In my family we’ve always said spring doesn’t actually arrive till after Easter, which is VERY late this year, so no matter what the thermometer tells you right now, there’s more cold weather in store. Hopefully we won’t have any late freezes after songbirds have eggs and/or babies in the nest.

This was a fairly slow week, with only one intake. The long-shot barred will go back in for x-rays in the next couple of weeks, and the red tail still refuses to fly—he keeps that wing tucked tightly to his body, which makes me think it’s soft tissue damage rather than nerve damage, like a tendon that healed too tightly and now he can’t extend the wing. I was hopeful being in the raptor flight would encourage him to stretch the wing and thereby flex the tendon but he may require fairly intensive PT to see if there’s a chance of his regaining flight capability. We’ll see…
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The sole new intake was a feisty black vulture whose wing fracture had healed in the wild. Black vultures are smaller than turkey vultures, and their sense of smell isn’t as well-developed—you can see that by their smaller nares, or nostrils. So they usually follow turkey vultures and are aggressive enough that they can often run off the larger vultures to feed. Smart rascals, huh? I keep tellin’ y’all vultures are highly intelligent!

Given his very apparent good health—he was rambunctious and well-fleshed, and his feathers were glossy—and the fact that there was new feather growth on the wing, I opted to see what he’d do in the old deer pen. I’d initially planned to just hard-release him, but should he have proven unable to fly, lemme tell ya right now, vultures can run REALLY fast…and I wasn’t about to try and chase him down. So I opted for the old deer pen instead. I’ve used it before to test vultures when the raptor flight was occupied, the theory being that if they can fly out of the deer pen, they’re good to go. It took him less than five minutes to take his leave—I walked into the house for the camera and he was gone when I went back out. I have no doubt he’ll be just fine.
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And just a reminder—next weekend, Feb. 15-18, is the Great Backyard Bird Count.  You don’t need any special equipment or to be in a group or a specific location—even a city park will do. You don’t even have to list all the birds you see or hear, if you don’t recognize the species.  As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s the easiest bird count out there to participate in, and it’s fun, besides. I encourage y’all to give it a try.

 ​Yay! The Coop was released Saturday! And yes, it’s normal to be happy about a release, but with Coops it’s more like ecstatic. Why? Coops are accipiters, the high-strung, predictably unpredictable nutcases of the raptor world. My greatest fear while he was in the flight pen last week was that he’d fly into the wall and break his fool neck—yeah, Coops are known for brilliant stunts like that. I literally tiptoed up to the raptor flight each morning and held my breath until I heard movement inside. So I’m pretty sure I was happier than he was at his release, although he was pretty darn happy himself. Photos below are in the raptor flight.

​There are no post-release photos, as he took off low and gained altitude as he turned into the trees and disappeared—if you look closely at the video, right after he turns, you can see him lift on the right of the screen, and then he’s gone.

The long-shot barred owl continues to eat well and, if he’s very, very lucky, he’ll heal for flight. Given the displacement of those bones, which you saw in the x-rays a couple of weeks ago, it’s really iffy. No photos of him this week—I mean, he’s sitting in a crate with a perch. How many photos of that can ya take?
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The red tail is in the raptor flight now. The right wing isn’t drooping like it was but he doesn’t want to fully extend it and he’s only doing short hops and low, short flights. It’s got to be nerve or tendon damage, as his x-rays were clear. We’ll see; I’m hoping being in the raptor flight will encourage him to start using that wing properly.

​And the sole new intake, the first for February, was a barred owl found by the roadside in a neighboring county. His left wing had an open fracture that was still bleeding when he arrived at LWR several hours after he was spotted and caught.   As a refresher, federal regs do not allow for wing amputation above the wrist and only then if the bird will be placed as an ed bird, as he’d be nonreleasable. Barred owls are probably the most common owl in Georgia—they’re certainly the ones LWR receives in greatest numbers—so educational facilities throughout the state have all the barreds they need. He was humanely euthanized and the photos below taken post-euthanasia.

