​While there were no new intakes this past week, it was nevertheless a busy week, with two releases. I love releases!
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The barred owl was released early in the week.  He got off to an iffy start, flying to the ground instead of the trees, but when I turned off the camera and started toward him, he got his act together pretty quickly and headed straight for the deepest part of the brush. Good thing it’s winter; no way I’d’ve waded into that snaky, ankle-deep carpet of pine straw and leaves to get release photos during warmer weather!

​The screech is having some issues with eating—as in she refuses to. Not sure what we have going on here. It’s not uncommon for raptors to go several days in the wild without food, so it’s not really worrisome when they occasionally duplicate this behavior in a rehab setting. That said, however, she’s been, in my opinion, too long without food and refuses force-feeding, spitting the food back out. If this continues, we’ll be making a vet visit to see if we can determine what’s going on.

​We lost the runt of the two-baby litter of gray squirrels; I had a feeling early last week he wasn’t gonna make it. After his initial weight gain, he started losing weight and not developing at all, while his brother continued to gain weight and developed the “five o’clock shadow” that precedes actual fur growth.

​And late in the week, the red shoulder was released. He was so eager to leave LWR that the initial video release is a lovely shot of empty sky—no hawk in sight! Once he landed, though, I zoomed in and was able to catch him flying away into a heavier stand of trees, although even the end of that video is crappy-blurry. Sorry ‘bout that…

​And now is a good time to remind you that the Great Backyard Bird Count will be held Feb. 12-15, in just a couple of weeks. You don’t have to be an avid birder to participate in the GBBC; it’s a pretty relaxed event that you can engage in pretty much anywhere, at your convenience, counting only the birds you can ID confidently. Event organizers think this year, because of El Nino, there may be surprises in store for participants in terms of birds that normally wouldn’t be seen during the winter, so get out there and even if you only see common backyard birds, just enjoy the time spent in nature! Details can be found here: http://gbbc.birdcount.org/#_ga=1.127806989.1840628336.1454267842. 

Despite the insane weather—warm and humid one day, rainy the next, then frigid after that—LWR maintained business as usual last week. Wildlife in need is wildlife in need, period.

Early in the week one of our volunteer transporters called saying she’d heard of a great horned owl hung in barbed wire fence. Not good. Never good, but especially bad during their nesting season.  While LWR’s dedicated volunteer transporters arranged to get the owl to me, I hoped the damage wasn’t too severe, although I knew with the week’s predicted weather, even two nights away from his family would be deadly for them.
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When he came in, his wing was shredded underneath, where he’d been caught in the barbed wire. It was raw and still bleeding, but nothing was broken—that was good. There was still the potential for soft tissue damage and even for the wounded tissue to shrink as it healed, prohibiting full extension of the wing.

The good news was he was alert, aggressive and hungry, devouring the mice offered to him the first and second nights. While he was out of his box for medication and treatment of the wing, I gently exercised the wing as well, hoping to prevent tissue shrinkage.

However, the third night he ate less, which didn’t really concern me; I’d been putting quite a few mice in his box and in the wild, an adult raptor can go several days without food with no ill effects. And he was stressed, too—he was in full “feed the family” mode and here he sat in a box, away from his family.
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However, the last thing I expected was for the stress to take him out. He died the fourth night. Given that he was on meds and none of the usual parasite-caused raptor diseases were present, I can only attribute his death to sheer stress.

​In less depressing news, the gray-phase male screech was sent back to his territory via his rescuer, who was delighted to be able to take him back to his home. He was initially reluctant to leave the box and then perched on her hand for quite a while, during which time she called LWR for advice. Just as we were discussing the fact that a couple of other screeches LWR had treated had exhibited the same behavior and debating whether he needed to come back for an additional week or so, he flew off her hand into the brush.

​The red-phase female went on a brief hunger strike after her buddy left. While raptors are by nature fairly solitary aside from breeding/nesting season, in a rehab setting they generally fare better with another of their own species. She’s eating again but still puffed up, head-bobbing and giving me the stink-eye when I walk near her pen.

​The barred owl is in the flight pen and flying well enough that, weather permitting, he’ll be outta here this week.

​The red shoulder is in line for the flight next, after the barred’s release. His eye looks great now—no residual swelling at all—and he’s going stir crazy awaiting his turn to build his flight muscles back up. Soon, buddy, soon…

​Finally, while LWR specializes in birds of all species and flying squirrels, I do occasionally, as time and space allow, take in other species. Late last week LWR received a call about two “pinky” gray squirrels, meaning they were extremely young. After some quick calculations showing that even if they were newborns, they should be at least self-feeding if not at release phase by baby bird season, I agreed to take these two.

