This has been the busiest week of the season thus far, so hold onto your hats, people.
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First, did any of you bet on what last week’s awaited  downy owl was? If you bet barred, as I did, you win! Yep, it was downy barred owl number SIX.  

​The suspected GSW red shoulder was in fact NOT shot, which was quite a relief. He did have a fractured metacarpal--or hand, as it were—but it wasn’t a bad fracture, so he’s doing the R&R routine at LWR for a few weeks.

​Sadly neither the sharpie nor the adult barred owl were as lucky. The sharpie’s wing was badly fractured…

​…and the barred’s wing had been broken right in the joint.

The downy barred whose wing felt “off” to me was fine; his x-rays showed no fractures. 
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The red shoulder who’d been building up his flight muscles after recovering from a wing fracture was released.

​This freed up the raptor flight for ALL SIX barred owls, the oldest four a few days before the youngest two. 

The youngest two just went into the raptor flight this morning, in fact.

​The GHOs were moved into a large crate to give them elbow room while they await their turn in the raptor flight.

​The flyers are ready for release next week.

The gunshot osprey and red-tailed hawk who came in with an awkwardly healed beak fracture both died last week. If you’ll recall, I was worried about the osprey anyway, but he seemed to be holding his own until he keeled over between morning and evening feedings mid-week. The red tail was doing great and had even started using his beak to tear at his food some—and then one morning, he was dead. No rhyme or reason—all was going well and looking promising, and he just died. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of wildlife rehab: a bird will be doing great and then just keel over for no apparent reason…

The leg trap GHO continues to eat well, hiss and generally make it known that he is NOT a happy camper. Another week or so, and he’ll be ready for x-rays to see how that leg is healing.
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This poor mocker was found on the ground, chilled and soaked to the bone, with a badly broken leg, after early-week rains. He didn’t have a chance and died within minutes of intake.

​And this hummer’s wing was too badly broken to help her, sadly. 

​When this red shoulder was brought at night in after being pulled from a truck grille earlier in the day, he had abrasions on both wings and a laceration on his throat. Initially nothing felt broken, but by the time we got to Smalley’s the next day, the swelling in the left wing had gone down and it was drooping noticeably.  When vet Peggy Hobby x-rayed it, we found it was too badly broken to repair.

​The mourning dove from last week was released and is still hanging around the yard. I know it’s her because of the lack of tail feathers, but she’s doing just fine!

​And this fledgling mourning dove was kidnapped and taken to the police department in a neighboring county. They didn’t get location or contact info from the finders, so the bird couldn’t be reunited with its parents.

Folks, if a bird is fully feathered and has short tail feathers, it’s out of the nest but still dependent on its parents, who may not be hovering overhead all the time. Wait an hour or so to see if the parents are feeding a FULLY FEATHERED young bird on the ground; if not place it in a cardboard box lined with tissue or paper towels and call your local rehabber. If the bird has NO feathers or is only PARTIALLY feathered, place it in a tissue nest inside a cardboard box and call the rehabber ASAP. Of course, if the bird is in imminent danger—a cat, a snake, a dog, etc.—or appears injured, by all means rescue immediately and call a rehabber as soon as the bird is safe.

​These Carolina wrens were true orphans; one of the parents was found dead in front of the nest and the other parent never showed.  Carolina wrens are stressy little birds, so I wasn’t surprised when two of them died within days of intake—not happy, but not surprised.

​The nuthatch from last week is ready for the flight pen.

​She’ll be joined by the fledgling dove and this adorable fellow—a brown thrasher, Georgia’s state bird. He came in as a late nestling found in the middle of the rescuer’s yard just before being snapped up by a dog. Look how quickly he matured over this past week!

​This nestling mockingbird was taken away from an outdoor cat. He’s on meds now for a couple of minor scratches, as cat saliva is toxic to birds and other wildlife. When I suggested to the rescuer that her outdoor cats would be better off inside, and the wildlife in her yard would be safer, I got the usual “Oh, that just won’t work” spiel…and she cheerfully drove off without even offering a donation to help care for the bird her cats had attacked. And you wonder why rehabbers don’t like people…

​When the rescuer found this mallard, he was in the middle of a busy road and seemed stunned and unable to move.  By the time his rescuer was able to get the bird to LWR later in the day, he’d perked up considerably, and after a day of cage rest he seemed eager to move on. He was delighted to be offered his freedom, as you can see in the videos below.

