What a weird and frustrating week…just two intakes, but boy, you’d better settle in for some serious soapboxing on these two…

First, about midweek I get a call from a young woman who found a vulture in her back yard when she came in from school. He wouldn’t fly away, and based on her description and that of her father, I’m pretty sure the bird’s in a bad way. It’s frigid outside, it’s late, and we agree to meet in the morning if he survives the night.

The next morning she calls and we agree to meet…what I didn’t realize is that they didn’t have the vulture restrained…Daddy goes to work and Mama and Daughter load up Sir Vulture to bring him to me. As I get in the car to head for the designated meeting spot I get a call from Daughter, who is just shy of panicked. Sir Vulture decided he didn’t like car rides, came to life in the back seat, and promptly did what vultures do: puked. All in their back seat.

If you’re laughing now, you’ve obviously never smelled vulture puke. Skunk spray is a pleasant smell compared to vulture puke. I mean, stop and think about what vultures eat. Now let that simmer in digestive juices for a while…and then the vulture gets nervous, feels threatened—whatever—and effortlessly upchucks as a defensive measure. Oh yeah…believe me, it will make you gag.

Word to the wise: NEVER allow any animal, wild or domestic, to ride unrestrained in your vehicle. It’s just not safe, for starters, and if they do decide to freak out or puke, a simple cardboard box not only helps confine the smell, it eliminates costly clean-up of seats to remove puke or blood.

Given the smell in their car, Mama and Daughter head back home to transfer Sir Vulture to Daddy’s truck...restrained this time. They get him to me with no further incidents; I give him a cursory look at the meeting site, discover that he’s a turkey vulture, the larger but shyer of Georgia’s two vulture species, and don’t really see anything, but a full exam will wait until I get him home.

Once home, a thorough exam reveals…nothing. There’s not a thing wrong with this bird that I can find. But he’s not wedging his head in the corner of the box, which is SOP for turkey vultures normally. Hmmm…

To be on the safe side and make sure I’m not missing anything, I call Smalley’s and confirm that they can see Sir Vulture that morning. When I get to the clinic, while I’m waiting in the exam room for vet Richie Hatcher to come in, I open the box. Sir Vulture pops his head up and looks around over the edge of the box. On a whim (one of these days my whims are gonna land me in serious pain), I offer him my hand. He doesn’t shy away; he nibbles my fingers. I try again—same results. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would say…

Sorry; the vid below was filmed upside down, from my vantage point as I was looking into the box.

Vet tech Carma Goodman comes in, and we watch Sir Vulture taking in his surroundings, apparently unfazed by anything he sees. When Richie comes in, I do the hand thing for him. He agrees it just ain’t normal.  Sir Vulture protests not at all when I take him out of the box. Richie confirms that there are no injuries I missed, and then…we simply let go of Sir Vulture to see what he’ll do. We’re in a closed exam room; if he freaks out, we can catch him—and he’s already puked up everything, so that’s not an issue.

He walks around the exam table like he owns it, checks out the computer monitor, decides he doesn’t especially like it, and poops next to the scale. Then he walks to the edge of the table, where we’re all standing with our jaws on the floor, and looks at us as if to say, “Hey, how ya doin’?”

By this point we’re positive he’s at the very least severely habituated, meaning he’s had waaaay too much close human contact. The only time he puts up a fight is when we go to put him back in the box, but once he’s back in the box, we pull up chairs next to it and talk about his situation, while he swings his head back and forth, listening to the conversation. Vultures may not be pretty but they ARE smart.

Over the past few days, he’s started hissing at me when I feed him, which is good, but we’re thinking it’s just stress from being confined—been too cold to attempt a release. I’ve talked to Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends and Kathryn Dudeck of Chattahoochee Nature Center, and we’re all in agreement that once the weather moderates, the best option for this guy is a “soft” release, meaning I’ll put him in my old deer pen, which is enclosed on the sides and open at the top. This will give me a chance to see just how habituated he actually is and give him the chance to fly away freely if he so chooses. If he doesn’t, it’s ed bird status for him, I suppose.

