With all the pandemic panic, the pace remains slow at LWR, although that could change at any point this month as baby season kicks into high gear.
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The red tail in the mini-pen continues to do well. Another week or so, and I’ll probably move her to the raptor flight to test her wings. That left wing droop worries me, but it’s been nearly 10 weeks since her x-rays so any healing that’s gonna take place has already done so.

​Mid-week last week, an adult red shoulder came in with an open wing fracture which, as y’all know by now, is a fatal injury. He was humanely euthanized.

​A day later, a caller said they’d found four baby possums with their dead mother. It would be the next morning before they could get them to LWR, so I explained emergency feeding and housing requirements. Two of the babies died that night, before arriving at LWR; the remaining two, both females, weighed in at respectable 26g and 28g, above the cut-off weight for survival. I thought they had a pretty decent chance, as their weights were reasonable, their eyes had just opened, and they were eating well and active. Both died within 24 hours of intake, however. 

​Friday night a cat-attacked mourning dove came in, and she was stove up, as the old expression goes. Her intake exam had me wondering if letting the cat finish what it started would’ve been kinder to the poor bird. Still, I started oral antibiotics and topical treatments on her extensive wounds, fully expecting her to die overnight. Today her wounds have scabbed over nicely, she’s perching, and she’s eating well.  Nothing was broken, surprisingly; she just has a lot of raw skin, abrasions and missing feathers. We’re taking it day by day but at the moment, I’m mildly optimistic she’ll be okay.

​And early this afternoon an adult male red tail came in, rail thin and lethargic but with no obvious fractures. There was no sign of frounce so I suspect capillaria, which is when worms from the rodents that form a large part of a red tail’s diet get in the bird’s crop and make it feel full even as it starves to death. I’ve started treatment for that and gotten a couple of small meals in the bird, which he ate eagerly. Again, I’m cautiously optimistic we caught this in time for the bird to make a full recovery.

​For those who may not know the lore, here in the South loblolly pines form what look like crosses from their new growth every spring, nearly always right around Easter. Since next Sunday is Easter, here are a few photos of those Easter pine crosses for your viewing pleasure.

Last week saw lots of calls, few intakes, several releases, and, of course, some deaths.
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Let’s lead with some good news, shall we? The cat-attacked bluebird, after escaping several times while I was putting in fresh mealworms for him and flying strong and straight as he eluded me, was released. Apparently it was just a badly bruised wing after all.

The flyers were released; not one hung around after the cage door was opened the first night. They were ready to “git!”
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While the red tail will still need follow-up x-rays soon, she’s in the mini-pen for now. The fresh air and sunshine have eased her antsiness a great deal and she can hop from perch to perch and from the ground to the lowest perch, so she’s happy for the moment. That wing looks as if it might not have healed quite properly, though. We’ll see…Waiting for things to return to some semblance of normal before loading her up for a vet visit.

​Tuesday night a Northern flicker came in; the couple who brought him had heard his distress call and found him behind their workshop. He had a minor neck wound but was alert and well-fleshed. I medicated the wound, started antibiotics in case he’d been cat-attacked, and put him to bed for the night. The next morning he was dead. As y’all well know by now, this is one of the most frustrating aspects of wildlife rehab—the deaths for no apparent reason. His wound wasn’t deep enough to’ve caused death; it wasn’t inflamed or hot to the touch like a snake or spider bite, and he appeared perfectly fine the night before…

And yesterday, three birds came in, a late-nestling great horned owl (GHO), a late first-year Cooper’s hawk, and an adult pine warbler.
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The GHO was another case study in frustration. He seemed alert but his mouth was white-pale—not good. His initial poop was the sort of chalky white rehabbers recognize as stemming from lack of food. However, he was reluctant to eat—definitely not normal for a GHO, especially a young one. Over the course of the day, feeding him every couple of hours or so, I managed to get five small mice in him, but his poop after the first one had me worried: it was thick, dark and tarry—the usual sign of internal bleeding. Now I began to worry that perhaps his parents had fed themselves and their babies one or more poisoned rodents, and this poor baby was the sole survivor…and he was becoming more and more lethargic. By 3:00 this morning, when I fed him his last small mouse, I was convinced he wouldn’t be alive come sunup. And he wasn’t. And it hurt my heart. 