​And these gorgeous little bluebird nestlings were found on a boat dock—one was on the dock; the other was hanging from the nest, if I understood the rescuers correctly. It sounds to me like perhaps a snake got into the nest and these two babies managed to escape being eaten by jumping out. Their rescuers made an approximately four-hour round-trip after work to get these babies to LWR and made a donation, so kudos to them for their efforts and their support. (The red flecks are bits of the emergency diet of cat food they were fed while awaiting transport; most has been cleaned off and the few flecks left are in the down that will be shed, not on the emerging feathers. When feeding ANY wildlife, make sure the food doesn’t get into their feathers or fur. It can cause all sorts of problems, ranging from inability to fly to bacterial infections.)

Yeah, the raptor train keeps making regular stops at LWR; in fact, apparently we’re on the express route. Of the eight birds that have come in this week, four of them have been raptors—and intake number nine is on the way, a “baby” owl of as-yet undetermined species, making FIVE new raptors this week.
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Starting with some good news, the fledgling warbler recovering from the wing fracture that should have precluded any type of flight, whom I finally decided was probably a pine warbler, was flight-tested in the songbird flight—as if that was really necessary, given the frequency of her escapes and flights around the rehab room the week before Easter—and showed not even a hint of wonky flight. She was subsequently released.

​The red-shouldered hawk recovering from a wing fracture received “flight clearance” from vets Richie Hatcher and Peggy Hobby at Smalley’s Animal Hospital—just look at that x-ray! Talk about gorgeous healing! He is now in the raptor flight, where his flight skills are returning quickly.

​Of course, moving him to the raptor flight meant bringing the fledgling barred owl back inside, which neither he nor I was especially unhappy about. He wasn’t eating as well as I wanted in the flight but his appetite picked back up once he was inside again.

​The barred trio continue to grow apace and are starting to get antsy in their box, which they trash daily. The photo below shows the results of overnight shenanigans with remnants of breakfast…

​And yet another downy barred owl came in yesterday evening, this one with a slightly “off”-feeling left wrist. It doesn’t appear to be broken; it just feels “not right” somehow. He’ll be headed to Smalley’s for x-rays Monday.

​The sharpie from last week did in fact have an unfixable wing fracture. The bones were badly displaced, so euthanasia was the kindest option for the poor bird.

​And apparently he wasn’t the only sharpie who didn’t get the “you’re a winter visitor only” memo; this female sharpie was delivered by the game warden this morning. Her wing also feels badly broken, so she’s slated for a vet visit Monday, too.

​The leg-trap GHO continues to heal—we hope. He’s not due for follow-up x-rays for another couple of weeks.

​The GHO trio are eating like little feathered Hoovers, although the two youngest do seem to alternate skipping a meal a day. Probably time to cut them back to two feedings a day…

​The osprey worries me; I’m afraid he may be succumbing to lead poisoning, and given the placement of the pellets in his body, surgery to remove them isn’t an option. His appetite remains depressed, although he’s still alert and energetic. Maybe I’m just borrowing trouble. I hope so. I’d like this bird to have a chance at release.

No new pix of the flyers this week; they’re pretty strictly nocturnal now and have just a few weeks before moving to pre-release caging.
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When this cat-attacked grackle’s x-rays showed no fractures in a swollen wing, Peggy and I were delighted. Grackles have lousy personalities and even worse songs, but they’re strikingly beautiful birds. He’d been brought in within hours of the attack and started on meds immediately, but within 24 hours he’d died, despite our efforts. 

​And this poor Carolina wren hatchling fell two stories to land on a porch. The young man who found the bird brought it to me within an hour of finding it, but there were internal injuries; it didn’t survive the night.

​A mammal rehabber south of me, Libby Parker-Carey, sent four birds to LWR yesterday. The most concerning is this red-shoulder who appears to’ve been shot—a through-and-through, as there’s a hole in the wing. Libby bandaged the wound before transport, as it was a fresh injury and started bleeding again every time he moved his wing. Honestly, given the photos she texted me and his general condition, neither of us expected him to survive the trip to LWR, much less be alive today. He’s hanging in there and will get x-rays and further treatment from Smalley’s tomorrow.

