was sheer stress; he was most definitely NOT a happy guest at LWR.
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The brancher barreds and great horned are almost totally self-feeding now.

​The four red shoulders are also beginning to self-feed, which cuts down on the screaming fits quite a bit. Hand-feeding four mouthy red shoulders is truly a pain in the ear!

​And just look how the screech twins have grown! Recall, if you will, a mere three weeks ago, they were eyes-closed balls of fluff with their egg teeth still intact, and just look at them now! They’re also beginning to self-feed.

Apparently it’s gonna be a raptor-heavy year; at the moment, LWR has 11 owls—3 adult screeches, 2 baby screeches, 1 adult barred, 2 baby barreds, 1 adult great horned, 1 juvie great horned, 1 nestling great horned—2 still-mostly-downy black vultures, and 4—yep, FOUR—nestling red shoulders of varying ages…all still typically red shoulder mouthy, though.

As I type this, it’s after 7 pm Sunday—by which time I normally have the LWR weekly update done. HAH. Not this Sunday. This is the first time I’ve sat down since eating a quick dinner with my mother around noon—too many beaks to feed, phone calls to field, boxes to change…

Let’s start with the new raptor babies, shall we?
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May 2 a nestling red shoulder came in, all mouth and attitude. 

​And today, after storms all around us last night, he was joined by three additional nestlings, two sibs whose nest was destroyed and an “only” who narrowly missed being lawn mower fodder.

​A nestling barred owl was also unnested during last night’s storms.

​As for the older raptor babies, the vultures are now in a playpen (yes, an actual toddler playpen), as they’ve outgrown all the boxes I have and need room to stretch their wings. It won’t be long before they’ve outgrown the playpen, as well. Poor babies look a bit scruffy as their feathers are slowly replacing their down. Other raptors look kinda cute during this process; the vultures just make me shake my head and tell ‘em, “Bless your sweet, scruffy little hearts…”

​The screech twins don’t even look like the same birds! But look at those expressions—even as babies, screeches have had enough of your nonsense, thankyaverymuch!

​The nestling barred owl who had the eye injury is looking great; he has full use of that eyelid now, which is more than we expected. 

​The juvie great horned in the raptor flight has passed her live prey test not one but twice, both times with flying colors; she’s good to go as soon as the weather cooperates.

​All wasn’t sweetness and light at LWR last week, of course—never is. An adult brown thrasher came in Monday evening and died overnight.

​An adult barred owl was brought by a FWS agent, but he had an open fracture at the shoulder and a closed fracture on the opposite leg and required euthanasia.

The chipping sparrow was feathering out nicely and then keeled over last night…
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Two nestling Carolina wrens didn’t even survive long enough for photos, and of the “pet store” Caros, only one survived and is in the songbird flight now, along with four others—three who came in together and one who came in today. Today’s Caro is looking stressed to the max, so I’m hoping placing him with the others will ease his stress; otherwise I don’t expect him to survive the night. 

​Joining the Caros is this adorable little blue-gray gnatcatcher.

No clear shots of the Caros or gnatcatcher in the flight pen; they’re active little rascals!
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And the brown thrasher from last week’s update was joined by a slightly older thrasher, both of whom are also in the songbird flight.

The kingfisher is eating well but most definitely NOT a happy camper. Just in case he’s not releasable, I’ve contacted Flint Riverquarium in Albany, GA, and they’ve expressed an interest in placing him in their aviary of nonreleasable native Georgia songbirds. I hope that’s not necessary but it’s nice to have a plan in place.

The adult barred and great horned owls, along with the adult screeches, await their turns in the raptor flight; the plan at the moment is to place the adult barred out there as soon as the juvie great horned is released, and then get all the adults in and out as quickly as possible to make room for the babies as they mature.

Y’all. Really. Apparently saying there’d been a false start to baby season was all it took to open the floodgates. (Thanks a lot, Murphy; now go screw up someone else’s life for a while.) Last week was insane: 16 intakes—almost half the intakes thus far for the month—and it’s not May yet! If they keep comin’ in like this, I’m gonna have birds stacked like cordwood.

Sooo…where to begin? How to approach the insanity that was last week?

Let’s go chronologically.

