Late in the week, a fledgling song sparrow was cat-attacked after his initial finders did everything right by monitoring him and leaving him alone in their yard. The poor baby wandered into their neighbor’s yard, however, and the neighbor had a free-roaming outdoor cat. So the song sparrow is now on meds at LWR, and thanks to Virginia colleague Maureen Eiger for helping me ID the little cutie, as it’s not a species I’ve previously seen in rehab. Little brown jobs can be difficult to ID; I’ve threatened to just start listing them as LBJs on my annual reports, but like the Elephant’s Child, my ‘satiable curiosity gets the better of me and I spend hours poring over nestling and fledgling ID charts, comparing “baby” pix and videos and calling colleagues who enjoy a good bird mystery as much as I do. Song sparrows can be especially difficult to ID because it seems there’s wide variation in the appearance of the young. Despite being on meds, he’s not as perky today as he has been the past couple of days, so…fingers crossed…
Earlier in the week a second-year broad-winged hawk came in with an open left wrist fracture. I don’t see broadies often, so I hated that there was nothing I could do for the poor bird but end his suffering.
Yesterday another mocker came in, a late nestling—too young to be out of the nest, as his wing feathers are still mostly encased in keratin. He was nearly a dog-attack victim. He’s in with the older mocker.
A juvenile Cooper’s hawk also came in yesterday, with a wing fracture. En route to LWR, the Coop, true to the species’ psychotic nature, decided to rip open the swollen flesh around the fracture, so it was oozing copious amounts of blood upon his arrival. It took forever to get the bleeding under control, even using styptic powder, and he still died overnight, probably from a combination of shock and blood loss.
In better news, LWR had three releases this week: the great horned owl, the barred owl and the juvie red tail.
The great horned owl wasted no time skedaddling. While I saw the tree he landed in some distance away, when I got about halfway to it for a post-release photo, he headed even deeper into the woods—no paparazzi, thanks!
The great horned owl wasted no time skedaddling. While I saw the tree he landed in some distance away, when I got about halfway to it for a post-release photo, he headed even deeper into the woods—no paparazzi, thanks!
The barred owl flew low and landed on the ground, but when I headed in his direction to see if I needed to recapture him, he took off into the trees and kept flying farther away as I tried to get a post-release photo of him.
The red tail shot out of the box and circled behind me—and I didn’t press the record button hard enough and missed gorgeous footage. He was considerate enough to remain perched for some post-release photos, though.
The oldest wood duck is good to go; the younger three aren’t far behind. I figure another 7-10 days and they should all be on their merry way. They weren’t as cooperative with the “cute” stuff for a video this week—just peeping and sipping water.
The killdeer remains inside; I don’t want him doing something stupid before he’s able to fly well. He’s also too spastic for photos; just changing his paper and giving him food and water nearly stresses the poor bird to death.
The MIKIs are in the raptor flight as of yesterday and flying pretty well; their landings, however, are still just downright ugly. It’s a work in progress…
The MIKIs are in the raptor flight as of yesterday and flying pretty well; their landings, however, are still just downright ugly. It’s a work in progress…
The second-year red tail is in the mini-pen and looking good. He offered an impressive threat display when I fed him this morning. Red tails are so gorgeous!
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