And we continue apace

​No true slowdown in sight yet, if last week is any indication, with six new intakes.
 
Early in the week, a hit-by-car barred owl came in. Nothing is broken; he just had a concussion and some lingering head trauma but should be releasable soon.

​Another juvenile MIKI came in, again transferred from Bubba & Friends. This one’s about the same age as the earlier transfer from Bubba & Friends.  Sending the MIKIs to LWR puts them a little closer to their final winter destination in Central America. All three are ready for the flight pen, as soon as the red tail is out.

​Speaking of which, yesterday FWS brought another red tail, this one about a second year bird—already getting those signature red tail feathers. He’s a bit on the thin side but alert. No signs of frounce but capillaria is always a possibility, so he’s being treated for that.

​And as y’all may have noticed, the MIKIs are back inside. Their brief foray into the mini-pen ended when I realized the great horned owl from last week’s update needed to be outside first. He’s slated for release ASAP, as he’s doing quite well and moving about in the mini-pen will keep his muscle tone up.

​Another new intake was a juvenile hummer, probably a ruby-throat and most likely female. She was kept for nearly a week before the initial rescuer took her to a neighbor who had numerous hummer feeders in her yard. The neighbor contacted LWR and shortly afterward, the hummer was transported here. It was hard on intake to tell what might have been scabs and what was dried, sticky nectar, as you can see in her photos. Had the initial finder sought help earlier, there might have been a chance to repair the injury; as it is, the wing has healed at an awkward angle that looks as if it will preclude flight. I’m giving her some time to be sure, but odds are she’ll require euthanasia.

​A late-nestling mocker was found in the road with no nest in sight and the finder called LWR after searching for a nest until dark, with no luck. Since the finder would’ve had to travel unfamiliar back roads in the dark to bring the bird that night, I suggested she bed the bird down for the night and gave her feeding instructions for the next day, until she could get the wee one to LWR. Happily, she followed my instructions to the letter and a sassy, noisy, well-fed mocker arrived the next day.

​A Laurens County deputy brought an adult MIKI found in a local fast-food joint’s parking lot yesterday. Sadly, he had multiple injuries, one of which required euthanasia. His right wing was dinged at the wrist; his left leg was broken mid-bone; his chest had an open wound. The fatal injury, however, was the broken left wing—the fracture was right in the joint. That, as y’all know by now, cannot be fixed, especially in an aerial insectivore that absolutely must have 100% use of both wings. More than likely he was hit by car while in pursuit of an insect.

​The juvie red tail in the raptor flight is flying beautifully; he just needs to pass his live prey test and he’s good to go.

 The adult killdeer attempts escape with every paper change and food/water freshening, despite the fact that he has almost no primaries on one wing. He’s off meds for his exposure to cat saliva and wants his freedom badly. They’re such stressy birds, even as adults, that I’m actually considering sticking him in the songbird flight to see how well he can fly. If he shows me he can fly well enough, we may release ASAP, to avoid any further stress on the poor fellow.
 
​The juvie barnie would very much like to join the killdeer in escape; she’s not a happy camper either. I’ve put out word she’s nonreleasable and am attempting to place her as an ed bird.
 
No photos of either of these two this week; not worth the fight to get a decent shot while deflecting escape attempts.
 
The wood ducks continue to grow rapidly; the older one is actually good to go but I don’t want to release him alone, so he’s stuck at LWR till the younger three are also ready for release—which won’t be long, judging by the feather development on their wings! (Sorry about the white balance; the camera decided to screw it up in the midst of filming...)

​And look who visited this week! Early in the week both juvie black vultures showed together up for a day or two, then they disappeared again, and yesterday only one of the sibs showed up. As you can clearly see from the poop on his back, he’s roosting at night with other vultures. I seldom get to do soft releases with raptors since I can’t very well release them in my yard along with the songbirds, so I’m enjoying this to the max. (First photo is overprocessed; I used HDR to pull the vultures out of the shadow in the original phone camera image. That's why I don't use HDR too often...)