Sunday’s cat-caught Carolina wren didn’t survive the night; as you know by now, they’re stressy little birds, and even though there were no obvious wounds and he’d been started on antibiotics, it was just more stress than his little system could handle.
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Monday an adult red-phase screech came in—long story short, the finder’d had the bird for SIX days, feeding her NOTHING but putting her outside DURING THE DAY and bringing her in at night, when she could have hunted. She was in baaaad shape when she arrived—on the verge of starvation; huge tick on the corner of one eyelid; refused to open her eyes or even raise her head…Quite frankly, I didn’t expect her to survive the night, especially since she was so weak and lethargic she had to be force-fed.

​Fast forward to yesterday, and just look at this gal now! I’m so proud of her!

Tuesday an adult male brown-headed cowbird came in, the victim of a mocker attack. Mockers are aggressive little snots on their best days; they’re downright vicious when defending a nest, and I’m betting the cowbird’s mate was attempting to lay an egg in the mockers’ nest. As a reminder, cowbirds don’t build nests, incubate their eggs or raise their own young—they lay one egg each in several nests and allow the poor birds whose nests they egg-dump in to raise the young cowbirds, often at the expense of the nest owners’ rightful babies. I call ‘em the welfare birds…

At any rate, while there were no external injuries, apparently they’d done some internal damage, as he struggled to breathe and didn’t survive the night.
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Also on Tuesday, two hatchling screeches came in after the snag (dead tree) their nest was in was cut down. They were only days old at intake—still had their egg teeth. Both fit in the palm of my hand together, not singly. As their little eyes are VERY light sensitive and they must remain in dark/dimly lit areas for the first few weeks of their lives, all the photos of them are without flash, so they’re a bit fuzzy…kinda like the babies themselves!

Here they are on intake, April 23:

​And two days later, April 25:

​Aaand two days after that, April 27:

They’re eating well, and as you can see, their egg teeth have fallen off now, one’s eyes are open and the other’s are starting to open—and I’m already starting to see hints of feather growth beneath that down!
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And also on Tuesday—nine of last week’s intakes were on Tuesday—a cattle egret with a broken wing arrived. Sadly, it was an open fracture, so euthanasia was the kindest option.

​The egret arrived in a “group transport” as a volunteer transporter made two stops on her way to LWR. Her second stop was our next intake, a nestling barred owl. The mammal rehabber he’d been taken to initially thought he had a stick jammed in his eyelid, possibly from his fall from the nest; my intake exam led me to believe it was a scab. But when cleaning and swabbing left it just as hard as before, I decided x-rays were in order. After looking at the x-ray, vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital took a closer look at the eye and realized what had happened is the actual eyelid was damaged and what we were seeing and feeling was the dead tissue where it had hardened after the blood supply had been cut off. It won’t affect his vision or chances for release, though.

​And the last four intakes for Tuesday were Carolina wrens, also with a backstory. In this instance the woman who found them called LWR, saying they were house finches, and then said she’d found someone to bring them, someone who claimed to “work with” me. What she’d done was take them to a pet store, where the clerk—who did NOT know me nor work with me—decided he’d take the birds home to raise himself. Y’all know what a mistake that was…when I found out, I called the game warden for that area, and I also called the pet store to inform them that DNR was now involved. Shortly afterward the chastened clerk delivered the birds to LWR. And they were, of course, the stress-death champions of the songbird world, Carolina wrens…

Surprisingly, three of the four are doing well; the fourth died this morning.

Wednesday, nothing came in, which was fine by me after nine intakes on Tuesday.
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Thursday morning, a fledgling phoebe with a nasty open leg fracture came in. It’s hard enough sometimes to euthanize adult birds; the babies REALLY hurt, so even though I knew what needed to be done, I wanted a second opinion. I texted a photo of the leg to Peggy, who agreed it wasn’t fixable. Phoebes are sweet little birds, and I was reduced to tears over this one, but he was euthanized. The photos of his leg were taken post-euthanasia.

​Thursday evening, an adult belted kingfisher with a wing fracture came in; x-rays Friday showed it was right in the shoulder, but it wasn’t badly displaced. Joint fractures usually freeze the joint when they heal, but Peggy and I agreed it was worth giving the bird some time to see how things played out.

