Monday morning’s x-rays at Smalley’s Animal Hospital showed what vet Peggy Hobby and I agreed was a fixable fracture, and Bob Sargent, head of Georgia DNR’s eagle program, had already arranged for UGA in Athens to take the eagle if it was treatable, so we set about finding transportation. One of the LWR stalwarts, AJ Rogers, stepped up to transport the bird to Athens and had him there before 4pm Monday.

The week slowed down after that, with no new intakes and only the red shoulder and barred owls currently in care.
The red shoulder is a goofball who’s still working on the self-feeding thing. But he does like to ham it up for the camera...

And the barred trio are still in the mini-pen; there’s a minor addition I want to place in the main flight before moving them into it, and my editing schedule (you know—my paying job) was too hectic last week to get it done.

The goal is to get the barreds into the main flight this week and the red shoulder into the mini-pen...if the stubborn rascal will consistently self-feed...

Bald eagles always lead, not because I’m particularly fond of them—y’all know my opinions on the ill-tempered, aggressive, unpredictable “just vultures with good PR”—but because people are a bit obsessed with ‘em.

ANYway...yup...first eagle of 2023...he was spotted Saturday morning by Good Samaritan Kim Beck of Dodge County, who had the good sense to leave the bird alone and call the authorities. Game wardens Evan Nobles and Robert Stillwell chased the HBC bird through the woods for quite a spell before capturing him. For the record, even if a raptor is incapable of flight, it can usually run pretty darn fast and hone in on nearly impassable thickets to shelter in. So these intrepid game wardens deserve HUGE kudos for their perseverance.

The eagle has some road rash, a raw spot on his right wing, and a fractured right wing—how bad, we don’t know yet; x-rays are on the schedule for Monday. If the wing is fixable, the bird will then most likely need to go to Carolina Raptor Center in NC, as Auburn is still not taking birds.

The red shoulder continues to mature nicely, despite hitting a picky-eating phase. Actually, what he’s hit is the stubborn teen phase, leading to multiple discussions on taking it or leaving it when it comes to his finicky eating habits. Despite this, he’s managed to hit 520g (18.3oz) this week, so he’s not allowing himself to starve! He's ready for the mini-pen once he starts reliably and consistently self-feeding; right now it's hit and miss.

The adult red shoulder was released; he spent almost a full minute sitting on the glove screaming at me, even after I turned off the camera and put it away, planning to put the mouthy rascal back in the box and try again another day. THEN he flew away, well into the woods, into one of those thickets where I couldn’t even spot him. But hey, at least I got video of him screaming at me to share with you, right?

The adult barred owl wasn’t as lucky. His head tilt never fully resolved itself but I placed him in the main flight to see what he could do. He flew in tight circles, landed on the ground, and began spinning like a top before falling on his side. Obviously, this was not going to resolve for survival in the wild, so he was humanely euthanized.

The barred twins are ready for the main flight, so they’ll be moved to their new digs this week.

And today colleague Charydi Gambill delivered a young barred owl found by the roadside in Pulaski County. He’ll join the twins in the main flight.

Baby hawks of all species pretty much look the same, so rehabbers go by weight, eye color (sometimes), leg and foot structure (for some species) and, if they’re vocal babies, by vocalizations, to nail down exactly what species a downy baby is. So based on weight, etc., my colleagues and I were pretty sure we had LWR’s hatchling hawk labeled correctly...

Yeah, umm, about that...seems that as the rascal matured into a pre-brancher, we all began second-guessing our first guess; as colleague Steve Hicks is fond of saying, with downy hawks we always know their last name; we’re just unsure about the first name. And our “baby red tail” is actually a baby red shoulder!

This is based on skinny legs and toes, dark eye color, rusty-looking feathers on the shoulders, and a weight that’s pretty much plateaued at 480g (a pound, give or take an ounce).

And what’s so funny to me is when game warden Rodney Horne texted me about him back in April, I initially told him it was most likely a red shoulder, but then we all started theorizing about what he “might” be...

ANYway, the red shoulder continues to mature beautifully, although he has hit that developmental stage where he just looks scraggly—an awkward teen!

I’ve started offering bits of food for him to learn to self-feed in between hand-feedings; so far he gives it the same perplexed look he did the low perch I placed in his box. He’ll figure it out...eventually...

