Last week was a wee bit busier than the previous week, with three new intakes. Still too early for most songbirds to have nestlings, though, so we’re still pretty much in raptor/adult songbird mode at the moment.
This gorgeous little female mourning dove was found grounded in a recent clear-cut patch several counties away.
This gorgeous little female mourning dove was found grounded in a recent clear-cut patch several counties away.
Let me hop on my soapbox for a moment before discussing her case and state that clear-cutting is just WRONG. It’s environmentally unfriendly, taking out natural carbon dioxide sinks/oxygen producers; it leaves the clear-cut areas vulnerable to massive erosion; it destroys wildlife habitat—in short, I can’t think of a single positive thing to say about clear-cutting. Period. It’s just a lazy method loggers have adopted as less work for them, and people don’t think to ask about or aren’t willing to pay extra for selective cutting/thinning. It CAN be done; if you MUST cut your trees, check around until you find a reputable company that will selective-cut.
Back to the dove: her wing was broken and it was an open fracture that had already begun to get infected. There was nothing to do but humanely end her suffering.
Back to the dove: her wing was broken and it was an open fracture that had already begun to get infected. There was nothing to do but humanely end her suffering.
Was her injury related to the clear-cutting? We have no way of knowing. Her rescuer shares my opinion of the practice, though.
The squirrels, even though the photo suggests otherwise, are actually awake more often and eating solids now. They’ll be placed in a larger pen later this week so they have room to move around and learn to be proper squirrels in preparation for their release in about a month.
The squirrels, even though the photo suggests otherwise, are actually awake more often and eating solids now. They’ll be placed in a larger pen later this week so they have room to move around and learn to be proper squirrels in preparation for their release in about a month.
This adult red-tailed hawk was found several counties away. The game warden who called about him knew at first glance his wing was broken; the question was how badly.
An examination of the hawk upon intake indicated he’d been down for some time. He was rail-thin and somewhat lethargic. Further, the left wing felt as if it had already started healing—badly. We needed x-rays to determine if this was something we could work with, although my gut said not.
The x-rays, courtesy of Smalley’s Animal Hospital, confirmed that this wasn’t a fracture that would have been fixable when it was fresh, much less now that it had already started forming a callus. Vet Michelle Brinsko agreed we had no viable options, and this poor fellow was euthanized.
In better news, though, the first-year red-tail’s fractured right wing is healing nicely. It’s only been two and a half weeks, so none of us were expecting massive healing, of course. My fear was that we’d x-ray and see no healing or, worse yet, no healing and further displacement. To our delight, we have a nice callus forming! Vet Peggy Hobby said it looked great and another two to three weeks of confinement should give us enough healing to consider moving him to the flight pen. We’ll do x-rays again at that point to confirm that he’s ready to test his wings, but all looks VERY promising at the moment.
And just yesterday, a concerned family called about a young owl they’d woken up to find sitting on the ground at the corner of their porch. They knew they had great horned owls on their property but had not heard them calling for the past several nights, and then this little guy was sitting all by himself—no parents or sibs in sight.
The family did everything right. They watched for a couple of hours to see if his parents called him back into the woods or any sibs showed up. Two hours is a reasonable amount of time with baby raptors but NOT songbirds—never wait more than an hour with baby songbirds, as they must be fed much more frequently than baby raptors.
When he continued to walk aimlessly around their yard, they searched for someone to help him and brought him to LWR, where he’s the typical GHO nestling: a sweetly doofusy-looking bottomless pit who will mature into a ferocious predator. Don’t let that goofy baby look fool you: GHOs are top-tier predators with few natural enemies aside from man.
When he continued to walk aimlessly around their yard, they searched for someone to help him and brought him to LWR, where he’s the typical GHO nestling: a sweetly doofusy-looking bottomless pit who will mature into a ferocious predator. Don’t let that goofy baby look fool you: GHOs are top-tier predators with few natural enemies aside from man.
Below is one of his first feedings yesterday:
And one of today's feedings:
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