…with a trickle rather than a torrent, which is just fine by me! In case you’re scratching your head in confusion, let me clarify: orphan (or baby) season has begun, but thankfully not with a bang.
There are still adults coming in, as well. Last week LWR received a robin who’d more than likely been cat-attacked. He was alert and active, despite not being able to fly and having a nasty wound near his cloaca (his butt, people, his butt!), so after a quick trip to Smalley’s, where we x-rayed to make sure the wound wasn’t from a BB or pellet gun and started antibiotics, I took the poor bird back home. Vet Shelley Baumann and I were cautiously optimistic that the robin would survive; unfortunately, he didn’t make it through the night. Soft tissue damage doesn’t show on an x-ray, so there must have been internal injuries that proved fatal, although we saw no signs of this. That’s one of the frustrating things about wildlife rehab—sometimes animals that look as if they have an excellent chance of survival just keel over, and we don’t know why because we don’t know the history of the animal before it was found and brought to us.
A few days after the robin’s untimely demise, I got a call from a local school about a cardinal who’d hit a window. Normally a window strike, if it doesn’t break the bird’s neck, just calls for several hours’ rest in a quiet, darkened room, which I usually recommend. Something told me to go pick this bird up, though, and I’ve learned to trust my instincts. I’m glad I did, because she’d whacked the window hard enough to bloody and bruise her eye. This female cardinal would need a couple of days’ confinement, until the swelling went down in her eye. She has since been released and was a happy little bird when she was able to fly away.
Then the babies started coming…three gray squirrels, siblings, about 5 weeks old. The two females were eager eaters from the get-go; their runty brother was a little more reluctant at first but has since made up for lost time. Their eyes opened yesterday, but I generally give them a few days to adjust to their new vision before I start blinding them with the camera flash!
LWR also recently received a young screech owl—according to Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends raptor rehab, Young Screech is probably about 6 weeks old. He has no baby down but still engages in baby behavior, including puffing up his feathers, bobbing his head around and hissing menacingly…the poor little fellow hasn’t figured out yet that he’s not a great horned owl! (Adult screeches respond to perceived threats by elongating their bodies, scrunching their eyes tightly shut and assuming that since their eyes are closed, they’re invisible.)
A fourth squirrel came in this week, after being mauled by a dog. The finder actually saw the dog attack the squirrel but didn’t bother to go outside to see what her dog was after until several hours later. Folks, humane issues for wildlife aside, just for the safety of your domestic animals, it’s best to see what they’re worrying and discourage their behavior—what if they go after a rabid coon or a rattlesnake? At any rate, this poor squirrel’s spine was snapped; there was no hope for him.
After our harsher than usual winter, it’s nice to see the weather starting to warm up and hear the birds in full chorus as they compete for mates, nesting sites and food. If you haven’t done so already, now’s a good time to begin keeping your hummingbird feeders full, as these adorably aggressive little birds need the supplemental food until more flowers, etc., are blooming.
After our harsher than usual winter, it’s nice to see the weather starting to warm up and hear the birds in full chorus as they compete for mates, nesting sites and food. If you haven’t done so already, now’s a good time to begin keeping your hummingbird feeders full, as these adorably aggressive little birds need the supplemental food until more flowers, etc., are blooming.
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