​Just a reminder—the Great Backyard Bird Count is Feb. 15-18 this year. You can visit http://gbbc.birdcount.org/ for more details. I encourage y’all to give it a try; it’s one of the easiest bird counts to participate in because of its flexibility—you can count every day, one day, one hour—whatever fits your schedule. Can’t get much easier than that, right?

And that’s a pretty accurate summary of the past week!

The cardinal wasted no time skedaddling when he was offered his freedom—always good!
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The Coop is bouncing off the walls—no, literally, he’s slamming himself into the sides of his box, which is another reason it’s best to house some rehab birds in cardboard boxes. In anything harder, he’d do some damage to his feathers and possibly his paranoid little Coop brain. We’ve got nasty, cold weather predicted for at least the first part of this week, though, so his little feathered butt will remain indoors for another few days.

​The barred owl and red tail are also impatient, but the red tail’s right wing still droops at the shoulder. Since x-rays week before last showed no fractures, it would appear there’s something neurological going on. Time will tell…

​The barred, of course, is a long shot. We knew that going in, with a displaced, already-attempting-to-heal wing fracture. It will be several more weeks before we can make an informed decision on his fate.

And the sole intake last week was another adult red tail, in a situation that, quite frankly, pisses me off to no end. People called on Wednesday: hawk in front yard, clear open fracture on leg. An open fracture on a leg isn’t good, but it’s not necessarily a death sentence. I tell them to box up the bird and get it to LWR, and they agree to do so. Wednesday afternoon…no bird. Wednesday night…no bird. Thursday…no bird.  Honestly, I’ve seen birds with leg fractures who couldn’t be caught because they could still fly quite well, so since there was no word to the contrary, I guessed that was what had happened: the hawk had flown away when the callers tried to catch it.

Friday, a volunteer transporter called to say a mammal rehabber (who’s terrified of me and won’t communicate with me directly—long story) in a neighboring county was going to pick up a hawk with a broken leg. Hmmmm….what are the odds?
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Another volunteer transporter picked up the bird and got it to me about dark; apparently the mammal rehabber was told the idiots with the bird had placed it in the back of their truck and fed it hot dogs for two days. When we opened the box, the hawk, a mature male red tail, had an open leg fracture, mid-bone. The exposed bones were already drying out and dying; the flesh around them was black. And he had no neurological response at all in that foot.  There was no humane option other than euthanasia. And what makes me so angry is if the callers had gotten the bird to me when they originally said they would, his suffering could have been ended two days earlier. Maybe not a huge amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but I cringe at the thought of an animal suffering needlessly for two days because idiots think it’s neat to toss him in the truck bed and feed him hot dogs and can’t be arsed to do the right—the HUMANE—thing and get the bird to a rehabber.

All photos were taken post-euthanasia.

And before anyone asks, no, the leg could not be amputated. Federal regs clearly prohibit that, and for good reasons: first, amputating the leg would mean a nonreleasable bird—raptors in the wild need full use of both feet in order to be effective hunters—so he’d have to be placed as an ed bird somewhere. Red tails, for all their majesty, are fairly common birds, so it’s hard to place them as ed birds. Second, with all his weight on one leg, the hawk would be prone to bumblefoot—pressure sores—on his remaining foot. He’d spend the rest of his life at risk for or being treated for these sores, because he’d have no way to shift his weight from one leg/foot to the other.

And yes, I know birds survive in the wild after traumatic amputations in nature. It happens. But usually these are smaller, lighter birds, most often songbirds or smaller raptors, and it’s usually only the foot that’s missing, so they have a stump to alleviate some of the pressure on the intact foot.
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The takeaway? The usual: GET INJURED/ILL/ORPHANED WILDLIFE TO A PROPERLY PERMITTED REHABBER ASAP. DON’T WASTE TIME! If its injuries are so severe as to preclude rehab, we can at least offer it release from suffering in the form of humane euthanasia.