Which brings me to rant #1: Those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while know that it’s against state and federal law to possess birds without the proper permits. There is a VERY good chance this bird has been in captivity, given his age (over a year old), possibly for most of his life. If this turns out to be the case, I’m gonna have to break out the voodoo dolls and very long hat pins to wreak revenge on the anonymous idiot who ruined this bird—and don’t think I’m joking, either…

Then, on Saturday morning, Laurens County 911 called and said a man had called to report an injured crane. They gave me his number and I called to discover that his wife had seen the bird by a tree near their pond earlier that morning and when she started out to see what its problem was, it tried to run and fell over. Hmmm…not sounding good…

I suggest a meeting spot as he walks out to see if his wife has managed to catch the bird. The bird had attempted to get into the water, at which point Wife had discovered that it was tangled in fishing cord. Despite the frigid temps, she waded into the water to get the bird and cut loose what she could see of the cord. At this point I suggest we just meet at Smalley’s. Fishing cord is probably gonna be a four-handed job…I alert Smalley’s and head out.

Wife doesn’t even take time to change clothes or put on shoes; they’re waiting for me when I pull into Smalley’s parking lot, and she’s still damp and barefooted, holding the wet bird wrapped in a jacket—we need more people like her, who put the welfare of the wildlife first!

I get a box from my trunk, where I keep a supply of various-sized boxes, and as we move him into the box, Wife shows me the loose end of the cord, where she’d cut it. It appears to be wrapped around his neck and tangled in his wing, and his legs are raw, probably from the cord she managed to cut off. I’m on low simmer at this point because some idiot didn’t bother to clean up his mess and the bird, actually a great blue heron, is suffering as a result…then she tells me the neighbors said they’d seen the bird by the tree for “two or three” days—and we’d had frigid temps the past several days. Instant full boil…

I get the heron inside, where I see if there’s any of the cord I can ease out of his feathers on my own while I wait. What I discover is that the hook, with the damn rubber bait worm still attached, is through the flesh of the wing and the cord is tangled in the wing and around the neck.  Richie Hatcher is pulling Saturday duty, so when he comes in, I restrain the heron for him to begin working the cord loose. 

The cord around his neck has rubbed a raw spot. He has a huge raw spot on one leg and two smaller abrasions on the other. The underside of the wing has a huge raw, irritated area, to say nothing of that damned big hook embedded in the flesh, with a barbed end, so Richie has to cut the end before he can pull it out…Luckily, nothing is broken, but there may be soft tissue damage from the heron struggling to free himself before he was rescued.

Vet tech Christy Harrell manned my camera to document the hook and cord removal, as both my hands were otherwise occupied.

After Richie gets all the cord off, he gives the heron something for pain and some antibiotics. I’ll be treating the wounds at home. When I get him home, within an hour or so, he’s standing on both feet but favoring that pierced wing.  He’s feeling feisty enough at this point to raise his head feathers slightly in threat—and believe you me, that dagger-like beak is not to be taken lightly.

This morning, the wing was slightly more level but he wasn’t putting weight on the leg that was most scraped. Adding to his general misery, he didn’t want to eat on his own, so I had to cut up his fish and force-feed him—not pleasant for the bird or me.

And all this leads me to rant #2: People, I get that fishing is fun and relaxing and all that jazz, but for God’s sake, CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF.  Leaving cord and hooks and crap laying around isn’t just dangerous for wildlife—what if a child had stepped on that hook or had gotten tangled in the cord, fallen into the water and drowned because s/he couldn’t free him/herself from the cord? Stop and think about the consequences of your actions! And furthermore, if you see a bird that doesn’t seem to be able to fly or acts lethargic or obviously has an injury, by-God CALL someone to get help for that bird! Every state has licensed rehabbers; look up the ones nearest you (you can usually find lists online through your state’s game and fish division) and program their numbers into your phone—you never know when you might need them!

Right now it appears the heron will make a full recovery, but as I said, there’s always the possibility of soft tissue damage to the wing. We won’t know for a while whether someone’s careless disregard for anyone besides themselves has doomed this bird or whether he’ll be one of the lucky ones.

No new intakes last week, which is a nice break. We'll focus on releases instead—also always lovely! (And it makes for a short update this week, too…)

First, an update on the Christmas Eve bald eagle: Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends says the ill-tempered cuss is getting close to release-ready. He'll know more as to when a release might be planned later this week. I’ll do my best to be present with trusty camcorder and digicam at hand for the release.

December’s fledgling pigeon was not release-ready when we attempted it last week—he circled around, not too high, and landed in my yard, from whence he did not move...so he's back in the flight pen...

The sweet little Eastern bluebird, however, with his beautifully healed wing, was delighted to regain his freedom and took off without a second glance. I love those types of releases!

