And so it begins…

Baby songbird season, that is. And with a trickle rather than a deluge so far—knock on wood! These Carolina wrens were only 2-3 days old when they came in on April 2 after a cat killed the mother and one of the siblings. I’ve included a quarter in the photo for scale. Tiny little things, huh?

But wrens grow quickly. Here they are today, April 4. Carolina wrens tend to be one of the species we see most often in rehab, because of the odd places they’ll nest: pots, bicycle helmets, shop fans, boat motors, tractor tire wells,  shirt pockets, boxes with even the slightest opening, four-wheeler seats…you name it, and chances are a Carolina wren has used it as a nest at some point. I like to say, only partially in jest, that if you stand still for more than five minutes, they’ll try to start a nest in your hair!

LWR also received a downy barred owl near the end of March. She was found on the ground, and the people who found her watched for several hours before intervening and retrieving her. Raptor babies can go longer between meals than songbird babies, so while several hours’ observation before rescuing a raptor baby is acceptable, quicker intervention is needed for baby songbirds. Just a general rule of thumb for you to file away for future reference!

This downy baby was doing quite well until the weekend, when she began stretching her left leg straight out to the side, as if it was broken at the hip.

I took her in for x-rays Monday, and while the x-rays definitely indicate “something ain’t right,” we’re not sure exactly what’s not right. The whole leg looks displaced but it’s not out of joint. At this point, she may be on borrowed time, as we can’t seem to find a way to correct this leg issue. We’re not even sure if this is what we call a nest injury, meaning that the original damage occurred in the nest and didn’t show until she started trying to put weight on that leg, or if the damage occurred in the fall from the nest and again, didn’t show until she started trying to stand up more. All the usual methods for dealing with an injury like this in an adult bird won’t work with a bird whose bones are still growing, so we’re a bit stymied.

This male Eastern bluebird died the day he came in. The finder saw him on the ground and when he didn’t move for some time, she picked him up and called me. There was no sign of injury, no indication of pesticide poisoning…yet this is the position he died in. Never opened his eyes, never moved at all after I examined him and put him back down. He was dead within 2 hours of intake.

This great horned owl came in with what at first looked to be a nasty leg fracture, in addition to a missing toe, but x-rays showed the leg was badly out of joint—badly enough that the tendons and ligaments were trashed and there was severe nerve damage.

This was an old injury, as indicated by the tissue around the missing toe—it’s already black, so she’d been down a while. Our best guess is an old leg-hold trap: she went for the bait; the trap was rusty and closed slowly enough that she was able to twist free as it snapped shut, trashing her leg and losing the toe in the process. Of course, this is all conjuncture; we have no way to prove it. But the scenario fits the injury.

I’m not even going to waste my breath ranting about this; you know how I feel about people who use these monstrosities. Unfortunately, what I’d like to do to these cretins is considered cruel and unusual by the current legal system. And leg-hold traps on innocent birds isn’t? Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” What does our country’s continued use of leg-hold traps and their ilk say about us?

The red shouldered hawk’s bumblefoot is healing nicely. I’m quite pleased at his progress. He’s also attempting to fly and doing quite well at it, so he may be releasable after all. He’ll now be going to Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends to see how well he does in a proper flight pen.

And ending with a cute overload, here are some shots of the beaver kit, whose motto seems to be “eat, sleep, poop and whine.” Sounds kinda like a human baby, doesn’t it?!