Last week felt like a preview of baby season, except all intakes were, of course, adults. Busy, busy! I suspect the brief period of decent weather we experienced had people outside more, hence the rescue of birds that otherwise might not have been found or received help.
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The first intake of the week was an adult male cardinal with a massive eye infection of some sort. Initially, based on the finder’s description, I feared “finch eye,” mycoplasmic conjunctivitis, which is highly contagious to other birds. When the cardie arrived, though, it was obvious this was some other type of infection, so I started meds immediately. Below you can see the progress he made. He’s good to go now but between rain, high winds and drastic temperature drops, his release has been delayed for a few days.

Then we had four intakes in one day—typical for baby season but very unusual for winter.
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First thing in the morning, a juvenile Cooper’s hawk came in; he’d face-planted a window, probably in hot pursuit of his songbird prey. The songbird likely veered at the last minute; the Coop hit the window, unable to swerve away as quickly as the songbird. Coops are highly maneuverable birds, but this fellow was rail-thin, so desperation likely influenced his hunt. At any rate, he went in for x-rays and while he had no wing fractures, vet Peggy Hobby and I are pretty sure we see a coracoid fracture. As you know by know, these are hard to spot even on an x-ray, so we’re not 100% positive. Doesn’t matter; a little cage rest and some time to get some meat back on those skinny bones won’t hurt him a bit—and he’s eating like there’s no tomorrow!

​Then we had a barred owl with a wing fracture that I was convinced on intake had already started healing. X-rays sort of confirmed that—the bone is displaced but attempting to form a callus, and the muscles seem to be trying to pull the bones back into alignment. There's no instability at this point, believe it or not, so we cannot realign the bone ends--they're already "set" as they are. This may not end well, but Peggy and I agreed it was worth giving the bird time to heal to see what happens.

​When the cat-attacked mocker came in, his wing felt broken at the shoulder, which x-rays confirmed. I forgot I hadn’t taken a photo of him till after we’d euthanized, so all we have for him is his x-ray, with both fractures circled.

Once again, people, repeat after me: KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS.
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This gorgeous adult male red tail showed no signs of injury on intake, and x-rays also show nothing, but his right wing droops at the shoulder—a telltale sign of a coracoid fracture. So he’s also on cage rest. 

​And yesterday, one of my local game wardens delivered a great blue heron. Apparently the bird had been down since around Christmas but no one felt the need to contact LWR or DNR to seek help for the poor thing till he was too weak to stand. And he was starvation-thin on intake. Sometimes herons will refuse to stand when they’re stressed so I took him into the raptor flight to see if he’d try to stand. He lay on the ground glaring at me and attacked the camera, which I took as a good sign—he was still feisty. So I took him inside and mixed a thin slurry to start him eating. He kept it down but died three hours later anyway—too little, too late. He might have had a chance if he’d been brought to LWR a month ago…

​Finally, although this wacky weather might not indicate it, spring is on the way. We already have henbit and Whitlow grass blooming!

​And a postscript—bundle up tonight and get outside to watch the full lunar eclipse! It starts around 10:30pm ET and ends around 2am ET, with full eclipse around midnight. Those aren’t exact times, but they’re good enough for government work, as Daddy used to say. Even if you just pop in and out to catch “highlights” it should be worth seeing.

It appears that every weekend in Georgia this winter is gonna be wet; it’s overcast and nasty-damp today. Good sleepin’ weather for people, cats and dogs; lousy hunting and feeding weather for wildlife. The songbirds are cleaning out my feeders within hours of me filling them. Makes me worry about nesting great horned owls, as this is their breeding season…

At any rate, we don’t control the weather, so all we can do is react to it—and take advantage of the clear weather to schedule releases.

As you’ll recall from last Sunday’s update, the red shoulder found near the interstate right before Christmas was flying well in the raptor flight. By Wednesday, he was soaring from one end to the other and back without a pause, indicating his readiness for release.
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So I got him boxed up and off we headed to a suitable release site, where he bolted from the box, barely giving me time to get a not-great video of his release.

I lowered the camera and started walking toward where he landed, aiming at some post-release photos, and he let me know quickly that wasn’t gonna happen—spread those wings and took off deeper into the woods, and I lost sight of him. Now I consider that a good release!