Just a reminder for you local folks: Ruby Tuesday in Dublin is hosting a fundraiser for LWR on Thursday, Jan. 23. All you need to do is click on the link below to print out the flyer and present it to your server, and 20% of your meal total goes to LWR.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hoz2tjx5j3crh7p/lwr%20ruby%20tuesday%20fundraiser%20flyer.pdf

To further refresh your memory, because the Dec. 2013 and Jan. 2014 fundraisers were listed jointly, I won’t receive a final figure as to funds raised until after Jan. 23, so let’s make an all-out effort to make it a goodly sum—I’ll be overrun with spring babies in just a couple of months!

Finally, a single peek-a-boo shot of one of the flyers--enjoy!

Gray skies didn’t dim the color on the three intakes this week: two cardinals and an Eastern bluebird. It was also a nice break from the steady stream of raptors!

On the topic of raptors, Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends says the Christmas Eve bald eagle and New Year’s Eve red tailed hawk are doing well. The BE is starting to use his wing more as it continues to heal; the RT still has numerous human-caused issues to be resolved, not the least of which are nutritional deficiencies from a crap diet before he came to me and then was transferred to Steve. He’s got months to go before “release” is anywhere near being added to the vocabulary for him.

This past week saw just three intakes, one of which was a window-strike cardinal, female. Somehow she hit the window just right to quite literally rip her leg off at the ankle. It was barely still attached when her rescuer got her to me, and the blood loss from that injury and possible internal injuries resulted in her death as I was placing her in a box for transport home.

I had also netted another grounded male cardinal in my own yard, who turned out to have a severely damaged, infected beak. The infection had spread and created a pus pocket beneath his eye. 

He also had only one foot: the other leg ended in a well-padded nub that indicated it was a congenital condition, i.e., he hatched that way. I wasn’t too worried about the nub, as he’d obviously never known differently and had survived quite well to this point. 

The beak and infection, however, did worry me. While damaged beaks can regrow, the fact that infection had set in and was spreading meant his situation was serious, if not dire. Adding to my concern was the fact that he was very thin—eating with that damaged beak was difficult.  (And if you’re wondering what caused the damage, my money’s on another cardinal. They fight at feeders, and I found a dead female beneath a feeder once with a cardinal-beak-sized hole in her skull. Those seed-cracking beaks are lethal weapons!) I gave him seeds but also started hand-feeding, along with antibiotics. Sadly, he didn’t survive the night.

When the call came from a lady who said she had a bluebird, I assumed she really meant blue jay. A lot of people use the terms interchangeably and inaccurately. To my delighted surprise, however, she was using the term accurately. She’d seen a grounded Eastern bluebird (EABB) in her yard; unfortunately, her dog got to him first but did no further damage that she could see. Still, he’d been in the dog’s mouth and needed antibiotics and a thorough exam to ensure there were no broken bones from the canine jaws.

While nothing appeared to be broken, the EABB did have a longish raw spot along the leading edge of his left wing, which accounted for the grounding, and his weight was down from the previous two nights of frigid cold we’d experienced. Birds drop weight quickly in cold weather, especially insectivores like EABBs. 

Happily, both these conditions were easily treatable. A round of antibiotics would make sure the wing didn’t become infected, and I’m never without mealworms, a bluebird favorite. 

This gorgeous, sweet little fellow is slated for release later this week, which pleases me to no end—as many of you know, EABBs are among my very favorite birds. Their gorgeous color, sweet voices and equally sweet temperaments make them thoroughly adorable.  They’re even more precious to me because we came so close to losing them as a species in the early 20th century thanks to aggressive non-native cavity nesters such as starlings and house sparrows, to say nothing of human destruction of their natural habitat. Thanks to the development of nest boxes designed to keep out these two species and other predators, and to the efforts of bluebird enthusiasts in establishing bluebird trails (routes with well-maintained and closely-monitored EABB nest boxes), their population has rebounded.

LWR will be holding another all-day fundraiser at the Dublin, GA Ruby Tuesday on Thursday, January 23. Everybody eats out at least once or twice a month, so why not let your meal benefit LWR? All you need to do is click on the link below and print out the flyer, then take it with you to Ruby Tuesday and give it to your server on Jan. 23—easy, tasty, and helpful to LWR’s rehab efforts for 2014!

