It was another not-great week for wildlife, salvaged by the sight of a flock of migrating robins in the trees on a gray, overcast mid-week afternoon.

First, the long-shot barred didn’t get re-x-rayed last week; the day I took him to Smalley’s, late in the week, the machine started malfunctioning when we had him on the table for x-rays. Our physical exam didn’t give us much hope; it appeared the bones had not been drawn back together by the muscle, as we’d hoped. But we’re holding off on any final action until we can actually see what everything looks like.
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On Friday yet another barred owl came in, this one with a wing that didn’t require x-rays for me to know it was a fatal fracture. His left shoulder and humerus were shattered—and yes, he’d been found in the middle of the road, so he’d probably been hit by a car. The photo below was taken post-euthanasia, to show you the extent of the damage to his wing​—you can see it’s facing backward. 

​And Saturday, a gorgeous red tail came in, severely emaciated and too weak to hold his head up. His finder had first seen him three days previously but by the time he made it to LWR, it was too late. I saw no signs of frounce and nothing was broken, so more than likely he had capillaria and it had advanced to the point that nothing could be done. For those who need a refresher, capillaria are worms that raptors pick up from eating infected rodents, and they fill the bird’s crop, effectively starving it to death while it feels full. I managed to get one small liquid feeding into the poor fellow, but it was too little, too late. He died within an hour of intake.

​In a sign that spring is just around the corner—okay, if you’re in Georgia, spring is popping back and forth around that corner like a jack-in-the-box—about midweek I walked outside to a tumult in the scrub oak at the corner of my parents’ yard. I could hear the ruckus clearly in my yard, and I knew the sound: a flock of robins had descended into the upper branches of the trees and were chattering away. By the time I got the camera and got up there, they’d settled down and were fairly quiet, but just LOOK at the sheer numbers in that tree! (It was, as I mentioned at the outset, a very overcast day, so there’s very little color to be seen; sorry ‘bout that.)

Sometimes you just have one of “those” weeks…

The red tail suddenly stopped eating—totally—and didn’t even fight when I went in to catch him for euthanasia.  Not normal at all for a bird who’d fought beak and talon on intake and had been insanely food aggressive. He’d basically just given up…

The long-shot barred didn’t make it to the vet this week; we’ll aim at next week. I’m trying to remain optimistic about his chances, but honestly, as badly displaced as those bones were, it’s hard to maintain any real hope of proper healing for flight.

Midweek an adult sandhill crane came in. He came from about 90 minutes away; Laurens County isn’t in the sandhill flyway. He was blown into a power line by an early-week storm; the eyewitness said he hit the wire and “exploded; there were feathers everywhere.”  A game warden near the site of the accident captured him and took him to a volunteer transporter who lives near him, who met me at Smalley’s with the quite angry bird. X-rays showed no wing fractures but he did favor his left leg. The capturing game warden said he was running and had to be chased down, though. He also seemed to have some slight difficulty breathing, which the game warden also noticed when he captured him, but he was alert, aggressive and eating well—at least at first. Within two days, he was beak-breathing with his neck stretched out full length, lethargic and not eating, and when I lifted the unresisting bird up to euthanize him, blood seeped from his beak. I strongly suspect there was some sort of blood clot that broke loose in his lungs.

​And yesterday another game warden from out of county brought a small adult male barred owl with an open left wing fracture. He also was humanely euthanized. The photos below were taken post-euthanasia.

All in all, not a good week…

Hope some of you are participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count, which ends tomorrow, so there’s still time to take part.

In my family we’ve always said spring doesn’t actually arrive till after Easter, which is VERY late this year, so no matter what the thermometer tells you right now, there’s more cold weather in store. Hopefully we won’t have any late freezes after songbirds have eggs and/or babies in the nest.