Aside from his release, it was a quiet week. About the time I get used to occasional quiet, slow weeks, baby season will kick in, and there’ll be six months of nonstop insanity, so I’m enjoying each quiet week to the fullest.
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Besides, I still have those annual reports to get done… 

Hope everybody enjoyed their New Year’s celebrations. Now that 2018 is behind us, it’s time for rehabbers to begin working on those dreaded annual reports. Some of y’all organized types or those who have staff to help might’ve done this in “real time” throughout the year but most of us will spend January getting all the paperwork in order. Oh joy…can’t escape paperwork, can you?

As for 2019, it’s off to a fairly normal start. We had intakes right through New Year’s Eve and then a slight break before the next one, along with some releases.
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Let’s start with the releases: the barred owl was rarin’ to go and only the weeklong downpour kept him from being released much earlier. He had no fractures; the eye, while still a bit cloudy, was looking good and he could find his food, so he was a “go” waiting on the weather to cooperate.

Same for the mourning dove—while his tail feathers weren’t as long as I would’ve liked, he escaped his box three times last week as I was freshening food and water, so as soon as the skies cleared I placed him in the songbird flight and opened the escape hatch. Two hours later, I went back out to check, and sure enough, he was long gone.
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The New Year’s Eve intake wasn’t as lucky. The victim of a dog attack, this poor adult mockingbird was missing most of his right wing and his entire right leg, along with having a severely damaged left eye. He was humanely euthanized. All photos were taken post-euthanasia.

​Midweek, a juvenile turkey vulture came in. His finders’ description didn’t sound promising, and when they arrived with the poor fellow, my forebodings proved accurate. His left wing had been broken and healed very badly in the wild, at an impossible angle—the original fracture had been at or near the wrist, and the wing had healed with the wrist rotated backwards and facing up. The poor fellow would never fly again.

When his finders asked about his prognosis, I was honest. The bird would require euthanasia. Both got very emotional and said repeatedly they wished they’d never brought him and they should have kept him in a pen in their back yard, etc., etc.

Leaving aside the illegality of possessing wildlife without a permit, let me make a few observations.

First off, why on God’s green Earth would anybody think that a life in a pen would be a happy existence for a bird used to riding the thermals thousands of feet in the air? Second, that wing had to be causing massive pain still, as he had begun gnawing on the flesh of the opposite wing—what kind of life is that for a bird? Third, people need to stop viewing euthanasia as “the enemy.”  It is a TOOL in the rehabber’s kit, a means of giving wildlife the only release that is sometimes possible: a release from suffering.

And let me be clear on this: I will always, ALWAYS do what’s best for the wildlife, and if that hurts your little feelings, oh well…I’m not a licensed PEOPLE rehabber; I’m a licensed WILDLIFE rehabber. If I can’t return the wildlife to the wild and it’s not a suitable candidate—through injury or temperament—for an educational animal, I will euthanize rather than subject that animal to a lifetime of misery in a cage. I submit to you that people who think a lifetime of captivity and pain is preferable to humane euthanasia are incredibly selfish, thinking only of themselves and not the best interests of the wildlife.

Okay, off my soapbox…for this week…
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The red shoulder is in the raptor flight. He still cants his tail to the right slightly but seems to have no issues flying. This week is supposed to be gorgeous, so we’ll see how he improves and aim at possible release late this week or possibly early next week.

Our area of Middle Georgia has experienced enough rain that I’m threatening to invest in scuba gear for use in my yard…and it’s not over yet. Rain’s predicted till the end of the week…And you watch, come garden-planting time and/or time for the crops to start sprouting, and it’ll be bone-dry. Reminds me of the old Jerry Clower joke about the fool who got elected to Congress (are there any other kinds, really?) and the first piece of legislation he introduced was a bill to move February between July and August, as “it’s a short, cool, wet month and we need the cooler weather and rain right about then.”

