Laurens Wildlife Rescue
  • Home
  • I found a wild baby - what do I do?
  • How can I help?
  • Contact us
  • FAQ
  • This week in wildlife

A very welcome slow week

6/1/2014

4 Comments

 
After the previous week’s debacle, I won’t complain too much about this past week being slower than is the norm for baby season. Actually, I suspect I’ve experienced the “mid-season lull”, when the first massive wave of nestlings has fledged and new nests are being built/eggs being laid to begin the second onslaught. April was a heavier than usual month, and although May seemed slow to me, it equaled April in intakes, so…who knows? It’s been a weird year from the get-go; why should it suddenly become normal now, right?

The blue jay’s joint and toe remain slightly swollen but he is starting to flex the toe a bit and put weight on the foot. The general consensus seems to be that this is some sort of nest injury that was aggravated when he started trying to put weight on it initially.

Meanwhile, he is—as most blue jays are—a shameless little beggar who thus far refuses to eat anything on his own. I’ve even hand-fed him bits of blueberry, usually a blue jay treat, which he eagerly snaps into his beak…and then carefully spits back out. This isn’t the usual food caching that blue jays will do, however, as he doesn’t bother to hide it—just spits it out and looks at me expectantly, waiting for the “good stuff.” He also likes to sling the “good stuff”, so his little face gets swabbed down every couple of feedings to prevent food build-up.
Below are a couple of neat shots of his gaping beak (pre-swabbing; he ain’t gonna gape after being fed and swabbed down). See the spiky cleft at the back of the roof of his mouth? That’s his choana, which is actually connected to his nares, or his nostrils, on the outside of his beak. When his beak is closed, the choana makes a seal with the glottis, the hole in his tongue, so that air goes directly from the nose to the lungs, rather than into the mouth and then the lungs like our breath does.  Neat, huh? 
Picture
Picture
The flyer is in pre-release caging now and I don’t see her often; she will occasionally stick her head out of the nest box in the late afternoon for a pecan treat, take it from me, and sink back down into the box.

The screech is self-feeding…sort of. He still can’t handle an entire mouse, even if it’s slit open, but he can eagerly chow down on bite-sized chunks of mouse.  As soon as he can eat an entire mouse without it having to be cut up or open for him, he’ll be moved to the flight pen—with his size, he’ll do fine in the songbird flight (with no songbirds in it, of course, folks—I mean, really!).
Picture
This Canada gosling was found on the sidewalk in a neighboring town, unable to walk properly. He had a large scabbed-over scrape on his left side, and x-rays revealed a fracture too close to the hip to be fixed. The x-ray machine wasn’t cooperating on providing a copy of the x-ray; all it would transfer to either flash drive or CD was a postage-stamp size thumbnail in which you couldn’t even see the individual bones, much less a fracture. And I didn’t think to snap a photo with the camera, as we had another bird to deal with. We had to euthanize the gosling.
Picture
Picture
That other bird was a juvenile barred owl that one of Smalley’s Animal Hospital’s clients brought in after they told her I was on the premises that morning. Her son had found him in the middle of the road late the previous night and placed him in a pet crate. The rescuer’s mother then sought care for him early the next morning. Upon arrival at the clinic, his left eye was swollen shut and there was blood on his face from his left ear. He was also very thin.
Picture
Picture
An exam by vet Jim Hobby revealed that the eye was just bruised and that the blood was from a cut to the ear, not actual bleeding from the ear, which would have signaled a more serious head injury.  These were his only injuries. Jim suggested anti-inflammatory eye drops for a couple of days.

By the next day, the swelling had gone down considerably. The greenish fluid you see is his eye drops; I had just medicated him when I snapped these photos.
Picture
Picture
By the third day, there was only a slight residual swelling! He’ll remain with me for a few days longer, though, to get some weight back on his skinny little body.
Picture
When the call came in that people moving pine straw from under a pole barn had found a nest of barn owls, I pleaded with them to leave the birds where they were and give the parents time to finish raising them. They had already destroyed the nest site by the time they called me, however, and so I ended up with three half-grown barnies.

For those who’re unfamiliar with barnies, they’re…umm…unique in the owl world for their vocalizations. They sound like a woman being murdered. One wit has said they sound like all the banshees in hell have been let loose. When these three cut loose as I was moving them from the dog crate they’d been brought to me in, it was loud but not too horrible; after all, we were outside, so there was somewhere for the sound to go.

Inside, however…oh, inside…How best to describe a barnie’s shriek in an enclosed space? It resonates through your entire body. You feel it down to the soles of your feet. Your brain rattles around in your skull, demanding that the ungodly din cease immediately. You feel the need to check your ears for bleeding from ruptured ear drums…It’s deafeningly, ear-piercingly, painfully loud, in other words.

And these three occasionally cut loose en masse. Oh. My. God. You have no idea…banshees from hell is a pretty apt description, come to think of it…

The video clips below feature only the warning hisses and mild shrieks warning of things to come if I didn’t go away. I was afraid the full-on shrieks would cause the camcorder to self-destruct…
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
The barnies, along with the red shouldered hawk—who finally decided to eat on his own; hallelujah!—are with Bubba & Friends Raptor Rehab now. Steve has a juvie red shoulder about the same age as my guy, and he has more experience dealing with barnies, who are highly prone to stress out. God help his ears…
4 Comments
dmortii
6/1/2014 12:12:09 pm

love this, barnies are awesome! kudos to you as usual!

Reply
Laurens Wildlife Rescue
6/1/2014 01:16:07 pm

Thanks dm! Barnies are somethin' else, that's for sure! I don't see 'em a lot, so it's always a treat when they come in healthy and vocal.

Reply
Ann Feldman
6/2/2014 10:06:36 am

Interesting post! I am amazed that when we breathe through our (human) noses, that the air does not go straight to the lungs but first into our mouths even if they are shut? Or full of food? Who knew?

Reply
Laurens Wildlife Rescue
6/2/2014 10:28:05 am

Isn't that neat, though? But you know, when you stop and really notice your breathing, you do feel the air inside your mouth with each breath; it's just not something we consciously focus on. Birds are amazing!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008

    Categories

    All
    Baby Birds
    Baby Deer
    Baby Opossums
    Baby Possums
    Baby Rabbits
    Bluegray Gnatcatchers
    Carolina Wren
    Common Loons
    Epd
    Fawns
    House Finch
    Mbta
    Migratory Bird Treaty Act
    Mockers
    Mockingbirds
    Orphaned Birds
    Orphaned Deer
    Orphaned Fawns
    Orphaned Opossums
    Orphaned Possums
    Orphaned Rabbits
    Orphaned Wildlife
    Squirrels
    Wildlife
    Wood Ducks

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.