​Yep, first baby of the season is…a pinky flying squirrel! They’re called pinkies at this age for obvious reasons—just look at all that pink skin! She came in late last Sunday, weighing just 7.4g. There was no umbilical stump, though, so I’m guessing her age at intake was about 10 days. 

A lady’s grandson had been in the woods behind her house and noticed a recently fallen tree with a lot of “junk” around it. He went over to investigate, saw that it was debris from a nest of some kind, and began sorting through the remnants of the nest, finding just this one little girl.
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Today is a week since she came in, and as of yesterday she’d nearly doubled in weight, 13.3g—and just look at that peach fuzz she’s developing! Below are daily shots so you can see just how much she’s changed since intake.

​The only other new intake was an adult red-shouldered hawk found by the roadside by a traveler, who called a friend, who then referred her to LWR. This was one more lucky red shoulder; while he had a swollen right eye with a small cut below the lid and some blood in his beak, consistent with a concussion, nothing was broken.

​His eye is still a little puffy, but he’s much more alert and eating well. The goal is to release him within the next few days, as soon as the swelling in that eye is reduced a bit more.

​As far as long-term guests at LWR, both the barnies and flyers are slated for release next week, weather permitting. Both sets of overwintering guests are rarin’ to go, so they’ll be delighted to experience true freedom for the first time in their lives!

​The titmouse still shows no signs of molting or regrowing those missing flight feathers, so we may be looking at months before he can go into the flight pen and eventually be released.

​And the sharpie has another couple of weeks before a re-x-ray to see how that broken “hand” is healing. He’s eating well, as you can see from the mess around his perch—the remnants of this morning’s breakfast and a pellet or two.

The week started out on the wrong note when a lady called with over a dozen duck eggs and a tale of interrupted illegal activity to explain her possession of them: her son had witnessed two girls raiding the nests at a local pond, scaring the brooding females off, tossing some of the eggs in the pond, and bagging others and placing them in their car. The young man had the presence of mind to get photos of the girls and their license plate, which he turned over to the game warden, who suggested they call me to see if anything could be done for the rescued eggs—seems the girls noticed they were being watched and dumped the bagged eggs under a tree.

I told the young man’s mother to bring me the eggs they’d salvaged and I’d see what I could do. Unfortunately, between the disturbance the previous day and being off heat for transport to her home, over an hour away, and the transport to LWR, also over an hour’s trip, the eggs had been off heat for too long. Of the 14 she brought, 5 were immediately discarded after candling as being infertile. The remaining 9 eggs, all of which candling showed had early-stage embryos, one by one went bad over the course of the week, reeking of death.

The game warden informed me today that the two girls were juveniles who were running around unsupervised at this public pond.  He put the fear of God into their mother but neither of us is hopeful that these girls will amount to anything. Harsh assessment? Yeah, and sadly, probably correct, given the pathetic lack of parental guidance they’re obviously getting.
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Apparently the floodgates have opened for yellow-bellied sapsuckers at LWR; after 20 years with nary a one, we had the one who was released last week, and TWO came in this week. The first was cat-attacked and on his way out on arrival. He was listless, beak-breathing and totally limp when handled, despite showing no external injuries. I took a short video, below, for graphic evidence of the damage free-roaming outdoor cats wreak on wildlife, and then euthanized the poor bird. (I have NO clue why YouTube decided to upload a horizontally-shot video both vertically and upside down...)

​Just last night, another sapsucker came in, unable to stand or sit upright and beak-breathing, but generally alert. His rescuer found him behind her car earlier in the day. He couldn’t flex his right foot but was able to use the left and to peck and bite at my fingers. I sat him in a donut so he was upright, which would ease his struggle to breathe, and made him as comfortable as possible for the night. While he survived the night, the poor fellow gave up the struggle shortly after sunrise this morning. His right-side paralysis seemed to’ve spread to his entire body shortly before he died, which makes me think he whacked his rescuer’s parked car head-on in an attempt to escape a predator, and the resultant spinal/neural damage did him in. (Again, no clue on the crazy YouTube orientation of the first video below, which was shot in EXACTLY the same orientation as the second...)

​The flyers are pretty much remaining out of sight these days; I did manage one cute shot of one of them peeking out just before lights out the other night.

​The barnies are enjoying their last few weeks at the LWR B&B.

​The titmouse is getting more…ummm…vocal and physical in his opposition to being handled during paper changes. I’m hoping this means a hormonal surge preceding a molt so those missing flight feathers can grow back in ASAP! Normally I snap photos of him after a paper change; this week I thought you’d like to see what one tiny titmouse can do to his cage over the course of a single day.

The sharpie is, surprisingly, remaining fairly calm as we wait for that broken “hand” to heal. He also readily accepted small mice as a food source. Their normal diet is songbirds, so I was a bit worried about that.

​And just a reminder: if you haven’t participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count yet this weekend, you have today and tomorrow to get busy—and, in Georgia, at least, today is a gorgeous pre-spring day and tomorrow is supposed to be the same.

Yeah, it was THAT kind of week: a gunshot hawk, a Good Samaritan who staged a nighttime raid to rescue said hawk from abusers and get it help, a couple who found an injured bird near dark and made a two-hour round trip to get it to LWR…There are a few folks out there who keep me from losing all faith in humanity.