​Thursday night, a cat-caught nestling brown thrasher came in. His rescuer heard him on her porch after dark and when she opened the door to see where the chirping was coming from, her cat rolled the bird. Since she was standing right there, the rescuer was able to shoo the cat away before he inflicted any wounds. Still, cat saliva is toxic to wildlife AND she didn’t know where his nest was, so he arrived late Thursday night and is on antibiotics and doing well. Except when I have to move him to change his “nest” paper, at which point he shrieks like I'm killing him...

​Nothing came in Friday, either, but there were two intakes for Saturday.  Midday, a nestling great horned owl came in. His rescuer saw two stray dogs corner him and intervened before he could be hurt. He’s not a happy camper but should be fine.

​And late yesterday, this little probable chipping sparrow came in after being found on the ground. He’s still on heat, of course, and it’s too soon to say for certain, but his chances seem good.

In “older” guests at LWR, the great horned in the raptor flight is really skillful at flying and perching; now she needs to pass her live prey test.  The first and second red-phase screeches need to be in the raptor flight to see if those healed wing fractures will allow for flight, but since raptors don’t pay well together, they can’t go in with the great horned. THAT is not the sort of live prey test I want!

The adult barred and great horned both also need to be in the raptor flight, again, to see if their healed wing fractures will allow for flight.

The house finch and cedar waxwing were released. To be honest, the waxwing was iffy based on x-rays, but when the rascal started getting loose and leading me on a merry chase all around the house every time I put his berries in or changed his paper, I decided he was ready to go.
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The vultures are feathering out nicely and self-feeding now, which is nice. Messy, but nice…

​So at the moment, LWR has ten—count ‘em, TEN—owls of various species (which of Georgia’s native owls am I missing, people? You should know this!); two vultures, three Carolina wrens, a brown thrasher, and a probable chipping sparrow…and the owls and vultures are eatin’ me out of house and home…and May, traditionally “hell month,” hasn’t even started yet…

After a sudden influx of babies the previous week, last week saw…almost nothing—at least, not babies.

First, the bad news—both sets of nestlings, the probable chipping sparrows and the Carolina wrens died, one set on Monday night, the second on Tuesday night. Both sets were alert, healthy, gaping and eating well, poop was normal…who knows? I expected the Caros to be problematic, as they’d been cat-attacked, but they were on meds, even though there were no obvious wounds. The probable chippers took me by surprise; I really thought they were doing well—and they were…until they weren’t, overnight.
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Early in the week, a grounded loon came in, found in the parking lot of the local hospital. It had rained the previous night, so he probably mistook the rain-wet parking lot for a body of water and crash-landed. Loons are designed strictly for the water or the air; their legs are set too far back on their bodies for them to walk on land. If they end up on land, as in a crash-landing of this sort, they use their wings to drag themselves along the ground. Luckily, this fellow didn’t even have road rash and was releasable the same day.

​However, the adult male downy woodpecker who came in after being found by the roadside wasn’t as lucky. His head was twisted at a godawful angle, called wry neck or stargazing, and I suspected it wasn’t treatable. He’d probably been sideswiped by a car; his finder said it was a residential area of town so the cars were moving slowly, but the right angle of impact, even on a slow-moving vehicle, can cause terminal damage to a small bird like a downy. He was started on a mild anti-inflammatory to see if it would help, but he died within hours of intake.

​Yesterday a young adult mourning dove came in after hitting a window the previous evening. The finder had let her sit in a box overnight to see if she was just stunned, but she was still groggy that morning. Another 24 hours of rest at LWR and she was rarin’ to go. No videos of the release; she didn’t give me time before she hauled butt!

And today, a cat-caught Carolina wren fledgling came in. There are no obvious injuries—no broken bones, no puncture wounds—but the poor bird is stressed to the max. He’s been started on meds but honestly, as stressed as he is, I’m not optimistic about his chances.

​The house finch is perching and actually flying quite well, as a couple of escapes in the house have proven, but she’s not self-feeding yet. She’s started to show an interest in the food in her crate, though, so she should be ready for the songbird flight sometime this week.

The cedar waxwing, while eating every berry offered, shows a decided preference for raspberries—go figure. I’ve actually never tried them on raspberries before, usually sticking to blueberries, blackberries and the like. No new photos of him this week, as he’s apt to try and flutter out of his crate—not good for a bird recovering from a wing fracture.
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The two screeches are…well, not meaning to be punny, but they’re a hoot. Big gal seems to think it’s her job to protect the smaller male, so this is what I see when I check on them:

​The female great horned is flying well and uber-aggressive; she just needs to pass the live prey test and she’ll be ready to go soon!