This was a fairly slow week, with only one intake. The long-shot barred will go back in for x-rays in the next couple of weeks, and the red tail still refuses to fly—he keeps that wing tucked tightly to his body, which makes me think it’s soft tissue damage rather than nerve damage, like a tendon that healed too tightly and now he can’t extend the wing. I was hopeful being in the raptor flight would encourage him to stretch the wing and thereby flex the tendon but he may require fairly intensive PT to see if there’s a chance of his regaining flight capability. We’ll see…
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The sole new intake was a feisty black vulture whose wing fracture had healed in the wild. Black vultures are smaller than turkey vultures, and their sense of smell isn’t as well-developed—you can see that by their smaller nares, or nostrils. So they usually follow turkey vultures and are aggressive enough that they can often run off the larger vultures to feed. Smart rascals, huh? I keep tellin’ y’all vultures are highly intelligent!

Given his very apparent good health—he was rambunctious and well-fleshed, and his feathers were glossy—and the fact that there was new feather growth on the wing, I opted to see what he’d do in the old deer pen. I’d initially planned to just hard-release him, but should he have proven unable to fly, lemme tell ya right now, vultures can run REALLY fast…and I wasn’t about to try and chase him down. So I opted for the old deer pen instead. I’ve used it before to test vultures when the raptor flight was occupied, the theory being that if they can fly out of the deer pen, they’re good to go. It took him less than five minutes to take his leave—I walked into the house for the camera and he was gone when I went back out. I have no doubt he’ll be just fine.
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And just a reminder—next weekend, Feb. 15-18, is the Great Backyard Bird Count.  You don’t need any special equipment or to be in a group or a specific location—even a city park will do. You don’t even have to list all the birds you see or hear, if you don’t recognize the species.  As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s the easiest bird count out there to participate in, and it’s fun, besides. I encourage y’all to give it a try.

 ​Yay! The Coop was released Saturday! And yes, it’s normal to be happy about a release, but with Coops it’s more like ecstatic. Why? Coops are accipiters, the high-strung, predictably unpredictable nutcases of the raptor world. My greatest fear while he was in the flight pen last week was that he’d fly into the wall and break his fool neck—yeah, Coops are known for brilliant stunts like that. I literally tiptoed up to the raptor flight each morning and held my breath until I heard movement inside. So I’m pretty sure I was happier than he was at his release, although he was pretty darn happy himself. Photos below are in the raptor flight.

​There are no post-release photos, as he took off low and gained altitude as he turned into the trees and disappeared—if you look closely at the video, right after he turns, you can see him lift on the right of the screen, and then he’s gone.

The long-shot barred owl continues to eat well and, if he’s very, very lucky, he’ll heal for flight. Given the displacement of those bones, which you saw in the x-rays a couple of weeks ago, it’s really iffy. No photos of him this week—I mean, he’s sitting in a crate with a perch. How many photos of that can ya take?
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The red tail is in the raptor flight now. The right wing isn’t drooping like it was but he doesn’t want to fully extend it and he’s only doing short hops and low, short flights. It’s got to be nerve or tendon damage, as his x-rays were clear. We’ll see; I’m hoping being in the raptor flight will encourage him to start using that wing properly.

​And the sole new intake, the first for February, was a barred owl found by the roadside in a neighboring county. His left wing had an open fracture that was still bleeding when he arrived at LWR several hours after he was spotted and caught.   As a refresher, federal regs do not allow for wing amputation above the wrist and only then if the bird will be placed as an ed bird, as he’d be nonreleasable. Barred owls are probably the most common owl in Georgia—they’re certainly the ones LWR receives in greatest numbers—so educational facilities throughout the state have all the barreds they need. He was humanely euthanized and the photos below taken post-euthanasia.

​Just a reminder—the Great Backyard Bird Count is Feb. 15-18 this year. You can visit http://gbbc.birdcount.org/ for more details. I encourage y’all to give it a try; it’s one of the easiest bird counts to participate in because of its flexibility—you can count every day, one day, one hour—whatever fits your schedule. Can’t get much easier than that, right?