​She also sent an adult barred owl who, in addition to the eye swollen shut, appears to have a luxated lens in the other eye. Another patient for Smalley’s tomorrow—they’re gonna loooove me…

​This cat-attacked mourning dove is also from Libby. He has no injuries, just missing feathers. He just needs a little time and should be releasable soon.

​LLibby said this fledgling brown-headed nuthatch was found in a ditch. She’s a vocal little rascal, as are all brown-headed nuthatches, in addition to being a big mess-maker—as are all baby songbirds. Take a look at the two videos below, taken just three hours apart, and notice the difference in her new digs. The first video was right after the morning paper change; the second was right before the second paper change of the day.

​This first-year red-tailed hawk came from a county some distance to the south. As you can see, his lower beak was apparently broken at some point and has healed at an odd angle. And he’s nearly starved to death in the process: he’s rail-thin.  He’ll also be visiting Smalley’s Monday to see if there’s anything we can do at this late date to correct that awkward angle.

​And let’s not forget the mystery owl on its way—any bets as to species? I’m guessing barred; that seems to be the trend this season!

It’s shaping up to be a weeeiiiird baby season, with still the lone songbird fledgling and baby raptors out the wazoo—a complete reversal of the usual order of things. And raptor space is at a premium these days; I’m about to have to start stacking ‘em like cordwood, it looks like!

Lessee, where to start…the leg-trap GHO continues to recover nicely; the foot remains stubbornly splayed open, though, and I’m afraid that will be an issue later on.

The red shoulder recovering from a wing fracture is due for follow-up x-rays later this week but I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll get a good report.

The warbler fledgling recovering from the nasty wing fracture is actually making very strong short flights inside; next stop: the songbird flight to see how she manages out there. I honestly don’t expect her to have any issues, based on her current performance.
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The barred owl who’d recovered from severe head trauma was released early last week and flew the coop quite eagerly—but did perch in an open enough spot to allow photos. It was a pretty day, about 90 minutes before sunset, so I may have gone a little wild with the release pix…

Since the third downy great horned owl came in last Sunday, we were able to go ahead and euthanize the poor baby with the unfixable leg injury.  And yes, it hurt my heart to have to euthanize a baby. Always does. The day it doesn’t is the day it’s time for me to get out of wildlife rehab.

However…we still have three downy GHOs, because yet ANOTHER one came in mid-week. This tough guy was found in the middle of the road with suspected head trauma—luckily, it was a vet in a nearby county who found him, so she treated him that night and called LWR the next morning. I kept him separate from the “twins” for a day or two, to make sure he was ready for the rough and tumble “play” of two new foster siblings. When they were all three put together, the reaction was priceless.
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First, the two who’d been together a few days longer crowded into one corner and glared alternately and me and him.

​He responded by hunkering down and glaring back.

​Then they decided to all three band together against me, the common enemy. Unfortunately, GHOs aren’t known for their smarts, so it took ‘em a while to coordinate their glares…

​The downy barred owl trio are growing nicely; I suspect by late next week they might be ready to join their older foster sib in the raptor flight.

​And yes, the older barred baby is in the raptor flight now. He’s flying quite nicely but still a bit unsure about self-feeding, which is kinda funny since he was totally self-feeding before the move outside.  He’s still adjusting to his new digs, though, so it’ll take a few days.

​Late in the week, on the same day, a dog-attacked mourning dove came in early in the day and a brown thrasher with a badly broken leg—at the hip—near dark. Sadly, neither bird survived the night.

​The flyers are seldom seen these days outside of feeding time. The video and photo below were shot through the cage bars, as the door is in the wrong position to allow me to feed and film through it simultaneously. Still, it’s pretty much what I see daily!

Late Monday evening, LWR received an osprey with a broken wing. Tuesday, we headed to Smalley’s Animal Hospital, where x-rays showed SEVEN pellets in the bird, throughout his body. Yeah, some fool shot an osprey. Two of the pellets had broken both the radius and ulna but neither bone was badly displaced, so vets Richie Hatcher and Peggy Hobby conferred and agreed that while the bird’s chances of healing properly for flight were only about 50-50, it was worth a try. They know I’m always willing to give birds a shot at eventual release, so Richie wrapped the wing so the osprey couldn’t do anything stupid while we wait to see if those bones will heal to allow flight. Unfortunately, Mr. Osprey is stubbornly refusing to self-feed, so I’m having to force-feed—oh joy…
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Meanwhile, his injury has been reported to GA DNR and US FWS. I think I’ve reported more illegal activity to them already this year than I did all of last year.