The adult red shoulder recovering from the wing fracture is flying fairly well but not well enough for release yet. Maybe another week or so...

A second adult red shoulder came in Friday, unable to move his legs. We’re trying meds for the weekend, with some slight improvement, so it might be just nerve inflammation. If the improvement slows, x-rays are in order, although pelvic fractures don’t always show in x-rays. We’ll see.

The adult barred owl with the lingering head tilt still isn’t fully recovered but is very clear he’s not happy at being confined.  Sorry, bud, only two flights at LWR and both are currently occupied!

And the brancher barreds are just nosy goofballs!

The red tail’s growth is nothing short of amazing, y’all. As of this morning, the little rascal weighs 395g (13.9oz)—recall, if you will, his intake weight was 44.9g (1.5oz). And his feathers are coming in! And he’s standing, and toddling around his box!

In case the past two weeks didn’t make it crystal clear, I’m thoroughly besotted with the no-longer-so-wee one and immensely enjoying watching his progress. And here are the photos to allow you to share that progress:

We also had three releases yesterday, after nearly a week’s delay due to high winds. All three great horneds gained their freedom! (Despite the very bright sky, it was actually 6pm when they were released, two hours before sunset, which is the standard practice when releasing nocturnal raptors.)

The osprey’s wing was shattered; he required euthanasia.

Monday THREE barred owls came in; only one is still with us.

Barred one came from Dublin; he was found in a parking lot, about to be in the road. His nest was in a pine tree in the parking lot, but the poor fellow had broken a leg on impact with the pavement. X-rays showed it wasn’t fixable and he was euthanized.

Barred two came from a nearby county and had been kept illegally and fed a crap diet since Easter Sunday. On Monday morning he apparently jumped from the table where he was being fed the crap diet and broke his leg—in this case, due to MBD, metabolic bone disease, a calcium deficiency caused by an improper diet.  Had he been at LWR earlier or at least fed a proper diet, the distance from an average table to the floor wouldn’t have caused a great enough impact to break his leg. It was also unfixable and this poor baby also required euthanasia.

The third barred is an adult I honestly didn’t think was gonna make it. His eye was filled with blood, but that was the least of his problems; the impact when he was whacked by a car left him severely stargazing—his neck was badly twisted. Surprisingly, he’s almost back to normal now and eating quite well.

A fourth barred came in today, with an open wing fracture that required euthanasia.

With the great horned releases, the main flight opened up for the red shoulder. It’s too soon to tell if that wing healed well enough for flight; by the end of this week, we should have a better idea if he’ll be able to fly properly.

And the brancher barreds are in the mini-pen, where they sit and glare and posture threateningly at me when I feed them.

The red tail nestling doesn’t even look like the same bird, and his weight will attest to his growth: he’s at 279g (9.8oz) as of this morning! Remember, his intake weight was 44.9g (1.5oz). He’s more alert and active and even started tucking his head—sometimes— to sleep last week!

So again, y’all’re just gonna have to tolerate a photo overload of this gorgeous downy red tail before we move into anything further from last week. (Hey, I did take pity on y’all—you’re only getting a few of the over 300 photos—from last week alone— of this not-so-wee one!)

In other news, an adult great horned came in Friday with his left eye swollen shut. Nothing is broken and the eye is clear, so it appears he just got his bell rung, but good.

The fledgling great horneds are good to go; we lost one last week when he apparently flew into the back of the flight and broke his back. That would appear to be the most plausible scenario, given that he was well-fleshed, alert and aggressive that morning and lying spreadeagled and dead on the ground that evening. And yes, it sucks, but birds sometimes do stupid stuff...

The red shoulder is ready to be in a flight as soon as one opens up. Yeah, that’s pretty much the same pose he’s offered every week for the past month...

The barred owls are also ready for a flight, again as soon as one opens up. They’ve also grown like little weeds!

And this afternoon an osprey, most likely a late hatch last year given that his feet and legs are still blue-tinged, came in with a left wing injury. The tissue around it is still too swollen to be able to determine if it’s actually a fracture, but the swelling is mid-bone, so that’s promising, at least.