​The Coop has an old shoulder fracture that began to callus in the wild. Although I know it’s a lost cause, I’m gonna try him in the raptor flight anyway, just to confirm for my own peace of mind that he really cannot fly, and then he’ll likely need euthanasia.

​The pine warbler’s right wing is broken, and there’s a puncture wound on top that would suggest a cat-attack. He’s on oral meds for that, but the wing itself looks pretty trashed. I can’t tell for sure; he was brought in with the injury fresh and still bleeding last night, so the swelling hasn’t gone down enough to actually do anything more than topically medicate the wing at this point. I hope I’m wrong, but it’s not looking too good for him at the moment.

Hopefully next week will prove less lethal for wildlife. Lord knows I certainly hope so…

With people “self-isolating” and whole counties going on Constitutionally questionable lockdowns, LWR  only got phone calls last week, mostly from the metro-Atlanta area, that didn’t result in intakes once they realized LWR was located a good 150 miles from them. Mind you, I’m not here to debate the pandemic panic or the legality of the measures being taken to control its spread, although I certainly do have opinions. This, however, is a page for wildlife.

That said, people are scared to be out and about right now, aside from grocery store runs to hoard all the toilet paper, so God help any wildlife in need of rehab. Even though every rehabber who’s discussed this issue has indicated they’re available to accept orphaned, ill or injured wildlife, most of us just aren’t getting the volume of calls we normally do this time of year. We’ll see how this plays out as baby season moves into high gear.

The flyers are good to go and should be headed for release next week. No photos of them this week; they’re practicing “social distancing” of their own, as they don’t come out till after I’ve turned off the rehab room lights for the night.
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The red tail could have gone in for follow-up x-rays last week, but it’d only been six weeks. We’ll give her eight and then see how things look. Fractures normally take six to eight weeks to heal. Given the precautions even vet clinics are taking these days, it just seemed better not to add to the disruption my clinic was already experiencing. So I opted to delay her follow-up for another week or two.

And the poor bluebird has been so antsy that I actually took him out to the mini-pen to see if maybe his wing had only been bruised—recall that his x-rays showed no fractures so we figured he had a coracoid fracture, which seldom shows on x-rays. Unfortunately, he was still unable to fly, so we have another couple of weeks, minimum, to give that “invisible” coracoid fracture time to heal.

​I walked him outside for a quick photo and some fresh air while I was cleaning his box.  Look at that sweet little face!

​Meanwhile, if the pandemic panic has you at home, don’t stay cooped up; get outside and get some sunshine and fresh air. Both are good for your immune system and getting outside for a while will stave off cabin fever. Here, at least, we’re getting a light rain that will settle the heavy pollen and ease allergies and hay fever so going for a walk won’t result in streaming eyes and uncontrollable sneezing!

​Temps are mild; wildflowers are blooming; songbirds are building nests—yep, it’s spring in Georgia! Yesterday there was a single straw in one of my bluebird boxes (the male takes a piece of straw into a potential nest in an attempt to convince the female it’s a good nesting site; if she agrees, she starts building the nest); today there was about a quarter-inch high ring of straw in the bottom of the box—too little to open the box fully for a photo, as the breeze would’ve carried away most of her hard work. And the other bluebird box has been commandeered again this year by chickadees; Mama Chicker’s been quite busy over the past few days and has her nest about half-completed.

​In actual rehab news, the red tail continues to eat well while she heals. She’s getting restless, too, as that wing feels better and better. We’re aiming at a vet visit for follow-up x-rays this week. If all looks good, into the raptor flight she goes.

LWR normally doesn’t take in possums, but a game warden from a neighboring county called and said Good Samaritans had gone to remove a dead possum from the road and saw feet sticking out of her pouch. They had removed nine pinky possums that he was pretty sure were too small to survive and he wanted verification and humane euthanasia if he was correct.