Their rescuers said they heard the pinkies’ faint squealing on the ground and discovered a fallen nest. They initially left the babies in the nest, hoping Mama Squirrel would retrieve her babies.  Since squirrels usually have several nests and will often move the babies from one nest to another, this was a wise decision on their part. Unfortunately, these babies were simply too young to make the ear-piercing screams that alert Mama to their location. But I applaud the rescuers for giving Mama a chance before calling LWR.

However…they did attempt to feed them before calling LWR, and here is where I want to offer advice to ANYone who finds ANY wild animal, baby or adult: NEVER, EVER attempt to feed or offer water to wildlife without talking to a rehabber first—and this doesn’t mean allow it to starve to death over the course of a day or several days; it means call a rehabber as soon as you’re sure the parents aren’t coming back for their babies, usually within an hour or two. These babies were stone-cold when they came in. Feeding cold babies can cause their systems to shut down and kill them outright. Also, most often people feed an inappropriate diet, which can also cause potentially lethal digestive issues, and then there’s always the threat of aspiration pneumonia from food getting into the lungs as the babies are fed by an untrained individual. With babies this small, avoiding aspiration can be a challenge even for a trained individual.

These two babies were already “click-breathing” when they came in, a sure indicator of aspiration pneumonia, so they’ve been on meds since intake. Fortunately, their rescuers were actively seeking help as soon as they realized Mama wasn’t coming back for her babies, so they’d only had them for about four hours before getting them to LWR.
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As of today, they’re both doing well and I estimate them to be about 10 days old, as they still have their umbilical scabs but their little whiskers are showing.

Last week, LWR received a call from a licensed commercial trapper—and we won’t even get into my opinion on that horrific practice—who used leg hold traps along his trapline. Obviously, he caught an unintended victim, an adult male great horned owl. I will—barely—give him credit for at least contacting a rehabber to see if anything could be done for the bird, but I will publicly lambaste him for his delay in getting the bird to LWR because he had to “finish checking” his traps and “skinning out” his victims.
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For those who may not be familiar with leg hold traps and their cruelty, please refer to the video below, in which a researcher demonstrates their use on various items.

Now extrapolate what you just saw to that inhumane, vicious contraption being used on an animal. Do you see the reason for my outrage?

Then, when the poor owl FINALLY made it LWR, said trapper had him stuffed in a feed sack and locked in the tool box on his truck. Yeah, real humane guy. When I transferred the owl to a box and quickly examined his legs, I found exactly what I expected: bloody, shattered limbs that were a death sentence for the poor owl. At this point, the trapper’s wife, in a lovely demonstration of “concern”, screeched, “Oh, his legs are broken? Can you fix ‘em?”

I explained that with both the owl’s legs having been caught in their damned trap, between the shredded flesh and shattered bones, the best I was likely to be able to offer the owl was a humane end to his suffering. Then the trapper himself, sounding a bit like Pilate facing the angry mob, said, “Well, it’s off me now. Whatever you do is your business.”

I bit my tongue really hard, gave him a look that should have killed him on the spot, and headed to my car, carefully handling the box to avoid any additional pain to the owl, radiating hostility in their direction. They knew I was furious, and I think they thought I was gonna put the owl down and come back for them, as they hopped into their truck, glancing over at me the entire time, as I eased the box into my car and glared at them again.

And making matters worse a hundredfold, this is breeding/nesting season for great horned owls. If this poor fellow’s mate had eggs in the nest, she’ll now have to leave them to find food for herself, as her mate is now dead. The eggs will get chilled and not hatch. If she had babies in the nest, she’ll have to leave them to find food for them and herself, leaving them at risk of hypothermia (freezing to death) or predation. So yeah, the trapper condemned an entire great horned owl family to death with one fell swoop.

Folks, these traps need to be outlawed. I don’t care if you’re a properly licensed commercial trapper or not; the fact remains that these contraptions are cruel. Unintended victims get caught him them, as this poor owl did, and they suffer untold agony until the trapper shows up to shoot them. Even if the traps caught only their intended victims, the fact remains that they’re cruel and create unnecessary suffering.

Of course, there was nothing to be done but euthanize the owl, but I took him to Smalley’s Animal Hospital because I wanted x-rays of the damage those infernal traps had done.
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For the squeamish, skip the next few photos; they’re pretty gruesome. The leg photos were taken post-euthanasia.

​The weird weather we had last week, with freezing temps and then warming with rain, took its toll on our wildlife, as evidenced by this barred owl, found covered with frost by the side of the road. When he came in, I honestly didn’t give him much hope, as he couldn’t even stand erect and had a beak covered with blood.

​The next morning, however, he was standing upright and looking a bit more alert. 

​As of last night, he was standing up, eyes opened fully, and had eaten all but two of the small mice I’d offered the previous night. This guy’s good for release in a few days, when our weather moderates a bit.

