We had a couple of days of sunny weather, although as of sunset it had already started sprinkling again. Reminds me of the old Jerry Clower joke (for those of y’all who don’t know Jerry Clower, you have been culturally deprived…) about the idiot who got elected to Congress (a common occurrence, I know, but this was apparently a giant among idiots) and the first thing he wanted to do was move February to between July and August, since it’s a short, cool, wet month and people could use the relief about then.

Last week we had an infrequent but always welcome visitor—a sandhill crane. Y’all know how much I adore those birds, and this one appeared to be in bad shape on intake. He’d been found walking in the road with his head down by an animal control officer in a neighboring county and we were honestly not sure he’d survive the night. He had no external injuries but was reluctant to stand and kept his head bowed when he did stand. Over the next couple of days, though, he improved substantially and today was looking and sounding absolutely great. Given that the branch in front of my house is quite full at the moment, I soft-released him in the yard today and he immediately beelined for the branch. And of course, I followed, camera in hand.
​
There’re more birds below him, but enjoy this gorgeous fellow! I may have gone slightly overboard with photos and video…

​Late this afternoon, a young turkey vulture with a broken leg came in. The leg feels broken right in the joint but without x-rays I can’t confirm. We’ll see how he’s doing in the morning and plan for x-rays if he’s stable.

​Another barred owl came in, this one a transfer for release from colleague Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends. He’s a youngish bird and Steve felt he’d do better if he had a few days with an older barred before his release. And I have an older barred at the moment, so…

​The Coop is in the mini-pen vacated by the sandhill. While he’s eating quite well (relax, the blood all over his beak is from his most recent meal), he has some balance issues still. His poop looks good and he’s casting pellets like a champ, so we just need to get that horizontal and vertical hold adjusted.

​The screech remains inside; his eye cleared up enough over last week that I opted for no vet visit, but with the insane weather, I was just more comfortable keeping him inside. 

​Sisyphus awaits his transfer approval; we know it can take time—up to six weeks, according to Beth Thomson of Blue Ridge Raptors—so as I said last week, it’s just hurry up and wait at this point. (Again, the blood and bits of flesh are from some messy eating. Apparently today was “sling your food” day among my raptors.)

The flyers didn’t show their faces last week, but they’re eating everything they’re offered so I know they’ll do well when they’re released next month.

And saving another favorite for last, the red tail continues to inhale mice like there’s no tomorrow. She cracks me up; she generally snags the first couple before they even hit the bottom of her box and slurps ‘em down like spaghetti, and the remaining five or six—and these are LARGE mice, mind you—disappear shortly thereafter.
​
But look at that face—who could resist that expression?

Y’all, I’m tryin’ really hard not to complain about the rain. Really hard. But Lordamercy, my raptor flight has huge puddles in it; the songbird flight repair is on hold indefinitely, with more rain on the way most of next week, and there haven’t been three consecutive rain-free days since sometime back in late January.  

The good news, as far as the songbird flight goes, is once we got the debris out of the way, the damage isn’t as bad as it initially looked. Volunteer transporter AJ Rogers, who also constructed the mini-pen last summer, estimates about a day’s work to have it usable again.
​
The red tail is looking great and inhaling food. She’s what colleague Steve Hicks calls a light eater: as long as it’s light outside, she’s eating! She was thinnish when she came in; the more she eats, the better. And proper nutrition will aid in better healing of that wing fracture.

​The barred owl, bless his heart, is in the raptor flight. He does have a covered blind at the back, out of the wind and rain, but apparently he was enjoying the wet the day I snapped this photo during a lull in the downpour. 

​The screech is opening his injured eye now, and it’s looking better. I suspect we may have a luxated lens, but there was no way to be sure with the blood that filled his eye most of last week. Now that we can see what’s going on a bit better, he’ll probably make a trip to Smalley’s this week for a more thorough eye exam.

​A young adult turkey vulture was found near the road midweek, apparently unable to fly. His intake exam revealed an old, healed fracture but he was able to fully extend his wing. Given the prevalence of deer carcasses up and down my rural road, I opted to soft-release him. 