The two adult owls, the great horned and barred, are antsy but not quite flight pen-ready.
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The vultures are beginning to show lots of black under that down, and their wings are pinning out nicely. They’re also greedy little rascals—with crops almost bigger than their heads (meaning full), they’ll still growl and demand food that they then drop in the box and snack on later.

“Official” baby season, that is: the first nestling songbirds arrived last week, possible chipping sparrows, two Carolina wrens and a house finch.
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The possible chipping sparrows—I know I should recognize these babies, but I just can’t quite place the species—were found on the ground and the finders couldn’t locate the nest. One of the wee ones has a badly broken leg. At this age the bones are still fairly pliable and should heal quickly, but to be honest, it’s not likely to heal for proper function.

So why haven’t I euthanized? Simple logistics: his sib will fare better with a buddy.  Once they’re fully feathered and the sib doesn’t need a buddy quite as much, I’ll take the necessary action. And maybe I’ll be proven wrong and the leg will be functional. That would be wonderful; I’d be delighted to be wrong about his chances.

The Carolina wrens were taken from a cat’s mouth Friday. The rescuer had an uncommon amount of common sense for such a young person. Since he’s a student at UGA, he took the Caros to their wildlife clinic, where he was told since they had no apparent injuries, they wouldn’t take them. He argued that they needed antibiotics after being in the cat’s mouth—see? I told you he had an uncommon amount of common sense—and UGA Wildlife Clinic informed him they were too small for antibiotics. Ooookaaay, following that line of logic, a newborn human baby with an infection can’t be treated either, right? I mean, it’s too small…
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Anyway, the poor fellow then contacted a bird rehabber in a neighboring county, who wasn’t taking anything at all—right at the start of baby season, no less. And of the other people he called, I was the only one to call him back so the determined young man drove from Clarke County to Laurens County, a four-hour round trip, to give the Caros the best chance possible at survival, with the babies on heat and stopping every 45 minutes to feed them. (And don’t EVEN get me started on rehabbers who don’t return calls; there may be health or personal reasons for not taking in any birds, but it doesn’t take that much damn effort to create a voicemail message to that effect or call or text the person seeking help for wildlife and at least let them know you’re not taking anything at the moment. That’s just common courtesy.)

At any rate, the Caros are at LWR now, they’ve been started on antibiotics—yes, even tiny hatchlings CAN be properly medicated—and we’ll see how they fare; Caros are, as you may recall, notoriously stressy little birds. And the young man deserves recognition for going above and beyond. With that sort of determination and perseverance, I suspect he’ll go far in life.

Next up was a near-fledgling house finch. The person who contacted LWR about her (random gender assignment, as juvies for this species all resemble adult females) said the nest had inadvertently been destroyed during some sort of community clean-up day. Aside from being VERY hungry on intake, the sweet bird is fine. If you’ve never heard a house finch, pull up their species account and listen to that sweet, sweet voice. They’re actually native to the Western US and were brought illegally to the Eastern US to be sold as pets during the 1940s; to avoid prosecution under the MBTA, pet stores on Long Island, New York having  the contraband birds just turned them loose and as they’re birds who co-exist well in close proximity to humans, they quickly populated the East, as well, by the 1990s. They’re the birds you’ll frequently find in messy nests in your potted or hanging plants on your porch, and they are native to the US…just not originally the Eastern US!

​An adult cedar waxwing was found in the street in a city a few counties away, and when the finder called LWR, I suggested they give the bird a couple of hours to see if he was drunk (waxwings will eat fermented fruit until they’re literally too drunk to fly) or just stunned. When, after a couple of hours, he proved unable to fly at all, she brought him to LWR. His right wing was very swollen, so much so that I honestly expected the wing to be shattered. X-rays at Smalley’s the next day confirmed a break, but it looks as if it might heal for flight, so he’ll be a guest at LWR for a while as the wing heals.

​The vultures are growing like weeds; they’re in their third box in under two weeks. You can’t see it well in the photos yet but they’re getting little pin feathers on those stubby wings.

​The juvie great horned in the raptor flight finally decided to eat; she still hops off her perch to give me a gorgeous threat display when I walk in to drop off her food for the night.