At any rate, the soggy weather has affected intakes for LWR, which have actually picked up over the past couple of weeks.
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First, the mourning dove from the pre-Christmas update was a very lucky bird; the x-ray showed the pellet passed straight through with no fractures. He still holds the wing at a bit of an odd angle, but we’re fairly confident it won’t affect flight when the poor bird’s tail feathers grow back in.

​On Dec. 17, two waterfowl came in, the first a great blue heron who showed no signs of fractures but was unable to stand and had no neurological response at all in his feet and legs.  He was humanely euthanized.

Later that same day a juvenile great egret came in, emaciated and with blood around his beak and one ear. He seemed fairly alert and since nothing appeared broken, the plan was to get him to Smalley’s for x-rays the next day, to see if maybe he had a lead sinker or something in his digestive tract that might be causing lead poisoning. He was standing with his head tucked for the night at lights-out and was dead the next morning—very frustrating…

​On Dec. 23, a family called about a bluebird that they’d found on the ground when their dog “pointed” it.  On arrival at LWR the bird, a male, was in bad shape. He had no visible wounds and no fractures but he was lethargic and his eyes were dull; he also refused to stand. He was medicated and placed in a donut with mealworms and water within easy reach, since he couldn’t stand, but he died overnight. My guess—and this is purely conjecture—is that a free-roaming cat attacked him and he wasn’t found in time for the meds to be effective. His finders did say the neighbors had free-roaming cats.

​Then, on Christmas Eve, callers reported finding a hawk in the middle of the road. They brought the bird, an adult male red shoulder, to LWR shortly after dark. He was concussed out of his gourd and reluctant to stand but again, nothing seemed broken. Subsequent x-rays confirmed no fractures, and he’s now attempting to stand and eat but is slow to flare his tail or spread his wings. Vet Jim Hobby and I suspect mild nerve trauma, as I’m seeing daily improvement. The goal now is to get him in the raptor flight as soon as the weather dries out a bit. (Yes, I know birds deal with the rain every day; however, I don’t wanna have to slog through the swamp that is now my yard to the raptor flight every day!)

​And today an adult male barred owl came in. He also appears to have no fractures but has a whale of a concussion: blood in beak, blood in right ear, right eye filled with blood. He’ll be headed to Smalley’s next week but for the next couple of days he’ll be kept dark and quiet and given pain meds to ease that pounding headache he must have.

​Hope everybody had a great Christmas and hope y’all have quiet or festive—whichever’s your flavor—New Year’s Eve. Fellow Southrons, hope y’all found those collards to go with y’all’s black-eyed peas, as there’s a weather-related shortage this year. Folks in Parts North, I don’t know what y’all’s traditional New Year’s Day meal is, but enjoy whatever it is!

…and there’s been slightly more stirring at LWR than in past weeks.

First off, the barred owl from last week didn’t survive the night; I really wasn’t surprised, as I suspected internal injuries on intake.
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Toward the end of the week a late first-year red tail came in. He was starvation-thin and, as the old folks say, “eat up” with frounce (sort of like thrush in a human baby but in the throat rather than the mouth.) His first 24 hours were on a thin slurry; the next 24 were on small bits of chopped up mouse—all while treating the frounce. He seemed to be doing well—was more alert, actually lunging for the food…and then, the morning of the third day, he was dead. And yes, it sucked. I really didn’t see that coming, as he seemed to be responding so well to treatment. 

​Yesterday an adult mourning dove came in. The volunteer who initially picked him up suspected he’d narrowly escaped being a Coop’s meal, given that he’s missing all his tail feathers. Made sense until the second volunteer (they “ponied” the bird to LWR) arrived with the bird and I was able to examine him. He appears to have a pellet lodged in his wing, right at the wrist. I won’t know for sure till we get x-rays, but I suspect it’s not a fixable fracture. This one won’t be reported to DNR or FWS, as it’s dove season and he likely was hit when hunters were “spraying and praying” into a flock of doves. Sloppy hunting but not illegal…

​And today people called about a bird that neighborhood children had apparently been harassing; their own children rescued the bird and took it home, whereupon the parents called LWR. It’s an adult great blue heron—no wing fractures, no leg fractures, able to poop well…but unable to stand. He has a fist-sized raw spot on his lower belly near his cloaca but there are no tears in the skin or anything. He can flail with his wings but he absolutely cannot stand. The raw spot has been treated; the inability to stand will have to wait till tomorrow for a vet visit to see if we can determine what’s going on.