The survival threshold for pinky possums is 19g; if they weigh less than that, no amount of effort will save them. The rehab manuals advise euthanasia for any baby possum under 19g. When I learned that as a newly-minted rehabber nearly two decades ago, I was sure it had to be wrong; I learned from painful firsthand experience it’s correct.
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So he showed up with the nine teeny-tinies, and I knew just looking at them they were under the survival weight threshold. But I weighed every one, to be 100% sure, and their weights ranged from 6-7g—well under the survival threshold. I humanely euthanized them, and yes, it hurt like hell. Euthanizing babies is always the worst; they’ve had no chance at life.

​And this gorgeous male bluebird was rescued from a cat the evening before he came to LWR. His rescuers saw no injuries but said he couldn’t fly. An intake exam indicated a possible right wing fracture, so off to Smalley’s we went for x-rays. Vet Peggy Hobby agreed that the right wing didn’t “feel” right but the x-rays showed no fractures. Given that coracoid fractures don’t always show on x-rays and are especially hard to see in songbirds, we’re guessing that’s what we have with this unhappy fellow. 

​A coracoid fracture is essentially like a broken collarbone in humans. It can’t be splinted; he just needs cage rest for a few weeks to give it time to heal. And, of course, since he was cat-attacked, he’s undergoing a round of antibiotics, as cat saliva is toxic to wildlife.

​Once again, y’all, say it with me: “Cats belong INDOORS for their own health and safety and the health and safety of our native wildlife.”

Anybody else remember that old expression? Well, I put action to those words late last week when the first of four glorious, rain-free days arrived. Five birds regained their freedom—and, as many of y’all already know, Sisyphus the kestrel is now in his new home. So all in all, it was a great week, despite insane rain amounts early on.
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A third barred owl came in late Monday and was also one of the five releases on Saturday: three barreds, the Coop and the screech. Only the screech hung around long enough for a post-release photo, and he’s actually the only one I didn’t manage a decent release video of, so that balanced out nicely. The release videos and the screech’s photo are below.

​And with what seemed like record speed, Beth Thomson of Blue Ridge Raptors received both her federal and state approval for Sisyphus’ transfer in the same week, so she was able to pick him up Thursday and reports that he’s adjusting well to his new home and being trained for his new role as an educational ambassador for his species.

​The red tail recovering from the wing fracture has finally realized she’s not gonna starve to death in rehab and has cut back to a mere two large mice a day. In another week or so, she’ll be due for follow-up X-rays to see how that wing’s healing.

​And this is what I see when I feed the flyers at night:

Finally, with baby season already beginning for mammal rehabbers and not far off for bird rehabbers, let me hop on my soapbox and remind you that rehabbers rely on the public to get wildlife in need to them; we cannot go out and pick up the wildlife. I actually had someone argue last week that asking the public to transport wildlife to a rehabber is like asking them to extract wreck victims from a car and transport them to a hospital, rather than calling an ambulance. I initially said this was not an apt analogy, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it’s not totally inaccurate.

Ambulance drivers transport their patients to treatment facilities (hospitals) where they are cared for by trained, PAID professionals—the doctors and nurses—who do NOT drive all over the place, loading up and transporting their patients to their facilities. They wait for the ambulance drivers to do this. Therefore, the wildlife finder/transporter serves as the "ambulance driver," transporting to wildlife rehabbers’ homes, which serve as the treatment facilities for our "patients." Wildlife rehabbers are trained, UNPAID professionals, outside large centers, which are few and far between. And just try calling any of those large centers with paid staff and see if they’ll hop right in their cars and come pick up your wildlife. I promise you, they’ll give you the same reply we home-based folks do—no can do.

