You’ve read in this space before that wildlife rehab provides the highest of highs and lowest of lows, often in the same day—well, this week certainly had its fair share of highs and lows.

Let’s start with a high: a long-awaited release…or three. Yep, the barnies have flown the coop! Take a look at those gorgeous babies enjoying their first unfettered  flights!

The crows didn’t harass barnies 2 and 3 for very long—maybe five minutes or so—and it wasn’t a wholesale mobbing, just two or three crows being typical loudmouthed corvids.
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The barred owl that recovered from pretty severe head trauma was also released. Honestly, his release initially looked to be a bust; he flew straight to the ground and sat there. After a bit, though, he flew into the woods, then back across in front of the car to land on a pine stump, and from there into the woods behind the car, at which point he disappeared from sight.

Actually, it was apparently barred owl week at LWR. To “replace” the released barred, three new ones came in: two adults and a downy baby.
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One of the adults had an open wing fracture and was immediately euthanized.

​The other just came in today with a massive concussion but no apparent fractures.

​The downy barred is probably about three weeks old and fell from the top of a pine tree, according to his rescuers. He’s eating well and casting pellets like a pro!

​There was also a “mini-run” on red shoulders, with two intakes from that species. The first had a mid-bone right wing fracture. Because it wasn’t badly displaced and the ends of the bone were still (barely) attached, vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital and I opted to give this fellow some cage rest and see how he heals. We’re optimistic, as long as he remains a cooperative patient. So far, so good!

The second RS wasn’t as lucky.  An intake exam left me unsure if I was feeling a fracture or the head of a dislocated bone, so again, off to Smalley’s we headed. Peggy was also initially confused by the feel of the bone, but x-rays showed an old, badly displaced and badly healed fracture—and a pellet lodged in his body. Yeah, somebody had shot the hawk, and he required euthanasia.

Let me just say for the record that illegality of shooting protected birds aside, it’s my personal, considered opinion that there’s a special place in hell for people who shoot raptors.
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Because shooting raptors is illegal, this bird’s x-rays and information were sent to both DNR and FWS; unfortunately, because we don’t actually know when or where the shooting occurred and there are, to our knowledge, no eyewitnesses to the shooting, neither agency has any grounds for an investigation. Sadly, this is too often the case.

​The actual first baby bird of the season—he came in a day before the downy barred—was a nestling mourning dove, yet another victim of clearcutting. He was also fed an inappropriate diet and given water through a straw before reaching LWR, further stacking the odds against him. He was started on meds immediately upon intake, but as of today, it’s not looking good for the sweet little fellow. He’s struggled from day one at LWR, and he seems to be losing ground. 

People, PLEASE do NOT feed baby birds UNLESS AND UNTIL you’ve spoken with a rehabber. Doves, especially, require a special diet and feeding technique, and feeding them the wrong food and/or the wrong way can have fatal consequences.
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And in another rant-worthy situation, this poor male yellow-bellied sapsucker was found grounded and surrounded by cats, left with no food or water aside from chicken strips for an entire day, fed nothing as far as I could gather the second day, and brought to LWR on the third day: he went from Wednesday to Friday with NO food, water or medical treatment. He didn’t last 24 hours after intake, poor bird.

Yet again, people, CATS BELONG INDOORS. If you insist on putting both your cats and local wildlife at risk by allowing the cats to roam freely outside, at least have the decency to seek help for cat-attacked wildlife in your yard ASAP, as cats carry bacteria in their saliva and under their claws that is TOXIC to wildlife. Meds need to be started within 12 to 24 hours at the latest; sooner is better.

And while rehabbers DO ask that you not feed wildlife unless instructed to do so by the rehabber, we do NOT advocate allowing ANY songbird to go 48 friggin’ hours without food. Use a little common sense, folks!
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This turkey vulture came in yesterday with an open wing fracture; the exposed bone was already turning black, i.e., dying. He was humanely euthanized.

​And ending with a dose of adorable, the flyers are growing apace and have finally discovered the joys of solid food.  By next week they should be in more spacious digs, too, as they’re getting more active and need some legroom.

Despite the unseasonably cold temps for most of the week, by Friday the weather had moderated sufficiently for some immediate releases, with more planned in the next few days. It was a slowish week intake-wise, the only new intakes being three young flying squirrels whose nest was destroyed by clearcutting, and that, folks, will be the source of the rant. So let’s get started, shall we?

Below-freezing nighttime temps for most of the week were finally replaced by release-suitable temps by Friday night, with correspondingly mild daytime temps, so the overwintering flyers were offered their freedom. Thus far, as best I can tell from nightly checks, four of seven have opted for independence; three are still holding off. I expect them to high-tail it outta here in a few days, though.

The cedar waxwing was released earlier this afternoon and there was NO hesitation on his part—he flew the coop immediately!

​The barnies are up next for release, probably Monday or Tuesday.

​And the barred owl with severe head trauma has shown marked improvement and is pretty antsy himself, so if all goes well, he’ll be outta here by mid-week, as well.