​Both screeches went in for follow-up x-rays Monday. Screech 1’s elbow fracture is healing nicely; although Screech 2’s original x-rays were clear, the swelling at his elbow worried me, and sure enough, the follow-ups showed a fracture. The joint may’ve been weakened when he was sucked into the truck window, and subsequent flapping around, even in a confined space, led to a fracture. At any rate, despite these being joint fractures, both birds seem able to fully extend their injured wings, so we’re cautiously optimistic for eventual release.

​The adult great horned also had follow-up x-rays; vet Peggy Hobby at Smalley’s said to give him another couple of weeks on cage rest, then go ahead and place him in the raptor flight with the juvie gal and see how he behaves.

​The barred owl had his second follow-up x-rays and although the healing fractures look godawful, he can fully extend both wings and flap the injured one quite powerfully. He’s also on cage rest for another couple of weeks or until the great horneds are released, whichever comes first. We’ve hit that time of year when the raptor flight mimics a Depression-era flophouse, with scarcely a pause between occupants.

​And finally, x-rays of the osprey carcass showed he had indeed been shot. There was no sign of calcification on the radius fracture; that, coupled with the wrist still bleeding when he came in, leads me to believe he was shot pretty recently before he was brought to LWR. So the injuries alone can’t really explain his emaciation and quick death. I suspect he was already compromised in some way and the pellet wounds just hastened the inevitable through shock and blood loss. It’s doubtful we’ll ever know, though, as it appears that since he was shot, DNR will forego the necropsy and make their case based on the pellets lodged in the wings. Since shooting a raptor is illegal, this was reported to both DNR and FWS. Both agencies were provided copies of the x-rays, and DNR picked up the carcass for their investigation.

Last week was…interesting, to say the least. I’m not even sure where to begin…
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Let’s start with the comedy: two downy black vultures were rescued from an imminent dog attack midweek, so their new home is LWR. It’s been a looooong time since LWR has seen any baby vultures. I’d forgotten what utter clowns they can be—and these two are most definitely adorable little stinkers, in the most literal sense of the word “stink”!

​Also, on Friday DNR delivered a banded osprey. When I traced the band number, the bird turned out to be 20 years old, originally banded in New Jersey in 1999! He was emaciated and lethargic on intake, and had a wound on his left wrist that both the DNR wildlife tech and I thought looked suspicious. Add to that the fact that the people who reported the bird to DNR as downed in a field seemed very cagey, and the stage was set for possible illegal activity. 

Unfortunately, the poor old man succumbed to illness, injury, or just old age—or maybe a combo of the three—overnight. I’m still planning to get x-rays of the carcass Monday before turning the bird back over to DNR Tuesday, as they want to send it to UGA for a necropsy. We’re all, like the Elephant’s Child, ‘satiably curious about what actually led to this bird’s death after he’d survived 20 years.
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He’d be both the tragedy and mystery in the headline…

The young great horned is in the raptor flight. Owls have to be the most frustrating birds in the world when the young ones are first placed in the flights. It’s like in their dim little minds, they think, Oh, this isn’t my box; I can’t eat here, and they basically go on a hunger strike for several days. Our young female Einstein (HEAVY sarcasm there; owls are many things but bright ain’t one of ‘em) is still refusing to touch her mice…

Several birds are due for follow-up x-rays next week: Screech 1, the barred and the adult great horned. The plan at the moment is to take them in Monday when we x-ray the osprey carcass.
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And that about does it for this week—like you needed anything else after seeing those baby black vultures, right?!

If you’ll recall, the stated goal in last Sunday’s update was to switch out the first-year red tail and the brancher great horned owl this past week. Yeah, well…both are still where they were last week.  Stuff happens.

The great horned, aside from trashing her box every single night, is doing well where she is for the moment, and I wanted to give the red tail one more week because honestly, it’s not looking good for him. I suspect we’re dealing with soft-tissue damage that’s not going to heal, as he’s not attempting to fly at all, instead running away from me and then toward his food as I leave the raptor flight. I’ll probably call it, reluctantly, on him this week…
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Miss Pissy, however, should do beautifully once she’s in the raptor flight. She’s lost absolutely zero of her wild edge, hissing and snapping and lunging up at me even as I drop her food in her box.  I love it! (Yeah, raptor rehabbers are weird that way; we LIKE to see our birds full of piss and vinegar.)

