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!

Yup, what used to be an every three or four year occurrence now is a nearly-every-year event—and sometimes a couple of times a year.  This one came from Burke County and was seen hitting a power line. His wing was pretty messed up. I got the call about him from DNR late Wednesday, and they told me they’d have him to me early Thursday morning, so I immediately contacted vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital to alert her to an incoming bald eagle. I then contacted volunteer transporters Joy and Doug Daniels; Doug was available to transport the bird to Auburn’s Southeastern Raptor Center.

DNR arrived right on time with the eagle. I didn’t even do a cursory exam; loaded him up in the car and let Peggy know I was en route. Once at Smalley’s we examined the wing more closely and x-rayed it. There were no fractures but extensive soft tissue damage...and maggots. Peggy treated for the maggots, we weighed him—7 lb, 15 oz—and then boxed him back up and I took him back home for Doug to pick him up and head to Auburn. They’ve not updated their website to include him yet, so no updates since his arrival there.

The same day the eagle came in, a fish crow came in with a massively bruised and swollen wing. I was pretty sure it was broken but it was still such a fresh wound that I couldn’t tell how badly. At the moment, it’s looking like a joint fracture, or pretty close to the joint. He’ll need x-rays early in the week to confirm.

And that night, Joy and Doug once again proved they’re worth their weight in gold by picking up a nestling red shoulder and delivering him to LWR. He quickly let me know the next morning that he was around and hungry. Red shoulders are...ummm...quite vocal. About everything.

And then this sweet little nestling of as-yet undetermined species came in after his nest was blown from a tree in high winds and his three sibs killed. Unfortunately he was covered with the inappropriate diet his finders fed him all night.

Three things here, y’all:

1. Most birds don’t eat at night.
2. DON’T feed birds unless under the direction of a rehabber.
3. IF you feed birds, clean them up! Would you allow a human baby to have food all over its head, eyes and mouth? Then WHY would you allow a baby of any other species to marinate in its food?

We’re still in the cleanup phase; it has to be done a little at a time so the poor baby doesn’t get stressed or chilled. But he does look somewhat better now and is gaping and eating well for the moment.

As for older guests at the LWR B&B, the great horneds are pretty much ready for release as soon as they pass the live prey test.

The barred quartet all finally started perching and with the red shoulder intake, the two younger barreds had to go into the min-pen, as well, where the smaller of the two hid behind his larger sib, who gave a pretty impressive little threat display before settling down a bit. They're still not perching.

The woodpeckers and house finch are pretty much good to go; no photos of the finch this week, as she won’t be still long enough these days.

Also no new pix of the screeches, as they’re doing nothing but sulking after being brought back inside to allow the barreds to go into the mini-pen.

The vultures, however, are just as cute as ever!

Yep, two more nestling barred owls came in early in the week. The tree their nest was in fell and there was initially some concern that they might be injured, but they’re just fine. Thanks to volunteer transporter Joy Daniels for picking them up late at night and her husband Doug for getting to me the next day. They make a good team!

The adult barred who came in Monday wasn’t as lucky; his wing was trashed beyond repair and he was euthanized humanely.

It wasn’t a good week for songbird nestlings, either: Of the five that came in, only two are still with us. A late-nestling house finch was DOA, as was a small warbler of indeterminate species, a fledgling titmouse and a grackle. The poor grackle had a serious pelvic fracture and I debated whether, since he was young and his bones were still growing, it might be fixable but he died within hours of intake, rendering my internal debate moot.

The two survivors are still iffy, as they’re hatchlings—and I do mean hatchlings; they’d probably just hatched when some jackass homeowner trimmed his trees and dumped the branches at a trash collection center in a neighboring county. Because he even made a mess of that, the woman working the center went to clean up the limbs he left on the ground and found these two babies with remnants of their eggshells. She spent the day trying to locate a rehabber and then had a friend bring them to LWR. Based on the eggshells found with them, I’m fairly certain they’re cardinals. Thus far they’re doing well but hatchlings are very fragile and prone to do well for a day or two and then crash. So...we’ll see...And just let me add, on a very personal note, there’s a special place in hell for anyone who’d deliberately dump helpless babies like that, after destroying their home.

The original barred quartet are now in the mini-pen; the screeches had to come back in for a while so the barreds could have room to spread their wings.

These are photos of the screeches before I moved them back inside.