​The tufted titmouse still shows no signs of feather regrowth. This situation ain’t lookin’ real good at the moment…

​Nothing to SEE in this clip, but what you HEAR is the titmouse singing his little heart out, first thing in the morning. This goes on all day, poor fellow. We need some feather regrowth ASAP so this hormonal little bird can go woo a mate!

​The erstwhile singleton flyer was joined last week by three new buddies, approximately the same age but noticeably smaller. She now has two sisters and a brother and, typical flyer fashion, the four foster sibs immediately bonded into one big pile of adorableness.

HOWEVER…it’s the reason the new trio is in rehab that’s the source of this week’s rant. The couple who rescued them did so after discovering that their nest had been destroyed by loggers clearcutting the forest across from their house.  Once they discovered the babies, they had them to LWR within hours, so major kudos to them for doing the right thing in a timely manner.

But CLEARCUTTING? This time of year, when both gray and flying squirrels have babies in the nest, as do great horned owls? And let’s not forget that barred owls and screech owls could already have eggs in the nest; it’s March, after all. And then we have all the songbirds already constructing nests; some early nesters may already be brooding eggs. Red-tailed hawks, Cooper’s hawks and sharp-shinned hawks also are nesting now. Do you see my cause for concern?

Loggers are supposed to check out the area they’re cutting for nests because IT IS AGAINST FEDERAL LAW to disturb an active bird nest, whether songbird or raptor. Active is defined as having eggs or babies in it. Do you think they actually check for nests? OF COURSE NOT! It would interfere with their profits to have to delay razing a forest—an entire wildlife habitat—to the ground because of nesting birds, and as for mammal babies, who cares, right?

I CARE. And you should too.

Let me explain the concept of clearcutting for those who aren’t familiar. ALL trees are cut down: saplings, mature and everything in between. The result is wholesale destruction of wildlife habitat and soil erosion and water loss if the area isn’t replanted.

“Oh, but they DO replant, right?”

Nope, not always. There are two former forests a few miles from my property that were clearcut and never replanted. Some few trees that escaped slaughter still stand in solitary contrast to what was formerly a well-wooded area, and when it rains, the lower-lying of those areas is a veritable swamp. Where did the wildlife whose habitat was disrupted go? I have no clue.

And when the razed forest is replanted, it’s usually in one species—most often pines. This creates a “tree plantation” where herbicides are often used to kill down unwanted species, so you have a monoculture “forest” which is pretty much useless to wildlife. It will never support the variety of wildlife that a natural mixed-wood forest will. So our wildlife diversity takes another hit.

Wildlife issues aside, let’s just be practical about this. Vegetation is a CO2 sink and O2 producer. Remember your high school science class? In the simplest explanation, plants absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen through photosynthesis. Yeah, trees are a major part of the “lungs” of the planet. They contribute to clean, fresh air. And idiots want to raze entire forests to the ground???

There IS an alternative to clear-cutting: selective cutting, in which only certain trees are marked for cutting. It’s more time consuming and expensive, as the loggers must be careful to take down only designated trees and not damage the others. I know this method works, because my grandfather used it, spending much time and effort to find a logging company that would agree to selective cut, and paying more for them to do so. The result? The trees that needed to be harvested were; the surrounding trees were undisturbed, and the area remains a rich wildlife habitat today, some 30 years later.
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So don’t tell me clearcutting is the only alternative; unless your planted pines are infested with pine beetles, there IS an alternative that’s better for all concerned. Clearcutting puts profit ahead of everything else, and that’s just wrong on every level. You can’t eat or breathe money, and all the money in the world won’t replace extinct species. Extinct is forever, people. Forever. 

Yeah, it was another of “those” weeks: the predicted balmy, clear weather disappeared before it got here, leaving us with rainy weather the first part of the week and cooler temps afterward—and the coming week’s nighttime temps are supposed to be near-freezing again. So no releases this week, either.

Add to that a spate of injured birds and one spastic accipiter who behaved exactly as I’d hoped he wouldn’t, and it was enough to make a saint cuss…and as y’all well know, I ain’t a saint by any stretch of the imagination.

Lordy, where to start detailing this miserable past week?
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Let’s start with the sharpie. Remember how pleased I was at how calm he seemed to be? Yeah, well…this week he acted like a true accipiter. He started flailing around in the box, which I attributed to spring hormones and the migratory urge, but he didn’t seem too terribly agitated yet, so I was hopeful a late-week x-ray would show beautiful calluses forming on those broken “hand” bones. But oh no…the spastic little devil decided to self-mutilate: he ripped that left wing completely open and re-fractured the healing bones, doing enough damage to seal his fate. Instead of a vet trip for follow-up x-rays, his vet trip was to determine just how badly he’d screwed up his wing and subsequent euthanasia. Below is the original x-ray, followed by Friday’s x-ray. THIS is what accipiters do all too often in rehab settings, and it’s why no rehabber likes to see them come in.

​The barnies are still awaiting release as soon as our bipolar spring weather cooperates.

