…that will become a torrent by next month, if previous years are any indication. I can handle trickle; trickle is nice!

Earlier in the month, this downy GHO was found grounded and sopping wet…and very vocal. After receiving a call from a client, nuisance animal remover Nathan Garnto of Allgood Pest Solutions conferred with me to confirm that the owl did need to be rescued and then brought me the bedraggled and ravenous little fellow. 

When I got him home, his little belly (owls don’t have crops) was completely empty and he let me know he was NOT happy about that situation. I’m trying something new for this update—video!—so you can hear his protestations of hunger and his shrieks of delight at getting some juicy rodents.

That same day, this adult barred owl was found by the road. I didn’t see any injuries, but anytime a HBC is suspected, a vet visit is called for. Vet Shelley Baumann at Smalley’s Animal Hospital confirmed that nothing was broken and both eyes seemed functional, but his very docile behavior was a dead giveaway that he was still massively concussed.  A  few days’ R&R at the LWR bed & breakfast eased his headache and he has since been sent on his merry way. No photos of the release, because he beelined for the trees and as I tried to follow him to get at least one good shot of him in the trees, he continued to fly farther away at top speed.

This downy barred owl came in the day before the downy GHO was slated to be transferred to Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends Raptor Rehab—talk about perfect timing! He was also rather famished, as his finders had only fed him chicken livers the night before, when they found him. For the record, that’s not an ideal food for raptors. It’s not as bad as Pop-Tarts, granted, but still…He’s also with Steve at Bubba & Friends.

Again, trying the video thing with this guy, as well.

When these babies were brought to me, the finder also brought the adult bird her cat had killed—a tufted titmouse. These babies had been without food for some time and were cold, and we had a carcass that appeared to be the mother. So…tufted titmice hatchlings! Never had titmice babies before! Yay, something new—always fun!

As they developed, however, I noticed something awfully familiar about them, culminating in today’s beginnings of feather breakthrough. Titmice feathers should be a sort of charcoal color. The little “paintbrushes” showing on these rascals are…brown. Carolina wren brown, to be exact. Yep, 5 darling little Caros!

While I admit to a slight bit of disappointment that they’re not titmice, I do adore Caros and they are healthy little babies so far. Another short vid:

This poor rabbit is the sole “downer” in this update. He was found in someone’s yard and died within 15 minutes of my getting him. As you can see, he had massive internal injuries, most likely from a dog attack. Dogs tend to crush; cats tend to puncture. This looks like crushing to me.

It never ceases to amaze me that people can’t find my number when they should, but weeks or months later, miraculously, they “discover” the existence of LWR. This mourning dove was found last September, probably as a recent fledgling, with a wing injury. The finder kept the bird until this month, when he decided he needed to do something with the poor fellow, and—wonder of wonders!—discovered LWR. My knee-jerk reaction in these cases is to tell these people to suffer the results of their own lack of common sense (notice how restrained I was there??), but this bird might have a chance at release. We’ll see…

While I admit that vultures are highly intelligent, I also must confess that I prefer black vultures over turkey vultures…for a couple of reasons. Black vultures aren’t as ugly as turkey vultures, to be blunt about it. That would be reason number one.  A huge reason number two would be that black vultures don’t tend to projectile puke in self defense as often as turkey vultures do. But turkey vultures are much less aggressive; in fact, they’re downright shy. It took me forever to get this guy to stop hiding his face so I could get this shot.

He was found hung in a fence and while he favors his right wing, it doesn’t appear to be broken. We’ll aim for x-rays to confirm, but he may be another case of just needing a little R&R. Fingers crossed!

And just this morning, this fledgling mocker came in. Normally I encourage people to leave fledglings alone and let the parents finish the job of raising their young, unless the fledgling is injured or in imminent danger, but this raucous fellow was found in a suburban street after dark last night. Even for a mocker, that ain’t normal. He’s not happy about his new digs, but had his rescuers not picked him up last night, he’d either be roadkill or GHO supper by now. So yeah, in this case, this fledgling did actually need rescuing.

With baby season gearing up now, please, please watch carefully when you’re doing yardwork for grounded nestlings and recent fledges who still don’t fly well. It’s all too easy to miss them until the blade of your lawn mower kills them, so be observant! I also strongly discourage the use of chemicals on your grass/plants, as they are deadly to birds in addition to the weeds or insects you’re targeting.

Sadly, it’s not just me reporting an unusually high number of DOAs/euthanasias. Several other rehabbers are experiencing similar situations, leading us to believe it’s gonna be a really awful season. So…the “unpleasantness” marches on…

The sapsucker, who was eating well and drumming away, also was losing weight and the inflammation in her wing continued to spread, even though I had put her on antibiotics. I took her back in for Shelley Baumann at Smalley’s Animal Hospital to re-examine, and she agreed with me that whatever was going on wasn’t responding to treatment, so we euthanized. Because the only facility in the state that performs necropsies charges rehabbers full-price for them, we opted not to have her necropsied, although it would have been nice to know what the problem was.

This is a situation other rehabbers and I have discussed at length and if you’re reading this, anyone at UGA, it would be really nice if UGA offered rehabbers just one or two free necropsies a year. We don’t often require them, but when we think they might be beneficial, we have to make a choice between paying for a necropsy or using those funds to benefit the animals that still have a chance at survival. Most of us opt to focus on the critters we still have a chance at saving.

This poor barred owl was found sopping wet by the side of the road on a Saturday evening. When I met his rescuers, I knew his chances weren’t great after a cursory parking lot exam. Nothing was broken, but he had severe head trauma, one eye was definitely trashed, and the other looked questionable. 

By Sunday he was able to raise his head slightly, but his eyes remained shut.

Monday morning, the right eye had opened nearly completely, but the left was still mostly shut and filled with blood.  Again, it was Shelley Baumann at Smalley’s who agreed with me that this was quite literally a case of being blind in one eye and unable to see out of the other. Given the extensive damage to the eyes, we had no choice but to euthanize. A raptor can learn to hunt with one eye; a totally blind raptor has no chance whatsoever.

What made this even sadder was the fact that this little male was one of this winter’s babies. He hadn’t been long on his own and still had “downyish” feathers around his face.

Easter Sunday afternoon, I received a panicked call about baby birds that had fallen from their nest. The finders were unable to locate the nest and one of the babies was already dead when they found them on the ground.

When I met them to retrieve the three surviving hatchlings, which looked to be catbirds, none were in good shape. All were ice-cold.

One had the lower half of his leg nearly chewed off and was already almost dead from blood loss. He died before I got home with him.

One had massive internal bleeding, and his little belly was swollen beyond belief. He died within half an hour of my getting him home.

The third had a “hip” fracture (actually, a knee fracture, but on birds, it looks as if it should be the hip). It wasn’t exactly an open fracture; the skin was ripped but no bone was exposed, so I thought he might have a chance—after all, the bones are still soft and growing in a hatchling or nestling bird. I kept him on heat, treated the wound and stabilized his little leg. As soon as he warmed enough, I started fluids and then food and had him gaping for his food by “lights out” Sunday night. Alas, it was not to be; he didn’t survive, either.

It’s my guess that a squirrel raided this nest. Nature is all too often “red in tooth and claw.”

I don’t want to leave you with all death and destruction, however. This utterly gorgeous “blonde” barred owl, a very large female, has been frequenting my yard for several months, and I lucked up toward the end of March and had the camera handy when she was out shortly before dusk.

Technically, she’s slightly leucistic, but hey, “blonde” works for me! She’s a real beauty, and I’ve never seen her around before this year. I do, however, hope to keep sighting her here and there!