The woodpeckers are growing like weeds.

The house finch is perching now but refusing to self-feed just yet.

The great horneds are still not quite ready for live-prey testing, but we’re getting there.

And the black vulture babies remain utterly adorable. And greedy. I believe they give the great horneds a run for the money in the “bottomless pit” department!

But there were no releases scheduled, and we did need the rain. Just maybe not all three inches all at once...

The vulture babies are growing like weeds; they’ve slightly more than doubled in weight in the past week, from 124g (4.4 oz.) and 156g (5.5 oz.) last week to 256g (9 oz.) and 341g (12 oz.) this week. They’re more alert for longer and growling and flapping those stubby little wings...Just adorable!

Late this week, a nest of three woodpeckers came in; while their feathers haven’t come in enough to state with 100% certainty, they look and sound like red-bellies to me.

Saturday’s torrential rain did NOT please the great horneds, not at all. It was their first experience with rain and while they do have a blind to take shelter from the weather, they seemed to prefer sitting in the rain and looking angry.

They were nice and dry this morning, though.

Of the mixed species nestlings last week, only the house finch survived. He’s looking really good and perfectly content to sit in his little nest. House finches are pretty laid-back little birds with sweet temperaments, as a rule.

The barreds continue to mature nicely. The barred trio is now doing some limited self-feeding; the older barred has been self-feeding for about two weeks now.

The screeches are honestly starting to look nonreleasable. I do have some placement options if that turns out to be the case, but I’m still hoping for eventual releases.

And the mourning dove released week before last paid a brief visit around mid-week. She’s looking good and seemed quite content.

A fourth young great horned came in Tuesday, making four great horneds and four barreds, along with some other not-so-common but always adorable babies—read on!

The fourth great horned is technically a brancher but he’s reluctant to fully self-feed and really on the skinny side, so he’ll remain inside for a little while longer.

The day prior to his arrival, two nests of Carolina wrens came in. One nest, five hatchlings, had been without food for over 24 hours by the time they arrived; two were DOA and the other three didn’t survive the night.

The second nest, four older babies, lost two within three days; the other two seem to be doing well.

Saturday a young nestling probably-phoebe came in; all the sibs were found scattered on the ground dead. This one had such bad bruising on his belly and took so long to finally poop that I really didn’t hold out much hope he’d survive the night, but he’s gaping and peeping and pooping today. He’s sharing a nest with the Carolinas.

Today a nestling house finch came in after falling from what his finders described as a nest 25 feet up in a tree. He’s also sharing a nest with the Carolinas and probably-phoebe.

The mourning dove and female red-phase screech were released; the male red phase refuses to leave and the gray phase male seems to have soft-tissue damage. As I’m about to need the mini-pen for the barred owls pretty quickly, the two screeches will end up coming back inside when the barreds need to go out.

And on the topic of barreds, they’re doing great and growing nicely.

The great horneds in the raptor flight, aka the Three Stooges, are eating well and flying beautifully. Their landing/perching skills, though, are painful to watch. It’s a cacophony of hissing and beak clicking when I go in to feed them, and the older of the three has learned to do an impressive threat display. His first attempt was a bit lacking but by week’s end he had it down quite nicely.

And finally, this week’s cherry-on-the-top intake is...

...wait for it...

...two baby black vultures! I mean, baby-baby. Intake weights were 124g (4.4 oz.) and 156g (5.5 oz.). They literally eat two or three bites of food and pass out. But they’re already, at this young age, giving me that cocked-head assessing stare: “We got your number, lady, and you are SO done when we get a little more mobile.” Yeah, vultures are smart, smart birds. Let the shenanigans commence!

LWR received four new owls this week, all barred owls.

The most recent barreds were all nestlings. The century-old tree their nest was in fell. The callers reported the tree trunk was over a pond and the babies were in a cavity over the pond. The tree had fallen the previous afternoon or night, but they didn’t discover the babies till the following day. When they arrived at LWR, their little bellies were empty (unlike other birds, owls have bellies, not crops), so the parents had not attempted to feed them in the downed tree. They’re eating well and doing great here at LWR.