​And yesterday a first-year Cooper’s hawk came in with apparent head trauma. Nothing’s broken and he was quite vocal on intake but it was pretty obvious from his head tremors he needs a few days to get his horizontal and vertical hold adjusted. (For those who wonder how to differentiate between Coops and sharpies, Coops generally have a pronounced “ridge” of feathers at the backs of their heads; sharpies have rounded heads. It’s not foolproof but it’s pretty accurate.)

Hopefully some of y’all are having decent weather for the Great Backyard Bird Count, which ends tomorrow. I haven’t participated this year, thanks to the rain. Yeah, I know birds are out in the rain. They have feather insulation. I just get damp, cold and irritable!
​
We’re still awaiting federal approval for Sisyphus’ transfer. It may take some time, so we’re in “hurry up and wait” mode. And the flyers are still awaiting warmer, drier weather for release. But they do love those dandelion greens!

Yeah, we got more rain this past week, enough that the local river will crest about 5 feet above flood stage this Tuesday, with more predicted beginning the middle of this week…Needless to say, this creates problems for our wildlife.

The barred owl who needed to go in the raptor flight last week remained inside, basically because I wasn’t slogging through torrential downpours to get to the flight to feed and monitor him daily. The rain predicted for this week isn’t supposed to be monsoon-quality, though, so I’m aiming at getting him in the flight later today or tomorrow.

The paperwork requesting Sisyphus the kestrel’s transfer to Beth Thomson of Blue Ridge Raptors to begin his career as an ed bird has been submitted to the feds; now we wait.

With dandelion leaf bases sprouting now—no stalks or flowers yet—I’ve added that to the food rotation for the flyers, and they love it. Just a few more weeks before they can be released…
​
The red tail who came in last Sunday had fractures at both the elbow and shoulder, requiring euthanasia. 

​However…Monday morning someone hit a late first-year/early second-year female red tail and took her to Smalley’s immediately, where I picked her up when I took the male in for x-rays. Her x-rays showed wing fractures that we’re pretty confident will heal to allow flight. She was also pretty thin, as most birds I’ve seen this winter have been. It’s this weather; it’s not optimal for hunting, and all our raptors are suffering as a result. But red tails are smart birds; it took her less than 24 hours to figure out that when I walked over to her box it was to feed her; now she lunges upward with those gunboat feet to snag the mice as they drop into her box. Lightning reflexes, that gal! I’m totally in love with her. Red tails are just special birds.

​Midweek a gorgeous little red-phase male screech came in with an eye injury and head trauma. It can sometimes be difficult to determine gender on screeches without having a male and female side by side for comparison, as they’re so small to begin with, but this guy’s so petite there’s no doubt he’s male. As is normal with head trauma, he wasn’t interested in food for a couple of days, but last night he devoured his mice, so that’s good. He was also on the thin side on intake and needs to put on a few ounces.

​And don’t forget the Great Backyard Bird Count begins Friday, Feb. 14 and ends Monday, Feb. 17. You don’t have to be a birder; you don’t have to identify every single species you see—you can just list the birds you CAN identify, although I’d suggest a good bird guide or app to aid with those you can’t ID. Both Sibley and Audubon have user-friendly apps for your phones, and they’re not real expensive. 

Even if you don’t participate in the GBBC I still recommend those two apps or the physical copies of the books as excellent resources, and most states have state-specific guides available, too, although not always as apps. The guides available for Georgia are only as physical copies—not even Kindle versions. Amazon links are provided below, and no, these aren’t affiliate links, so I get nothing from your purchase unless you have LWR as your charity of choice for Amazon Smile.

Georgia Birds: A Folding Pocket Guide to Familiar Species (Wildlife and Nature Identification (https://smile.amazon.com/Georgia-Birds-Folding-Familiar-Naturalist/dp/1583551107/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=georgia+birds&qid=1581275661&sr=8-3). This is a folding, laminated pocket guide that’s great for a quick reference for 140 species seen in Georgia. Small color illustrations and no detailed species accounts.  I have a couple of copies of it, just ‘cause.