And Friday, two red-shouldered hawks came in, a mature female and a late first-year/early second-year male.
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The male was found sitting in the middle of the road in a rainstorm and was so out of it that his rescuer was able to scoop him up barehanded and wrap him in his coat. On intake, he was well-fleshed and nothing appeared broken, but he was lethargic and his right eye was swollen shut. We had a massively concussed bird on our hands. 

​By the next day, he was alert and able to flip himself upside down in defense when I went to medicate his eye and feed him.

He’s gonna be just fine with a little more time and should also be releasable toward the end of this week.
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The mature red shoulder, however, was just an old bird on her way out. She was thin but not emaciated, alert but weak, had good mouth color, and based on her legs, which show age more easily on birds, she was just an old matriarch who’d reached the end of the line. She ate only a tiny bit at a time and spit most of it back up, much like the very old great blue heron did toward the end of last year. And she died the night of intake, so basically, LWR provided hospice for her.

​The gray-phase male screech’s mismatched eyes were indeed somehow related to his concussion, as over the course of this week his right eye has slowly turned from green to yellow to match his right eye. He’s eating well, the right pupil is showing close to normal dilation now, and he also should be good for release around mid-week.

​The red-phase female screech finally had the “switch flip” in her little brain, and she’s acting like a big, bad screech now, fluffed up and swaying that head like a feathered cobra and hissing—all normal screech behavior and delightful to see! She’s finding her mice with no problem, leading me to believe she has at least limited sight in that damaged eye. If so, and given that she’s now acting normally for a screech, she might end up being releasable after all!

​I housed the two screeches together last week, so you can see the difference in their sizes in the photo below—although do remember that she’s all puffed up so she looks three times his size, rather than only slightly larger!

The first two intakes of 2016 were—surprise, surprise—owls. 

This barred owl was in the middle of the road eating a squirrel. Unfortunately, the driver saw him too late to completely avoid hitting him—or, more accurately, having the owl hit his truck. He stopped inches from the owl, who got spooked and flew into his front bumper, breaking his wing.
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Since the rescuer saw no blood, I was hopeful we had a fracture we could work with, but when I opened the box I could smell fresh blood—never a good sign. And an examination revealed an open fracture under the left wing. With a good inch of jagged bone exposed and, based on the unnatural angle of the wing at the shoulder, further internal fractures higher up, there was no option but euthanasia. The photo of the open fracture was taken post-euthanasia.

​Two days later, a caller said a screech owl had hit her car just above the tire late the previous night. His eye had been bleeding when she scooped him up and placed him into a box.  A quick trip to Smalley’s immediately after intake revealed that aside from a concussion and the avian equivalent of a black eye, there appeared to be no serious damage to this aggressive little male. The blood was from some scraping of the eyelid.  The poor fellow definitely had a headache, though, as evidenced by his posture when we opened the box in the exam room.

​With some meds for the inflammation and a good meal, the little guy was looking much more alert the next day. His dilated pupil indicated that he wasn’t quite over the concussion yet, and oddly enough, he has mismatched eyes—one green and one yellow. Whether this is related to the concussion and will resolve itself or whether it’s just his natural eye color remains to be seen. He continues to improve but needs a few more days. His rescuer knows exactly where his territory is and has agreed to pick him up and return him there once he’s good to go.

​The red female screech continues to adjust to limited vision in one eye but is still not the aggressive little bird she should be, so we still have lingering issues from the brain injury.

​And while they’re not actually guests at LWR, chipping sparrows are beginning to show up in large flocks this month. They’re year-round residents for most of Georgia but we also see a large influx of winter guests who remain through early spring. These are obviously not in breeding plumage, as they lack the reddish “cap”,  but I enjoy watching dozens upon dozens of the cute little rascals flock to my walkway (otherwise known as my large ground feeder) this time of year. You can’t hear their characteristic chipping in the video because I was standing on the porch and filming through an open window. They’re pretty skittish little birds!

There are numerous simple steps you can take to make your yard more wildlife-friendly, and what better time to begin than with the new year? Later I’ll offer seven easy steps to take that will make you yard more attractive to and safe for wildlife.

First, though, let’s have an update on the wildlife LWR has been working with lately.
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The screech’s eye is actually looking a bit better, and she seems more alert although still too docile. We’re still thinking she’s not going to be releasable, but time will tell.

And on Dec. 30 LWR received a call about a possibly injured hawk that was wandering around the bushes in the front yard of a business in town. While I normally ask that people bring the wildlife to me, in this case it seemed better to attempt to catch it myself, as the business faced a busy road.

When I arrived the caller pointed out where the bird, a late first-year/early second-year Cooper’s hawk, was huddled beneath the shrubbery in the business’ front yard. After asking the caller to stand in front of the shrubbery to keep the Coop from running into the road and another volunteer from the business to stand to the side, for the same purpose, I eased behind the bird, net in hand. The Coop wasn’t in good shape; he barely turned his head to look at me as I eased a net over him, and offered almost no resistance as I picked him and the net up.