Most of us are, in fact, home-based and have paying jobs to support our rehab efforts and keep the lights on. We can’t be on the road picking up the wildlife all the time; it’s a logistical impossibility. For example, with just 12 songbird rehabbers and 11 raptor rehabbers in the entire state of Georgia (per our latest list), those of us in the state cannot pick up all the birds we get calls about. If we're on the road picking up birds—or squirrels or rabbits or deer, for my colleagues who rehab mammals—when are we supposed to take care of the ones we already have in rehab?
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We will gladly walk anyone who calls through what they need to do to get wildlife secured and to us; we will refer them to volunteer transportation networks when the sheer distance requires it; we will refer to closer rehabbers when possible. Work with us on this; we want to help the wildlife you’ve found, but we cannot pick it up. Driving it to us is maybe an hour out of your day to bring us a bird or mammal that will require days, more often weeks or months, of round-the-clock care from us. Surely you can spare that measly little hour to do the right thing—the HUMANE thing.

Do y’all know how hard it is to come up with headlines about the rain that aren’t stultifyingly repetitive? We had a brief three days of no rain, but it remained too wet to get anything released. And now the rain is slated to start again…for most of next week…Anybody got any gopher wood to donate toward the ark?
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Last week wasn’t a good week, quite frankly. If you recall from last Sunday’s update, LWR had a turkey vulture come in with a leg fracture. I’d said he was slated for a vet visit ASAP. Well, Monday afternoon he got his vet visit, and it was bad news all the way. The poor bird had TEN pellets scattered throughout his body, including one in his eye, the leg was broken and there was an old healed-in-the-wild shoulder fracture that would have effectively grounded the bird, which is probably why some jackass filled him with birdshot.

Because of the sheer number of pellets and the fact that the poor fellow was already showing neurological signs of the inevitable lead poisoning that would result from so many pellets, vet Peggy Hobby and I agreed euthanasia was the kindest option.

And because he’d been injured as a result of illegal activity, both DNR and FWS had to be notified. It’s frustrating for all concerned because we know without eyewitnesses, no case can actually be made. Still, rules is rules, and at least both agencies know some jackass is taking potshots at raptors in the county where the vulture was found.
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Adding to the general “Mondayness” of the day, a local mammal rehabber picked up and transported a weak and lethargic adult female red tail to LWR. She had multiple issues: emaciation, early stages of frounce and, I was afraid, rodenticide poisoning. I loaded her up along with the turkey vulture in hopes she wasn’t too far gone. Unfortunately, she had two seizures in the vet clinic waiting room—and we didn’t wait long—and died.

​Y’all, let me get on my soapbox here: rat poison is deadly to more than just rats and mice. I don’t care if you’re using bait boxes—you do know the rodents eat the poisoned bait and then run back outside the bait box, as they’re not designed to trap the rodent they’ve just poisoned. As it bleeds to death internally, it becomes sluggish and easy prey for a hungry raptor, who then becomes a secondary victim of the poison—and, in even more horrifying instances, takes the poisoned rodent back to a nest of hungry babies, who then also die from rodenticide poisoning.

In short, DON’T USE THE CRAP. And don’t use glue traps, either—they also snag unintended victims like songbirds, lizards, bats and snakes. Use snap traps, humane traps (if you want to take the captured rodents far into the woods away from your property) and general hygiene, i.e., pick up your trash and don’t leave pet food sitting outside—and yes, even bird feeders will attract rodents, so you may want to bring them in at night. My preferred option would be, where possible, to place some owl nesting boxes to attract barn owls. One barn owl can eat a thousand rodents a year—imagine having a family of them on “rat patrol!”

In happier news, today the bumblesome Coop finally got it together enough to perch for the first time since intake. In another week or so, he should be good to go.

​The barred owl is ready for release but rain-delayed—well, actually soggy-release-site-delayed last week and a further rain delay this week. But he’s good to go as soon as the weather cooperates.

​The screech is also ready for release—ditto the above statements; meanwhile, he’s obviously got a PhD in stink-eye!

​And the red tail recovering from the wing fracture is, quite frankly, just a gorgeous gal. I confess to being just a wee bit besotted with her, but then, who wouldn’t be? Just look at her!