Every rehabber has his or her favorite critter to rehab, and raptor rehabbers are certainly no exception. As most of y’all should know by now, my personal favorites are red tails and screeches, neither of which have been frequent guests at the LWR B&B lately.

But at the moment, this rehabber is in hog heaven (look it up if you’ve never heard the expression) with a less-than-week-old downy red tail. Oh baby, indeed!

Monday afternoon game warden Rodney Horne texted a photo of a tiny downy raptor, asking for tentative ID and making sure the inn had room. He followed up with a call to provide further info. Seems landowners saw the tree the nest was in fall, and the nest itself, in their words, “exploded” when it hit the ground. They rushed over to see if anything had been in the nest and found two tiny babies, one dead from the impact and the wee one Rodney was calling about, and contacted him for help.

Upon arrival, the wee one was obviously VERY wee—still had his egg tooth and weighed 44.9g (1.5 oz)—approximate hatch weight for baby red tails, although his down color threw me off and I actually called colleague Kathryn Dudeck at Chattahoochee Nature Center to see if she’d ever seen a downy hawk whose down was a dirty gray. For a few panicked moments we both feared the baby was our national bird (whose name I don’t utter for fear of jinxing myself), but research on both our parts led to the relieved conclusion that my first guess had been right—this was a baby red tail, probably only 24 hours old.

Baby has, in the six days since his intake, gained 60g; as of this morning, he topped the scales at 104.9g (3.7 oz).
And now, before we move to the remainder of the update, enjoy the gloriousness that is a baby red tail...

In other news, the adult barred owl was released, and the teen who found him, brought him to LWR and picked up back up for release kindly sent a video of the release.

With the main flight vacated, the great horneds moved into larger digs.

The sharpie then went into the mini-pen, from which he was released yesterday. I allowed a self-release for him, propping the door open and letting him choose when he was ready to go. Within an hour, he’d flown the coop. The photo below is from before he regained his freedom.

The red shoulder is likely to be the next occupant of the mini-pen, as soon as his wing has had time to fully heal.

The pre-Easter baby barreds have a while yet before they can be moved outside, but look at the progress they’ve made in the 18 days since their intake!

And yet it is...just days before Easter these tiny barred owl nestlings came in after the snag they were in was cut down. Look at those sweet little downy babies!

And here they are a week later...

They grow like weeds!

The great horned branchers are in the mini-pen awaiting the adult barred owl’s release so they can move into larger digs.

The adult barred is good to go and his finder is aiming at picking him up this afternoon for release back where he found him. We have a week-long window of low/no rain predictions, after a week of rain every other day, so the timing is perfect for his release.

The sharpie will move into the mini-pen once the great horneds have vacated it.

And the red shoulder still has a few weeks before we can even consider moving him into a flight. His wing fracture hasn’t had time yet to heal.

Only one intake last week, balanced with one release—which was a nice break after the previous week’s great horned influx.

The intake was an adult red shoulder with a wing fracture. He was brought to a falconer, who took him to his vet for x-rays and then alerted LWR, sending the x-rays with the bird. The wing has a fair chance of healing for flight, but he needs to eat consistently, at the moment, his eating habits are all over the place—ravenous one day and then not touching food for two days...we’ll see...

The barred owl who’d been at LWR the longest was released. Again, the camera was perfectly focused on the bird and then decided to go all abstract mid-release.

The second, more recent, barred is now in the main flight; he has some soft tissue damage but his flight has improved over the past week. As with the just-released barred, he just needs time. In the photo below, you get a side view of the tail-end of a threat display. His wing isn't drooping; it had been spread out to make him look bigger and intimidate his perceived enemy--in this case, me.

The sharpie has graduated to a perch in his box now that I’m (relatively) sure he’s not gonna do anything stupid to screw up his healing wing.

And the great horneds continue to grow apace. This photo was while their main box was being cleaned. They were NOT happy campers—oh, the hissing and beak-clicking that ensued! They’re about a week away from going into the mini-pen.

There will be no update next Sunday, April 9; I’ll be spending Easter Sunday with my family.

The brancher great horneds flooded in last week, along with a couple more barreds. It was an...interesting week, to say the least.