There will be no update next Sunday; due to the work schedules of my niece and nephew, we’ll be celebrating Christmas on the 23rd, as they’re both off that day. So the next LWR update will be Dec. 30.
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Merry Christmas, y’all!

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for our local wildlife, with torrential downpours last weekend, cold temps in between, and more heavy rain and, in some areas of the state, snow, this weekend. Intakes have been low because people are just not getting outside to see wildlife in need; for the most part, they’re staying inside where it’s warm and dry.

That said, LWR had two intakes this week, a screech owl and a barred owl, both found in the road.
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The screech, a tiny red-phase male, came in midweek; he was found in the turning lane of an exit to the interstate. Upon examination, it was obvious he had a ruptured eye and at least one broken wing; the other also felt as if it might be broken. His stress poop, which should have been black, oily and smelly, was instead rust-colored. None of this boded well for the little fellow but he was fairly alert and even tried to preen his wings a bit, so I was hopeful I’d overstated the extent of his injuries.

​However, x-rays at Smalley’s confirmed my initial assessment: the left wrist was shattered; the right ulna was broken in three places, and the right eyeball was totally trashed.  

Obviously, the most humane option for this poor fellow was euthanasia. Given that the entire staff of Smalley’s shares my utter adoration of screeches, none of us were happy about the outcome but we also knew we were ending his suffering quickly and humanely.
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This morning, a barred owl, also male based on his size, came in after being found in the middle of the road several counties away. His right hip feels broken, and his finders attempted to splint his leg to stabilize it somewhat.  He has no neural response in his foot, though, and he also had fresh blood in his poop, in addition to the inside of his mouth being totally white—this indicates internal bleeding. None of this bodes well for the poor bird, but if he makes it through the night he’ll head to Smalley’s for x-rays, as well.

With the weather like it is—cold, wet and nasty—it’s hard for raptors to find food. They’re hunting near roadways because people toss their trash on the side of the road, attracting rodents. When the hawk or owl focuses on its prey and swoops in for the kill, it doesn’t see oncoming traffic; it only sees that potential meal. This is how they get whacked by vehicles. The bird may successfully capture the prey and get hit as it lifts back into the air, or it may get hit as it’s diving after the prey or chasing it across the road. Regardless, vehicle versus raptor seldom ends well for the raptor.
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What can you do? Aside from either not driving at all or driving so slowly that impact with a raptor would cause minimal damage to the bird—neither of which is practical or practicable—be alert when you’re driving. It’s not called defensive driving for nothing. If you’re alert and watching the sides of the roads you may be able to slow, stop or swerve to avoid hitting a hunting raptor. And for the love of all that’s holy, DON’T toss your trash, not even fruit or other foodstuffs, out on the side of the road to attract raptor prey to dangerous hunting areas. Keep a bag or box in your vehicle for your trash; it takes all of maybe 60 seconds to empty it at home or at a gas station. Those 60 seconds could mean the difference between life and death for a raptor.

In other words, a typical week for any rehabber at any given time...LWR had both an unexpected death and a much-anticipated release this week.
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Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: the red shoulder’s x-ray showed a fracture that should have healed perfectly, with no flight impairment at all. 

However, two days later, he keeled over overnight.  Some birds just don’t deal well with the stress of captivity, and that’s all I can figure was going on with him.
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The excellent news is that the red shoulder who’d been recovering from the wing fracture forever and was flying so beautifully in the raptor flight was released. No video, although I tried; he burst out of the box like he had a rocket booster on his tail. After some searching, though, I did manage to locate where he’d landed and get some pretty decent post-release photos.

All calls this week were from folks way out of LWR’s range and were referred to rehabbers closer to them. 
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And that, people, is the sum total of this week’s update!