We had a couple of days of sunny weather, although as of sunset it had already started sprinkling again. Reminds me of the old Jerry Clower joke (for those of y’all who don’t know Jerry Clower, you have been culturally deprived…) about the idiot who got elected to Congress (a common occurrence, I know, but this was apparently a giant among idiots) and the first thing he wanted to do was move February to between July and August, since it’s a short, cool, wet month and people could use the relief about then.

Last week we had an infrequent but always welcome visitor—a sandhill crane. Y’all know how much I adore those birds, and this one appeared to be in bad shape on intake. He’d been found walking in the road with his head down by an animal control officer in a neighboring county and we were honestly not sure he’d survive the night. He had no external injuries but was reluctant to stand and kept his head bowed when he did stand. Over the next couple of days, though, he improved substantially and today was looking and sounding absolutely great. Given that the branch in front of my house is quite full at the moment, I soft-released him in the yard today and he immediately beelined for the branch. And of course, I followed, camera in hand.
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There’re more birds below him, but enjoy this gorgeous fellow! I may have gone slightly overboard with photos and video…

​Late this afternoon, a young turkey vulture with a broken leg came in. The leg feels broken right in the joint but without x-rays I can’t confirm. We’ll see how he’s doing in the morning and plan for x-rays if he’s stable.

​Another barred owl came in, this one a transfer for release from colleague Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends. He’s a youngish bird and Steve felt he’d do better if he had a few days with an older barred before his release. And I have an older barred at the moment, so…

​The Coop is in the mini-pen vacated by the sandhill. While he’s eating quite well (relax, the blood all over his beak is from his most recent meal), he has some balance issues still. His poop looks good and he’s casting pellets like a champ, so we just need to get that horizontal and vertical hold adjusted.

​The screech remains inside; his eye cleared up enough over last week that I opted for no vet visit, but with the insane weather, I was just more comfortable keeping him inside. 

​Sisyphus awaits his transfer approval; we know it can take time—up to six weeks, according to Beth Thomson of Blue Ridge Raptors—so as I said last week, it’s just hurry up and wait at this point. (Again, the blood and bits of flesh are from some messy eating. Apparently today was “sling your food” day among my raptors.)

The flyers didn’t show their faces last week, but they’re eating everything they’re offered so I know they’ll do well when they’re released next month.

And saving another favorite for last, the red tail continues to inhale mice like there’s no tomorrow. She cracks me up; she generally snags the first couple before they even hit the bottom of her box and slurps ‘em down like spaghetti, and the remaining five or six—and these are LARGE mice, mind you—disappear shortly thereafter.
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But look at that face—who could resist that expression?

Y’all, I’m tryin’ really hard not to complain about the rain. Really hard. But Lordamercy, my raptor flight has huge puddles in it; the songbird flight repair is on hold indefinitely, with more rain on the way most of next week, and there haven’t been three consecutive rain-free days since sometime back in late January.  

The good news, as far as the songbird flight goes, is once we got the debris out of the way, the damage isn’t as bad as it initially looked. Volunteer transporter AJ Rogers, who also constructed the mini-pen last summer, estimates about a day’s work to have it usable again.
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The red tail is looking great and inhaling food. She’s what colleague Steve Hicks calls a light eater: as long as it’s light outside, she’s eating! She was thinnish when she came in; the more she eats, the better. And proper nutrition will aid in better healing of that wing fracture.

​The barred owl, bless his heart, is in the raptor flight. He does have a covered blind at the back, out of the wind and rain, but apparently he was enjoying the wet the day I snapped this photo during a lull in the downpour. 

​The screech is opening his injured eye now, and it’s looking better. I suspect we may have a luxated lens, but there was no way to be sure with the blood that filled his eye most of last week. Now that we can see what’s going on a bit better, he’ll probably make a trip to Smalley’s this week for a more thorough eye exam.

​A young adult turkey vulture was found near the road midweek, apparently unable to fly. His intake exam revealed an old, healed fracture but he was able to fully extend his wing. Given the prevalence of deer carcasses up and down my rural road, I opted to soft-release him. 

