Another week, another raptor

Last week’s sole raptor intake brings the total raptors at LWR to 18. Plus five songbirds. And two recent songbird releases still demanding handouts…
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Starting with the raptors, midweek DNR brought an adult barred owl found in the road. While his wings appeared to be fine, his right leg was broken and scraped raw on the back. He had his foot balled, often a sign of nerve damage in a leg fracture, but it was, of course, worth an x-ray to see what we had going on. Since he’d come in late in the evening, I stabilized the leg until the next morning.

​Lo and behold, the next morning he was flexing his claw and putting weight on that leg! X-rays at Smalley’s confirmed a pretty nasty break, but vet Peggy Hobby said since he was doing so well with just my stabilization, we’d maintain that, changing the bandages to prevent infection from the raw spot on the back of the leg.

He’s eating well; the raw spot has scabbed over nicely and, most importantly, he continues to put weight on that leg and flex that foot.

The songbirds who came in the day before and after the barred weren’t as lucky.
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A fledgling Eastern phoebe was seen dangling upside down from the nest; when her finders pulled her down, they discovered her leg had been caught in the nesting material. Sadly, this had happened while she was still a nestling and the lower portion of her leg was already black and withered from lack of blood supply. She couldn’t stand on her one good leg, so humane euthanasia was required.

​And an adult barn swallow was found in the road in a neighboring county, with no outward signs of trauma.  On intake, I suspected a coracoid fracture, as the bird favored the left shoulder a bit but I could feel no fractures. Again, since this was a late-night intake, the goal was x-rays at Smalley’s the next morning, but the swallow apparently had internal injuries and died overnight.

​Then someone called with a nestling songbird of indeterminate species, cat-caught. He’d taken it from the cat the previous night and got it to LWR late the next morning. HOWever…he’d been feeding the bird all this time, a mixture of water and dog kibble. Hard dog kibble. As soon as I took the bird from him, I could hear the click-breathing that indicates aspiration. The poor bird vomited water and bits of dog kibble for the entire two hours it lasted after intake, struggling for each breath. I started antibiotics immediately, but it was a lost cause. Birds, especially baby birds, have tiny lungs and it doesn’t take much to aspirate them, causing them to literally drown from the fluids that enter their lungs.

THIS is why I cannot stress enough NOT to feed a bird until and unless you’ve been given CLEAR, DETAILED instructions from a rehabber on a safe emergency diet, and NEVER attempt to give them water. No bird should have to suffer like this because of someone’s ignorance.
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A nest full of mockingbirds ended up at LWR after the tree their nest was in was cut down without anyone checking to see if there were any nests in it.  The people who cut the tree did at least call the game warden to see what they needed to do. Then they tried to get me to give them gas money to bring the birds to LWR…

As a reminder, LWR is a home-based rehab facility and receives no state or federal funding, i.e., no salary. Further, if I ran out to pick up every bird I received a call about, when would I care for the ones currently under my care? It is the finder’s responsibility to get any wildlife needing assistance to a properly licensed rehabber; we simply do not have the time and resources to pick them all up.
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And Friday night, people brought a nestling brown thrasher found in the road. There was no nest in sight.

The weather and my work schedule haven’t cooperated for the juvie great horned release; there was about a three-day window last week with no rain predicted but tight editing deadlines prevented me from releasing her. She’s not an unhappy camper, really, just aggressive and bored in the raptor flight. Fortunately, I was able to snag her live prey several days last week to further hone her skills and help alleviate her boredom.

The adult barred and all the others—the adult and brancher great horned, the brancher barreds, the three adult and two brancher screeches, and the half-feathered black vultures—waiting in line, as it were, for the raptor flight, however, are most definitely not happy.
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Speaking of the vultures, look at how they’ve grown!

They do a nice glamour pose, don't you think?!

​The two brown thrashers in the songbird flight did finally decide to fly the coop and are still hanging around for handouts. The one Carolina wren left in the songbird flight also utilized the “escape hatch” and quickly took up with a clutch of recently fledged wild Caros, so she only came for handouts one day.

The kingfisher died—no clue why. He was eating well, alert, aggressive…and then dead. I suspect it was sheer stress; he was most definitely NOT a happy guest at LWR.
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The brancher barreds and great horned are almost totally self-feeding now.

​The four red shoulders are also beginning to self-feed, which cuts down on the screaming fits quite a bit. Hand-feeding four mouthy red shoulders is truly a pain in the ear!

​And just look how the screech twins have grown! Recall, if you will, a mere three weeks ago, they were eyes-closed balls of fluff with their egg teeth still intact, and just look at them now! They’re also beginning to self-feed.