His problem was immediately obvious once he was in hand: an old open fracture in his “armpit”, with an almost-thumb-sized piece of bone exposed, that had resulted in his slowly starving to death. His keel (breastbone) was razor-sharp and he could barely keep his head up. This was a bird on the way out, and since I was closer to Smalley’s Animal Hospital than to my home setup, I ran him by Smalley’s to be humanely euthanized.
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I actually thought he’d died en route, but he was still barely with us when we were placed in an exam room. Unfortunately, the poor Coop checked out before the vet could even make it into the exam room to euthanize. As I told them, same result either way, but I always feel a bit guilty when I can’t prevent even those last minutes of suffering. 

And this actually goes to a discussion some of my colleagues and I had recently about euthanasia. It never gets easier; in fact, the more experience a rehabber has, the harder euthanasia becomes—we’ve seen too many last-minute miracle recoveries and come to hope for them with every intake. Even when we know it’s the right thing to do, it’s still a decision we struggle with, most of the time. There are times, though, like with this Coop and other badly, obviously fatally injured wildlife, that we can’t get them euthanized fast enough, as we know with great certainty that an end to their suffering is the only release we can offer. 

I can’t speak for other rehabbers, but I know I and my vets at Smalley’s apologize to the wildlife as we’re euthanizing. Even when it’s the only humane option, we have an almost automatic, unconscious reaction of telling the wildlife how sorry we are we can’t repair the damage and allow it to return to the wild. It’s one of the many reasons I love the folks at Smalley’s; they share my deep regret that sometimes death with dignity is our only option for these majestic creatures, and they tell them so.

Now, switching to a less weighty but equally important topic, I’d like to offer you some New Year’s resolutions you can make to help wildlife. Some of them you may already even be practicing, so this should be an easy set of resolutions to keep!

1. Keep your cats indoors— this is safer for both wildlife AND cats. Indoor cats won’t attack birds, squirrels or rabbits, and they won’t run the risk of attack themselves by larger predators, disease or injury from fighting, or being run over. It’s a win-win situation. 
2. Avoid the use of pesticides, insecticides, and rodenticides. Insecticides and pesticides on your plants kill bird food (insects). If the birds eat the poisoned insects, they die. If they feed poisoned insects to their babies in the nest, the babies die. They also get on the birds’ skin/feathers and are ingested when they preen, resulting in death. Further, the chemicals can rub off the adult birds’ skin/feathers onto the nestlings and kill them. As for rodenticides, while you may think they’re a great way to control mice and rats, let me again point out that they have unintended victims. Poisoned rodents are eaten by raptors, who then succumb to the same poisons that killed the rodents. Also, domestic pets and children have been known to eat the rodenticides, with disastrous results. 
3. Create a wildlife haven in your yard. It’s not difficult: a few feeders for the types of birds you want to attract (and clean the feeders regularly); water sources (changed daily to avoid breeding mosquitoes) that can be as simple as a few shallow dishes set on the ground or on picnic tables; brush piles/shrubs in a corner of the yard to provide cover and potential nesting spots for birds and small mammals; a small plot “ignored” by the lawn mower and perhaps even planted with native-to-your-region wildflowers and shrubs; leave snags (dead trees) for cavity nesters such as bluebirds, flying squirrels, woodpeckers and screech owls; put up nest boxes for bluebirds, screech owls, barn owls and other species that will readily use them. 
4. No tree trimming or felling from March-September. Actually, I’d say there’s really no good time to trim/fell trees, as March to September is prime songbird nesting season, but owls have eggs/babies in the nest as early as January/February, and it’s not uncommon for squirrels to have babies in their nests by mid to late February and again throughout the fall, beginning as early as August and running through November. So at the very least, check the tree very carefully if it absolutely must be trimmed/felled. 
5. Learn the name and contact number of your local wildlife rehabber. Share it with friends and relatives. Hope you never need it, but have it handy in case you do. In this day and age, there’s no reason not to just go ahead and program it into your phone! 
6. Donate to your local rehabber. Remember that rehabbers receive no state or federal funding, so consider a monthly donation. Every little bit helps!
7.  Get outside more often and become aware of your environment, especially your own yard. Learn what species are normal for your yard. Get a good bird guide (I’m fond of Sibley’s) and learn to identify the birds you see most frequently. You’d be surprised how many people can’t identify common back yard birds like mockers, cardinals, wrens, titmice, chickadees and blue jays. Go outside at night and listen for the night birds that you may never actually see, like the various species of owls and nighthawks—and even nocturnal mammals like flying squirrels that you’re more likely to hear than see. Your yard is its own little ecosystem; become familiar with it!