​And yesterday a first-year Cooper’s hawk came in with apparent head trauma. Nothing’s broken and he was quite vocal on intake but it was pretty obvious from his head tremors he needs a few days to get his horizontal and vertical hold adjusted. (For those who wonder how to differentiate between Coops and sharpies, Coops generally have a pronounced “ridge” of feathers at the backs of their heads; sharpies have rounded heads. It’s not foolproof but it’s pretty accurate.)

Hopefully some of y’all are having decent weather for the Great Backyard Bird Count, which ends tomorrow. I haven’t participated this year, thanks to the rain. Yeah, I know birds are out in the rain. They have feather insulation. I just get damp, cold and irritable!
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We’re still awaiting federal approval for Sisyphus’ transfer. It may take some time, so we’re in “hurry up and wait” mode. And the flyers are still awaiting warmer, drier weather for release. But they do love those dandelion greens!

Yeah, we got more rain this past week, enough that the local river will crest about 5 feet above flood stage this Tuesday, with more predicted beginning the middle of this week…Needless to say, this creates problems for our wildlife.

The barred owl who needed to go in the raptor flight last week remained inside, basically because I wasn’t slogging through torrential downpours to get to the flight to feed and monitor him daily. The rain predicted for this week isn’t supposed to be monsoon-quality, though, so I’m aiming at getting him in the flight later today or tomorrow.

The paperwork requesting Sisyphus the kestrel’s transfer to Beth Thomson of Blue Ridge Raptors to begin his career as an ed bird has been submitted to the feds; now we wait.

With dandelion leaf bases sprouting now—no stalks or flowers yet—I’ve added that to the food rotation for the flyers, and they love it. Just a few more weeks before they can be released…
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The red tail who came in last Sunday had fractures at both the elbow and shoulder, requiring euthanasia. 

​However…Monday morning someone hit a late first-year/early second-year female red tail and took her to Smalley’s immediately, where I picked her up when I took the male in for x-rays. Her x-rays showed wing fractures that we’re pretty confident will heal to allow flight. She was also pretty thin, as most birds I’ve seen this winter have been. It’s this weather; it’s not optimal for hunting, and all our raptors are suffering as a result. But red tails are smart birds; it took her less than 24 hours to figure out that when I walked over to her box it was to feed her; now she lunges upward with those gunboat feet to snag the mice as they drop into her box. Lightning reflexes, that gal! I’m totally in love with her. Red tails are just special birds.

​Midweek a gorgeous little red-phase male screech came in with an eye injury and head trauma. It can sometimes be difficult to determine gender on screeches without having a male and female side by side for comparison, as they’re so small to begin with, but this guy’s so petite there’s no doubt he’s male. As is normal with head trauma, he wasn’t interested in food for a couple of days, but last night he devoured his mice, so that’s good. He was also on the thin side on intake and needs to put on a few ounces.

​And don’t forget the Great Backyard Bird Count begins Friday, Feb. 14 and ends Monday, Feb. 17. You don’t have to be a birder; you don’t have to identify every single species you see—you can just list the birds you CAN identify, although I’d suggest a good bird guide or app to aid with those you can’t ID. Both Sibley and Audubon have user-friendly apps for your phones, and they’re not real expensive. 

Even if you don’t participate in the GBBC I still recommend those two apps or the physical copies of the books as excellent resources, and most states have state-specific guides available, too, although not always as apps. The guides available for Georgia are only as physical copies—not even Kindle versions. Amazon links are provided below, and no, these aren’t affiliate links, so I get nothing from your purchase unless you have LWR as your charity of choice for Amazon Smile.

Georgia Birds: A Folding Pocket Guide to Familiar Species (Wildlife and Nature Identification (https://smile.amazon.com/Georgia-Birds-Folding-Familiar-Naturalist/dp/1583551107/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=georgia+birds&qid=1581275661&sr=8-3). This is a folding, laminated pocket guide that’s great for a quick reference for 140 species seen in Georgia. Small color illustrations and no detailed species accounts.  I have a couple of copies of it, just ‘cause.