​The screeches continue to mend. Screech 2, with no fractures but probably a bruised wing, should be okay to flight test this week. Screech 1, recovering from the wing fracture, will need a follow-up vet visit soon for more x-rays to see how his wing looks. They’re probably the most uncooperative screeches I’ve had in a while when it comes to photos. It’s pretty obvious they’d prefer to be elsewhere, too!

Both the adult great horned and the barred are nearly due for follow-up x-rays, too, so we’ll hope their fractures have healed well. The barred, if you’ll recall, is the long shot; his chances weren’t great from the outset but we wanted to give him a chance.

Finally, I’m not licensed for rabies vector species (RVS) and seldom take them in, as it means transferring them to a rehabber who is RVS-licensed. I usually just refer people directly to her. However, last Monday, I received two bat calls, one from the public and one from one of my local game wardens. Because I have a major soft spot for bats and because I knew I’d easily be able to transfer them to the RVS-licensed rehabber a few counties away, I agreed to take both. While both were supposedly en route I made arrangements to transfer the next day. The game warden showed up a few hours later, but the public caller never brought his and never responded to my follow-up calls. Given that the bat had been found grounded and apparently had a broken wing, I’m guessing that one didn’t survive to even reach LWR.
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The one the game warden brought had been found in a neighboring county and somehow ended up at a gas station in Laurens County. He could never get a straight story on exactly how that happened, and at that point the main thing was to get the bat away from the people who had it. On intake at LWR, the poor fellow, a little brown bat, looked rough but seemed active if badly dehydrated, which remained a problem; I simply could not keep him hydrated. But he remained active, so I was hopeful he’d be okay for the night and ready for transfer the next morning.

Sadly, when I checked on him the next morning, he was hanging from his makeshift roost, dead, as if he’d died in his sleep. (Yes, that’s soft screen mesh and masking tape to hold it on the box. Hey, sometimes ya gotta improvise.)

Let me issue a caveat here: while less than one half of one percent of the bat population is likely to have rabies, they ARE still considered rabies vectors and CAN contract the disease and spread it to you if they bite you—or at the very least, cost you a goodly sum in post-exposure vaccine expenses.

Often, grounded bats are already sick or dying, although sometimes a female still allowing her near-grown pups to cling to her will end up grounded from the sheer weight of her babies. If you see a grounded bat, DO NOT handle it without gloves—and I don’t mean thin exam gloves either; you need thick enough gloves to protect you from a potential bite. Bat teeth are so needle sharp that you might not even realize you’ve been bitten, so take the proper precautions.

As you should do with all wildlife needing assistance, place the bat in a secure cardboard box lined with a soft, clean cloth, then immediately call a rehabber to seek help. Do not offer it food or water, as this places your hands in close proximity to those tiny, sharp teeth. Let the properly trained individuals handle this.

Why am I harping on what should be common-sense measures? Because people often don’t exhibit common sense when it comes to wildlife, and if a bat should bite you because of your improper handling of it, your pocketbook may take a hit but the bat will lose its life, as it will need to be euthanized and its head sent in for testing for rabies.
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Don’t be the doofus who causes any wildlife to lose its life needlessly because of your improper handling of it. Take the proper precautions when handling any wildlife, and CALL A REHABBER for advice on how to capture, box and transport the wildlife to said rehabber or one of his/her colleagues.

Between the advent of spring and the full moon last week, it was just a crazy time—no further babies yet, but lots of injured adults.
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First, let’s update the conditions of the two birds awaiting x-rays as of last Sunday: the cardinal and the screech.
The cardie’s humerus was trashed, not the shoulder as I’d suspected. Despite his alertness and aggressiveness, there was no way for the bird to recover from that sort of fracture, so he was euthanized.

​The second screech was luckier: her x-rays were clear. She does favor her left wing a bit, but nothing is broken. We probably have a little soft tissue damage going on there, so she’ll stay confined for a while to give it time to heal.

As for the young great horned,  she’s ready for the raptor flight and will probably go out there this week. The adult great horned, the barred and the first screech, all recovering from wing fractures, continue to do well.