A brancher barred came in a couple of days before that. He’d fallen and while the finders could see his sib in the nest, no adults ever came down and their dogs were starting to take an interest in him. When he arrived at LWR, he purely stunk. He reeked of death, making me suspect he may have branched too soon because of either a dead sibling or a rotting prey carcass in the nest. The finders said his sib was out of the best but perching when they left but reported the next day they’d seen the parents around the remaining sib. He doesn’t smell now and he’s self-feeding so that’s always a welcome break from rodent slicing and dicing.

The great horned trio are now in the raptor flight after the red tail’s release earlier today.

The red tail had a gorgeous release. For a change of pace, we released him over the hay field but he banked and flew back toward the pasture. And the crows were quick to notice and harass the poor fellow, who could’ve easily had a crow snack had he wanted to. Y’all, I’m so proud of this bird—he’s the one who came in unable to stand, flare his tail or spread his wings, and just look at him now!

All three adult screeches are in the mini-pen now. The “older” red phase was quite dramatic in his facial expressions at having company.

The red phase female keeps a permanent look of sheer panic on her face, poor baby. I’m sure she’s still traumatized by her experience of being trapped in the cavity with her destroyed eggs for six hours.

The gray phase just hates everybody. While he’s holding his head up properly now, he refuses to perch or attempt flight. I think his balance is still off.

And the mourning dove is still being stubborn about self-feeding.

Of course, it wasn’t all babies and releases; wildlife rehab seldom is. LWR had two hummers come in. One died within fifteen minutes of intake; the other seemed to have much better prospects but died overnight.

A young adult male osprey came in after hitting a guide wire. His right wing was shattered just above the wrist and vet Peggy Hobby and I agreed that euthanasia was the most humane course for the bird. He also had a broken toe that had healed in the wild and was developing bumblefoot (basically a pressure sore) on it—see the circled area on the foot photo.

And an adult great horned came in, quite literally blind in one eye and couldn’t see out of the other. His left eye was milky and inflamed, with a dilated and unresponsive pupil, and his right pupil was also dilated and unresponsive. Because having an adult great horned is always good to provide an example for the young ones, I talked with colleague Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends Raptor Rehab about using this bird for that purpose but we both agreed given the condition of his eyes this would be unfair to the bird, as he couldn’t see to eat—and therefore couldn’t really serve as an example to the young trio, either. He was humanely euthanized.

As an aside, those of you who’ve commented on the website in recent months may have noticed I haven’t approved the posts or responded. Weebly has stopped sending notifications when someone comments, and they hid the pending comments quite well in their last update, so I just found where they placed them. Your comments have now been approved and posted but I’m not going back through three months of comments to reply to each of them. Now that I know where Weebly’s “improvements” relocated things I’ll resume replying in a timely manner, though!

Great horned owls and screeches,  that is.

Great horned Number 3 came in April 1, after rains and high wind the previous night. She’s a bit older than the other two doofuses and, having been in the wild longer, a bit more aggressive—she hasn’t figured out yet that at LWR nobody has to fight for food. But the three of ‘em together...Lord love ‘em, great horneds are fierce hunters, but that’s about all the neurons fire for.

Here’s Number 3 on intake:

And here are the Three Stooges together, along with close-ups of their gorgeous little faces.

This one is my favorite—taken with my phone camera because I was about to feed ‘em and turned from picking up the forceps to see this.

Number 3 is actually an early brancher and ready for the raptor flight, but she’ll wait till her new sibs can go out there with her.

And of course, the red tail has to be released first, too. Next week looks gorgeous—ideal for releases. (Knock on wood!)

The red phase screech’s release may be delayed a bit longer, as I’d like to put him and the gray phase together for a bit first.

The gray phase is doing much better and will, as indicated above,  go into the mini-pen with the red phase next week.

The third screech, a red phase, came in tonight.  The finders had knocked over a snag without seeing her nest, trapping her inside with three broken eggs—and that breaks my heart. Three screeches that’ll never hatch...When they started cutting up the snag, she wobbled out and seemed disoriented, so they brought her to LWR. She’s stressed and traumatized beyond belief, poor girl, but nothing is broken.

The nestling mourning dove has feathered out beautifully; now if he’ll just figure out the self-feeding thing...

And a second mourning dove came in with severe neck trauma. I really thought on intake that he might be “fixable” but the next morning, this is what he looked like, and when I tried to feed him, his little neck was so twisted he couldn’t swallow properly. He was humanely euthanized. It never gets easier but it’s all too often the only “release” we can offer the severely injured.

Hope everyone has a happy Easter tomorrow!