Stan Tekiela’s Birds of Georgia Field Guide (https://smile.amazon.com/Birds-Georgia-Field-Guide-Tekiela/dp/1885061471/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=georgia+birds&qid=1581275661&sr=8-1). This one’s a bit of a classic and still easily available, unlike some of the other Georgia guides. Good reference book for 140 species common to Georgia, with color photos and good species accounts. And small—good size to have a spare copy in the car.

Birds of Georgia (https://smile.amazon.com/Birds-Georgia-John-Jr-Parrish/dp/9768200057/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=georgia+birds&qid=1581275661&sr=8-10). This is the Holy Grail of Georgia birding books, with over 300 species and color illustrations. It’s only available used now, and quite pricey, starting at about $40 (It was a little over $14 when I got my copy 12 years ago.) but if you can snag a copy, I’d highly recommend it.

Georgia Bird Watching: A Year-Round Guide (https://smile.amazon.com/Georgia-Bird-Watching-Year-Round-Guide/dp/1591860989/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=georgia+birds&qid=1581275661&sr=8-12). This one has over 100 birds and is touted as a “beginner’s guide.” Also only available used but substantially less expensive than Birds of Georgia. I honestly don’t refer to it very often; my go-tos tend to be Birds of Georgia Field Guide or Birds of Georgia.

For a raptors-only guide, Tekiela’s Birds of Prey of the South Field Guide (Bird Identification Guides) (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1591933811/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) is perfect. Not Georgia-specific but still an outstanding guide to raptors commonly seen in Georgia and throughout the South.

​There are a couple of others available, some still in print and some not, but these are guides I actually have on hand and so I can speak to their quality. For those not in Georgia, check out Amazon, your local bookstore, your local Wild Birds Unlimited or similar store, or even state park visitor’s centers for bird guides specific to your state.

Colleague Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends once said that wildlife rehab was the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, often within hours of each other, and I’ve never heard anything truer. After regaling you with a fairly “high” week in last week’s update, I have to report the news isn’t as great this week.
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Monday a gorgeous sharp-shinned hawk came in with a nasty open wing fracture right at the wrist. I don’t see a lot of sharpies—I think I saw all of two in 2019—and they’re magnificent birds, so I hate having to euthanize them, but there was no option for this fierce little raptor.

​The middle part of the week was quiet, with a barred owl coming in Saturday night with a massively broken leg. It was fractured at the knee and the hock, or ankle. This was not a fixable fracture, sadly, so the barred also required euthanasia.

Thus far in 2020 LWR has received eight birds, and six of them have required euthanasia. This is why rehabbers have a love-hate relationship with the “off season.” Yeah, we get a break from babies 24/7, but the flip side of that is that the majority of the intakes we see are mortally injured adults. Tain’t easy to deal with some days, lemme tell ya.
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And today the Wheeler County Sheriff brought an absolutely stunning first-year red tail. Y’all know how I feel about red tails, and many of y’all share my adoration of these regal birds. This fellow has a fracture right at/in the elbow. And there’s a gaping hole there. No bone appears to be exposed, so it may be an additional injury, where the bird picked at the area causing pain, or perhaps an entry wound from a pellet. He’ll go in for x-rays tomorrow to see what, if anything, we can do for the fracture and to check for pellets, as well.

​Meanwhile, the barred owl with the eye infection is holding the eye partially open most of the time now but the eye looks damaged. I suspect some vision impairment there but won’t know for sure till he goes into the raptor flight this week.

​Sisyphus remains with me while we wait to finalize the paperwork for federal approval of the transfer; his new source of amusement is to pull off his jesses and anklets about every other day…

No new photos of the flyers again this week.  They’re fully mature now and ready for release in early to mid-March. As a reminder, flyers remain with Mama in their cavity nest for five months, with fall babies usually overwintering with her for both shelter and her food cache.  In rehab, we mimic that by overwintering the fall babies, as they have no cavities staked out for nests and no food cached for the winter. In March, as the weather moderates, they have decent conditions to stake out a nesting site and begin to store food for the fall and winter.
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And finally, don’t forget that the Great Backyard Bird Count begins on Valentine’s Day this year: Feb. 14-17, Friday-Monday.