Stan Tekiela’s Birds of Georgia Field Guide (https://smile.amazon.com/Birds-Georgia-Field-Guide-Tekiela/dp/1885061471/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=georgia+birds&qid=1581275661&sr=8-1). This one’s a bit of a classic and still easily available, unlike some of the other Georgia guides. Good reference book for 140 species common to Georgia, with color photos and good species accounts. And small—good size to have a spare copy in the car.

Birds of Georgia (https://smile.amazon.com/Birds-Georgia-John-Jr-Parrish/dp/9768200057/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=georgia+birds&qid=1581275661&sr=8-10). This is the Holy Grail of Georgia birding books, with over 300 species and color illustrations. It’s only available used now, and quite pricey, starting at about $40 (It was a little over $14 when I got my copy 12 years ago.) but if you can snag a copy, I’d highly recommend it.

Georgia Bird Watching: A Year-Round Guide (https://smile.amazon.com/Georgia-Bird-Watching-Year-Round-Guide/dp/1591860989/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=georgia+birds&qid=1581275661&sr=8-12). This one has over 100 birds and is touted as a “beginner’s guide.” Also only available used but substantially less expensive than Birds of Georgia. I honestly don’t refer to it very often; my go-tos tend to be Birds of Georgia Field Guide or Birds of Georgia.

For a raptors-only guide, Tekiela’s Birds of Prey of the South Field Guide (Bird Identification Guides) (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1591933811/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) is perfect. Not Georgia-specific but still an outstanding guide to raptors commonly seen in Georgia and throughout the South.

​There are a couple of others available, some still in print and some not, but these are guides I actually have on hand and so I can speak to their quality. For those not in Georgia, check out Amazon, your local bookstore, your local Wild Birds Unlimited or similar store, or even state park visitor’s centers for bird guides specific to your state.

Colleague Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends once said that wildlife rehab was the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, often within hours of each other, and I’ve never heard anything truer. After regaling you with a fairly “high” week in last week’s update, I have to report the news isn’t as great this week.
​
Monday a gorgeous sharp-shinned hawk came in with a nasty open wing fracture right at the wrist. I don’t see a lot of sharpies—I think I saw all of two in 2019—and they’re magnificent birds, so I hate having to euthanize them, but there was no option for this fierce little raptor.

​The middle part of the week was quiet, with a barred owl coming in Saturday night with a massively broken leg. It was fractured at the knee and the hock, or ankle. This was not a fixable fracture, sadly, so the barred also required euthanasia.

Thus far in 2020 LWR has received eight birds, and six of them have required euthanasia. This is why rehabbers have a love-hate relationship with the “off season.” Yeah, we get a break from babies 24/7, but the flip side of that is that the majority of the intakes we see are mortally injured adults. Tain’t easy to deal with some days, lemme tell ya.
​
And today the Wheeler County Sheriff brought an absolutely stunning first-year red tail. Y’all know how I feel about red tails, and many of y’all share my adoration of these regal birds. This fellow has a fracture right at/in the elbow. And there’s a gaping hole there. No bone appears to be exposed, so it may be an additional injury, where the bird picked at the area causing pain, or perhaps an entry wound from a pellet. He’ll go in for x-rays tomorrow to see what, if anything, we can do for the fracture and to check for pellets, as well.

​Meanwhile, the barred owl with the eye infection is holding the eye partially open most of the time now but the eye looks damaged. I suspect some vision impairment there but won’t know for sure till he goes into the raptor flight this week.

​Sisyphus remains with me while we wait to finalize the paperwork for federal approval of the transfer; his new source of amusement is to pull off his jesses and anklets about every other day…

No new photos of the flyers again this week.  They’re fully mature now and ready for release in early to mid-March. As a reminder, flyers remain with Mama in their cavity nest for five months, with fall babies usually overwintering with her for both shelter and her food cache.  In rehab, we mimic that by overwintering the fall babies, as they have no cavities staked out for nests and no food cached for the winter. In March, as the weather moderates, they have decent conditions to stake out a nesting site and begin to store food for the fall and winter.
​
And finally, don’t forget that the Great Backyard Bird Count begins on Valentine’s Day this year: Feb. 14-17, Friday-Monday.