Let’s start with the poor gunshot red-shoulder. On Monday Verizon decided to not register calls or send voicemails from two people calling about the hawk. I got their messages at 2:30AM on Thursday—and yes, I was livid, and you better believe Verizon got an earful from me. I call them to cuss them out so often I’m probably on some kind of list.
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The first caller had actually been calling on behalf of the second caller, who, as soon as I made contact and explained Verizon’s snafu, said he could get the bird to me ASAP. He’d seen the bird go down Monday and thought it might have been shot; when he subsequently found the bird, it was with what he described as “delinquents” whom he suspected of being the shooters, if the bird had been shot. He said they had the bird caged and were tormenting it by poking it with sticks. They refused to hand over the bird, so our hero and a friend staged a nighttime raid to “liberate” the bird and get it to me late Friday. The poor bird was thoroughly traumatized and his right wing was trashed. Under any other circumstances, I would have euthanized that night, but I needed x-rays and I also wanted the hawk to have at least one decent last meal, which he got.

​Saturday morning, I took him to Smalley’s for x-rays, which confirmed lead and a shattered wing. Both DNR and FWS have been notified, and I let the hawk’s rescuer know that he might be receiving calls from both agencies. He’s indicated, against my advice, that he’s going to “find the shooters.”  I understand his rage—believe me, I understand completely—but don’t want him to do anything that will jeopardize his safety or the investigation into the matter.

​Also on Friday, a couple called near dark, saying they’d found an injured hawk in the middle of their road. He didn’t move as they approached in their vehicle and was sluggish when they approached him on foot, so they caged him and called LWR. Upon this sharp-shinned hawk’s arrival around 9PM, an exam revealed a bloodied left wrist and what I suspected at that point was a wrist fracture. He also headed to Smalley’s Saturday for x-rays.

​To both my and vet Peggy Hobby’s delight, the wrist wasn’t fractured; it was instead the metacarpals—the bones corresponding to the human hand between the wrist and fingers. And neither was badly displaced—even better news! So this tiny accipiter will be a guest at LWR for the next few weeks while we give that broken “hand” a chance to heal. Accipiters are spazzy, high-strung birds—think Cooper’s hawk—so this should be interesting…

​Sadly, the tiny chipping sparrow from last week had a nasty fracture that did require euthanasia.

​The yellow-bellied sapsucker, however, who was eager to leave LWR last week, before he’d completely healed, was released without a hitch this week.

​I’ve identified several potential release sites for the barnies, as their release is approaching rapidly.

​The flyers will be released into the colony in the woods near my house. Remember, flyers are social little things, unlike their larger diurnal cousins the gray squirrels, who tend to be solitary and quarrelsome.

​The tufted titmouse shows no signs of feather regrowth yet but continues to eat well and has even started chipping to let me know when he’s running low on mealworms. He tends to finish them off before he does the black oil sunflower seeds, also a favorite of—well, practically all wildlife, honestly.

​And a reminder: the Great Backyard Bird Count is next weekend, Feb. 17-20. It’s the least formal bird count out there. There’s no set time or place: you can observe for 15 minutes or three hours or for one day or all four days; it’s up to you. You can visit a park one day, use your back yard the next, or head to the river to count—whatever floats your boat. (No pun intended…) If you see birds you don’t recognize and can’t seem to find in your guide, no worries—just indicate that you’re not listing all the birds you saw. Hey, if nothing else, it’s a chance to get outdoors and just relax for a while. I encourage you to participate!

LWR saw only one new intake this week, which—Murphy, please note—no one’s complaining about. With baby season mere weeks away, I’ll take all the “slow” I can get before that insanity kicks in!

The sole new intake? A tiny little chipping sparrow with what I suspect is a broken left wing. It’s still too swollen to be sure, and I don’t see any exposed bone, but that sort of raw flesh and swelling usually signals a nasty fracture. We’ll get x-rays Monday to see exactly what’s going on. He’s alert, active and eating well in the meantime.

​Both red-tails were transferred to Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends, where at last report they were still a bit unsure about their new digs. Neither was happy at being boxed up for transport, that’s for dang sure—look at those expressions!

​The titmouse continues to do well aside from getting a bit antsy—with breeding season about to get started, I imagine we have some major hormonal activity gearing up for this little fellow, and he just doesn’t understand why his wings won’t work so he can fly away and woo the ladies. The way he’s eating, when those missing feathers do regrow, he may be too fat to fly!

No photos of the sapsucker because it’s all I can do to get his food to him without an escape and subsequent merry chase through the house. He’s flying quite well indeed and is slated for release within the next few days. Small birds’ bones do heal more quickly, but this has to be a record—he’s flying straight and strong already.
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The barnies are getting increasingly restive, too, perhaps sensing that their release is only weeks away. I’ll miss the rascals but I’ll also be glad to have my one and only raptor flight open for use again.

​The flyers will be delighted to have more room to glide, as well—they’re slated for release at the end of the month, too. Spring “housecleaning” is necessary to make room for the influx of babies that will start about the time all the overwintering guests are released.

​No rest for the weary, y’know!