The singleton great horned was joined by THREE “sibs” in one afternoon. Two of the three came from Henry County; the third came from Bibb. Attempts were made on the third to convince the property owners to allow renesting using a laundry basket tied to a tree, but according to the Animal Control officer who picked up the bird, they refused. So all three ended up at LWR to make a quartet. They’re a bit too young for harmony, so a career on the road as a gospel group is off the table...They’re quite a photogenic group, though.

A fourth great horned brancher came in Friday from Jefferson County, with a broken wing. The x-rays showed what would have been grounds for immediate euthanasia in an adult bird, but vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital and I decided to consult with Carolina Raptor Center to see if their avian vets thought it was fixable, given the bird’s young age. Sadly, they reported that the proximity of the fracture to the joint and the shortness of the bone ends precluded pinning it surgically and recommended we go ahead and euthanize. And if you think euthanizing an adult bird sucks, let me be the first to tell you euthanizing a baby sucks even worse.

The concussed great horned from a couple of weeks ago was released. The goal with adults is always to release them back in their home territory but so many of the adults LWR receives are found “on I-16” or “somewhere on 441” or the like that it’s frequently difficult or impossible to do so. In this case the finders knew he’d come from their property and were delighted to pick him up and release him. As the video they graciously shared shows, it was a beautiful release!

The sharpie x-rays showed a fractured ulna and “hand.” Peggy and I agreed that since neither fracture was displaced, he should have a good chance at healing for flight. The ulna fracture IS pretty close to the joint, but not so close it should freeze the joint.  Thus far, he’s a fairly calm patient—unusual in accipiters, but I’m certainly not complaining!

The concussed barred owl who favored his left wing still favors it a bit but is hopping from perch to perch in the mini-pen. He’s headed to the main flight this week.

Thursday afternoon an adult barred owl came in, emaciated and lethargic. There were no apparent injuries, and given his behavior and the risk of avian flu, I quarantined the bird. He remained lethargic and refused food, which isn’t unusual for the first 48 hours or so after a head injury, but when he started having small seizures, one after another, I opted for euthanasia.  I don’t suspect avian flu, as infected birds don’t usually last 48 hours; it looked more like he’d gotten into some sort of poison.

And Thursday morning a young man called with a barred owl he’d found by the roadside on the way to high school. He skipped his morning classes to bring the bird to LWR—after alerting his teachers of his activity. I commend this young man for his actions; he gives me hope for the future. His bird was also concussed with no other signs of injury and will go into the mini-pen once the current occupant moves to the main flight. And the young man has already been back in touch to check on the bird and ask if he can release it back where he found it when it’s ready to go. We’re a week or so away from that, but again, that would be the ideal scenario!

LWR had three new intakes this week, all most likely related to our weather, which issued a firm reminder that, true to the old wives’ tale, there will always be cold snaps until Easter.

Monday saw an adult barred owl and an adult screech come in. The barred favored his left wing and was concussed out of his gourd. However, by Wednesday he was alert and by Saturday morning, he’d figured out how to get out of his box and fly through the rehab facility, so into the mini-pen he went, where he still favors that left wing a little but is making great progress.

The screech had somehow managed to get in the vent of someone’s cooker, where he apparently spent the weekend; upon the person’s return from out of town, he found the bird after hearing a commotion in the cooker. Upon intake at LWR, the screech was alert, aggressive and a little on the thin side. He ate very well Monday night but didn’t touch his food Tuesday night, which wasn’t especially concerning since he’d eaten three mice the previous night and raptors in the wild don’t always eat every day. But Wednesday night, he died. All I can figure is exposure to some sort of chemicals in the cooker.

Saturday afternoon a first-year sharpie came in, rail-thin and with a fresh ding on his right wrist; he’d been down for some time before that, though, based on the shredded tips of his tail feathers. He didn’t eat at all and was quite lethargic Saturday but was much more alert and ate eagerly this morning.  Given that his dinged wrist felt a bit crunchy during his intake exam, the goal at this point is to get x-rays to see what’s going on there.

The adult great horned is flying and should, if his progress continues, be ready for release by the end of this week or early next week. When I go in the flight, though, he still prefers to hit the ground and try to intimidate me with a truly gorgeous threat display.

And the nestling great horned continues to grow and inhale mice. He’s also started wing-flapping, which means he’ll pretty soon need a larger box to have room to fully exercise those massive wings.