Early in the week, two more cardies came in, a male and a female. The male died overnight; the female was releasable after 24 hours’ observation. I tried for a video of her release but she shot out of the box before I could focus the camera and then disappeared into the trees, so…
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This gorgeous first-year red tail came in from a neighboring county, crammed into a box way too small, as you can see from the intake photos. His x-rays showed no fractures but he refuses to fully extend his  left wing. He’s in the raptor flight at the moment but will be brought back inside this week for the young great horned to stretch her wings instead.

​Early morning exercisers at the local hospital found a dead duck and an injured one at the pond. The injured duck, a female mallard, had a badly displaced fracture and was euthanized.

​A third screech came in from a vet clinic in a neighboring county. Both her wings had small fractures that were already showing early callusing, and she had an extremely cloudy right eye. Vet Peggy Hobby and I agreed the wings should heal with no problem, and we’d treat the eye and see how it looked as the wings healed. She was alert, aggressive, eating well…and dead the day after her vet visit. Not a clue why, as all the outward indicators were that she should’ve healed for probable release.

​And, of course, what week would be complete without another barred owl? If there are intakes any given week, you can almost bet one will be a barred. Unfortunately, this poor fellow’s wing was beyond repair; no x-ray was needed to see this was not something we could fix. He was euthanized and the photo below taken after euthanasia—you can clearly see the left wing is facing the complete opposite direction from the uninjured right wing.

LWR’s first baby for 2019 is a late nestling/early brancher great horned owl. She’s more a late nester than early brancher, as she’s not too interested in trying to perch at the moment. But she’s definitely female. This gal’s already, at approximately half-grown, as large as the full-grown adult male great horned who came in earlier in the week—got feet like gunboats, she does!
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The tree her nest was in was cut down by loggers. They said they normally try to look for nests but saw nothing until this gal bounced on the ground as the tree came down. Given that she did fall from the tree, I took her in for X-rays, as well, and hers were clear—no fractures. 

In the second video above, she was highly peeved that I was handling her to change the paper in her box—oh, the indignity!
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The adult male great horned who came in a couple of days before she did has a right wing fracture, right in the joint. It’s “hidden” in the joint so well that an initial intake exam left me convinced he was merely stunned, but when I tested him in the raptor flight, he couldn’t gain altitude. I suspected then we might have a coracoid fracture, as one of the signs is inability to gain altitude. His x-rays at Smalley’s, however, showed a broken elbow with early signs of callusing. The joint may freeze as it heals, but vet Peggy Hobby and I agreed it was worth giving the bird time to heal and see how it plays out. You can compare the circled areas on the right and left wing X-rays below to see the difference in the uninjured and fractured joints.

​The red tail whose release was delayed by inclement weather finally got his chance at freedom and wasted no time taking advantage of it.

​The same day the adult male great horned came in, an adult male barred also came in as a window-strike victim. He’d just been stunned and had no fractures—again, he was flight tested after overnight observation, and then released. He didn’t hang around long enough for post-release photos.

As an aside here, first, don’t worry, the house he flew over is empty. I generally don’t release near populated areas if it’s avoidable. Second, ideally, adult birds should be released back into their established territory, but when birds come in from “somewhere on the interstate” or other…ummm…less than locatable territories, rehabbers do the next best thing and find a suitable location for release.

And in a massive KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS rant, this adult male cardinal was “presented” to an outdoor cat’s owners by the cat. He has no tail feathers, the few feathers left on his wings are broken, his right shoulder is a bloody mess, and there's probably a shoulder fracture under that bloody mess. Believe it or not, he’s alert, active and eating, so he’ll head to Smalley’s tomorrow for X-rays to see just how bad the damage to his shoulder is. Fortunately, it’s early yet in the season, so it’s not likely he has a mate on eggs or babies in the nest. ​All this could have been avoided if the cat had been INDOORS.

​The long-shot barred and screech continue to heal; fingers crossed they’ll both be releasable. I still have serious doubts about the barred, but we’ll see.

​And just this morning, a caller reported that he’d had an owl fly into his open passenger-side truck window as he was driving last night—how weird is that? He said he heard a strange noise and thought something had come loose on his truck, but when he got home and picked up his coat, there was an owl on it. He put the bird in a box for the night and attempted release this morning, but it was no go, so he called LWR. We now have a second red-phase screech who appears to be a smallish female and who may have a wing fracture. She will also need X-rays tomorrow.