I was rather proud of myself for getting last Sunday’s update done early in the day, despite the back issues (still twingy but not excruciating; thanks for asking). HAH. Within half an hour of posting it, LWR received notice of three birds en route from two different locations…
A volunteer transporter delivered two of the birds, a first-year red tail and an adult great horned owl.
There was nothing to be done for the red tail, who’d been crammed into a box much too small for a bird his size that was then lavishly slathered with packing tape, as if the poor bird were some sort of vicious monster. His near-wrist fracture apparently had been an open one and maggots had eaten all the flesh, tendons and ligaments from the bird’s right wing. He was humanely euthanized.
At any rate, aside from the area around his cere being a bit bloody, the owl was fine; he now awaits his turn in the raptor flight.