​Ditto on the flyers…

​I’m beginning to worry about the titmouse’s feather follicles on that mostly featherless wing. Normally when the feathers are ripped out like his were, it’s a matter of weeks before they start to regrow. There’s still no sign of regrowth on his wing, making me suspect there may be follicular damage, which would then mean no chance for release…

​Two barred owls came in a couple of days apart, both found by roadsides in separate counties. The first had no obvious fractures but did show bruising in his right ear. X-rays confirmed no fractures, which is good, but he appears to be deaf and possibly blind as well. He shows no response whatsoever to any noise in his vicinity and cannot seem to locate his food. This could resolve on its own; it could also be permanent. We’ll give him some time to see what happens. Head trauma can be iffy.

​The second barred owl had a cracked beak and an obvious left wing fracture, near or in the wrist, I thought. X-rays showed it was actually the metacarpal. The beak was easily fixable; the bone was completely broken on both sides, meaning the middle portion just “floated” with nothing to anchor it. Vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital and I discussed the situation at length before deciding the most humane option was euthanasia.

​While brown-headed cowbirds aren’t on my “favorites” list due to their parasitic nesting behavior, they are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so I do accept them and treat them when needed. Unfortunately, this poor bird, probably a windowstrike victim, was beak-breathing hard when he came in and died within minutes of intake. I suspected a ruptured lung. (Curious about the parasitic nesting? They lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, so the other species brood and later feed their babies, often to the detriment of their own babies. They have NO instinctive urge to care for their own young; I’ve seen fledglings in the middle of a flock of brown-headed cowbirds, begging for food, while the adults totally ignored them.)

​This cedar waxwing was also probably a windowstrike victim. He was found downtown Macon, with no other cedar waxwings in sight. Based on his inability to maintain sustained flight, I’d say he has a coracoid fracture. He’s eating well, alert, and eager to be on his way—and coracoid fractures more often than not heal to allow perfect flight, so he just needs a little R&R here at LWR.

​And ending on a happy note, just look at how our little erstwhile pinkie flyer has grown! Her eyes opened mid-week, but she’s still mostly sleeping and not showing any interest in solid foods yet.

With a rainy first half of the week, followed by a cold second half, the weather just refused to cooperate for the planned barnie and flyer releases. Better weather’s predicted for this week, though, so…fingers crossed!
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As for the tiniest flyer, the wee pinkie—well, she’s not pink anymore! Her fur is coming in nicely, and as of yesterday, she’s up to 22g. Compare that to her intake weight of 7.4g—the gal ain’t missin’ any meals!  She’s a somewhat messier eater these days, necessitating rub-downs at the least and outright baths at the worst, so she’s dampish in most of the photos and video below.

​The red-shouldered hawk who came in with the swollen eye and nasty concussion was released yesterday, and boy, was he ready to go! Barely had time to focus the camera for a release video, and forget post-release photos. He didn’t hang around—headed straight into the woods.

Now, some of you may be asking, “But if the weather was too cold to release the barnies and flyers, why did you release the red-shoulder?” Excellent question! And here’s your answer: The red-shoulder was an adult bird. He’d spent the entire winter in the elements, so the cold wasn’t new to him. This is not the case for the barnies and flyers, who were babies in the fall and juvies in the winter. To have the best chance at survival after release, they need at least three days of balmy, rain-free weather to give them time to locate food sources and shelter.
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That said, as I indicated earlier, the weather looks good for release for both sets of overwintering guests this week. 

Nothing to see in the video below; just LISTEN. That's what a vocalizing flyer sounds like!

​The only new intake was a Canada goose who was found near a pond, lethargic and unable/unwilling to fly. She was brought to LWR, where she died during the intake exam. She was rail-thin, but I have no clue what caused the emaciation. Did she eat a lead sinker and die of lead poisoning or had she been fed too much bread, which is bad for ALL birds? We’ll never know, since rehabbers in Georgia don’t have access to free necropsies from UGA and few of us are willing to spend money that can better be used to save wildlife on finding out what killed a specific intake.

No new pix of the sharpie or titmouse this week—I mean, there are only so many poses a bird in a box can strike, y’know? The sharpie is due for follow-up x-rays later this week, and the titmouse still shows no signs of feather regrowth. And he’s breaking my heart—the hormones are in full swing, and he’s sitting in there singing his heart out, trying to attract a mate…I wish those missing feathers would hurry up and grow back in!

And for those who may not have seen this news, flocks of cedar waxwings in Decatur (the metro-Atlanta area, for non-Georgians) have been dying from eating nonnative nandina, aka “heavenly bamboo.” If you have nandina in your yard or anywhere on your property, PLEASE get rid of it. Here’s a link to the article, which also offers advice on killing the stumps once you’ve cut it. You may want to verify with your local extension agent or Master Gardener, though.

http://www.decaturish.com/2017/03/invasive-bushes-in-decatur-killing-cedar-waxwings/

And every state should have a Native Plant Society that will be willing to provide advice on ridding your property of nonnative invasives and replacing them with native plants that will actually benefit our native wildlife. The Georgia Native Plant Society can be found at http://gnps.org/.