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/hoz2tjx5j3crh7p/lwr%20ruby%20tuesday%20fundraiser%20flyer.pdf

Because the Dec. 2013 and Jan. 2014 fundraisers were listed jointly, I won’t receive a final figure as to funds raised until after Jan. 23, so let’s make an all-out effort to make it a nice sum—baby season will be here before ya know it!

One final “housekeeping” note: next week’s update will be Monday night, Jan. 20.

In keeping with the intakes-on-holidays tradition, LWR received a first-year red tailed hawk on New Year’s Eve and a first-year sharp-shinned hawk on New Year’s Day. It’s the RT that leads to my combined last rant of 2013 and first rant of 2014.

I had suspicions about this bird based on his behavior at intake, but he was stressed, so I gave him time to calm down some before attempting more than a cursory exam, which revealed no injuries. This was good news. However, my interaction with this RT during the exam and afterward confirmed my earlier suspicions. He’d been in human hands—abusive human hands. He fell on his side, wing raised defensively, when I reached in for him. He flinched when I moved my hand while holding him. His eyes bugged out and the pupils pinned when he looked at me—and he watched my hand movements like he expected to be hit. His talons were overgrown enough that I blunted just the tips of them so he didn’t puncture his own foot when he balled his feet up in stress and fear. He was dehydrated.  He refused to eat on his own, but gave the juvenile begging call for food, so I had to hand-feed him, after which he would crouch in the bottom of his box. His flight muscles didn’t feel developed to me. He showed signs of having worn jesses. In short, everything about this bird suggested he’d been in captivity since he was very young—and had not been treated kindly or with any degree of skill or training. And then he’d been dumped to fend for himself without any survival skills. 

Are you steaming yet? I still am, every time I think about it.

I discussed his behavior with Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends, who agreed with my assessment, and since Steve currently has two first-year RTs in rehab, we decided the best outcome for this RT would result from being with Steve and these other two RTs.  After the transfer, Steve called me to confirm again that our initial assessment was correct. It will now take Steve months of work to undo what some damn fool, in their sheer arrogance and stupidity, did to this bird.  

His box is a mess in the video clip below, as I had to wait until after I'd fed him to change the paper; otherwise he fell over on his side and wouldn't eat.

I’m not even gonna sugar-coat this, people—if I could find out who screwed up this bird in this fashion, I promise you, I could provide like treatment for them and sleep like a baby afterwards. There’s just no excuse. I don’t wanna hear, “Well, I didn’t know…” If you don’t know what you’re doing, then here’s a wild guess: You’re not properly licensed for whatever you’re doing, so you’re breaking the law. FIND A PROPERLY PERMITTED INDIVIDUAL AND SURRENDER THE BIRD TO THEM. And if you claim to have a permit and this is the result of your “training”, your permit should be revoked and you should never be allowed near birds again, upon pain of death. Harsh? Not as far as I’m concerned. Don’t harm Georgia’s native wildlife and expect me to tolerate your stupidity without expressing my very strong opinion and my burning desire to return the “favor”.

Stepping off my soapbox, let me thank Telfair County 911, the Telfair County deputy who found and captured the RT and the Telfair firefighter who brought him to me. All these individuals cared enough about our native wildlife to do the right thing. We need more people like them!

On New Year’s Day, this poor sharpie came in with both wing and leg fractures on the right side. The wing fracture was open; the leg fracture was right at the joint and there appeared to be nerve damage to the foot. Either fracture alone would have been a deal-breaker; combined, they gave this poor bird no chance at all. He was euthanized.

And on Friday night, a couple found a hawk huddled against a building in Bulloch County in a downpour. Unfortunately, he died of starvation en route. This first-year Cooper’s hawk was rail thin. There was nothing that could have been done for him, even if he’d survived the trip to LWR. Once birds reach a certain threshold, there’s nothing that can pull them back from death’s door. His pitifully exposed keel was stark evidence that he’d passed that threshold. It’s been that kind of winter for our raptors: too little food and bad hunting weather have combined to create too many HBC and starving raptors.

The bald eagle is doing well, per Steve: http://www.bubba-and-friends.org/living-wild-in-georgia.html . (My face is healing just fine, too!)

The barred owl slated for a Christmas Eve release did indeed get his release, which sorta got overshadowed by the BE intake that night. Normally, I release owls closer to dusk, but given that this guy had one eye with only partial vision, I released him earlier, so I could track him down more easily if he ran into trouble during the release. It can happen—not often, but I’m paranoid!

I did manage a few shots of the flyers, so enjoy!