And just yesterday afternoon, a first-year sharp-shinned hawk came in. Now, understand, according to the range maps, sharpies are in Georgia ONLY during the winter. Apparently this bird didn’t get the memo, as he was found in Middle Georgia the Saturday before Easter—pretty sure that qualifies as NOT winter…
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His wing is raw and swollen and definitely broken but it’s not an open fracture, so he’ll be headed in for x-rays Monday. Honestly, I’m not optimistic; it feels like a pretty badly displaced fracture. But I’ve been wrong before and am always quite happy when I’m wrong and the bird actually has a chance at healing for flight. Fingers crossed for this feisty little hawk.

​And finally…

While it may not be the Chinese year of the owl, it’s apparently the LWR year of the owl. As of today, LWR has four young barred owls, three young great horneds, an adult barred, and an adult GHO.

The adult barred is a holdover from last week; most of Georgia experienced really nasty weather, followed by several days of high winds, so his planned release was delayed. Gonna try again later today, so fingers crossed!
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The older of the four barreds, the singleton baby, is now perching, wing-flapping and eating on his own. He’s next in line for the raptor flight.

​The other three barreds, the triplets as I’m calling them, are a good bit younger, very vocal and avid eaters. They fell from their nest and given the situation where they fell, we opted not to attempt renesting, for their own safety.

​The adult GHO was pulled from a leg hold trap. Let me just stop right here and make a blanket statement: There’s a special place in hell for the jackasses who use these damnable traps. They’re not humane; they’re not species-specific—a domestic pet or human child is as likely to get caught as the intended prey; and all too often it’s unintended wildlife that gets caught. Such was this poor GHO’s fate. Amazingly, the break in his leg isn’t bad, but the tendons appear to’ve tightened and shortened already, causing the toes to “freeze” in an extended position…so while vet Richie Hatcher and I are very optimistic the fracture will heal, we’re less sanguine about the possibility of regaining use of that foot. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, he’s NOT a happy camper—see the photo below of his box…

​The GHO twins were a transfer from Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends. These babies are unusually close-knit and non-competitive for food, which Steve had commented on when he transferred, so it was interesting to see the behavior he described for myself. Again, this was a situation where renesting wasn’t possible, and one of the babies appeared to have either a nest injury or an injury from the fall from the nest. Steve sent them to me so I could have the vets at Smalley’s Animal Hospital examine and x-ray the wounded baby’s leg.

​Sadly, when we x-rayed, Richie immediately said this injury, IF it could be repaired, required a specialist. He placed a call to Auburn University’s raptor center, and the vet there who received the emailed x-rays immediately called him back and informed us that this was not a fixable injury; the young GHO needed euthanizing.

​Euthanasia is always hard. It’s worse when we have to euthanize a baby. It’s horrendous when the sibs have a close bond. Given that close bond, I told Richie we’d hold off on euthanizing to give the healthy bird some time to mature and see if any other young GHOs came in so he’d still have a buddy when we euthanized his sib.

​And, amazingly enough, a third downy GHO arrived today, a victim of last week’s storms. He’s younger than the twins but is easily nearly twice their size—and a much more typical hissy, beak-clicking, aggressive eater GHO.

So we’ll give the new baby a couple of days to bond with the other two and then euthanize the injured baby. He’s not in pain at the moment because he’s not attempting to stand yet, so we have a little time to allow for that bonding.

And yes, it’s situations like this that really, truly test your resolve as a rehabber…

Adding to the generally downbeat tenor of the week, yesterday LWR got a message about a fox with a leg hold trap holed up in a drain pipe. I normally require people to bring the wildlife to LWR, and I’m not licensed for rabies vectors like foxes, but I couldn’t in good conscience allow an animal with a damn leg hold trap to go without help.

Upon my arrival at the address, the caller, a neighbor and shortly afterward, the caller’s husband were on scene. The caller and neighbor had placed a humane trap at one end of the app. 20-ft pipe, but we needed to prod the injured fox toward it, so the husband left to bring back some small trees he’d been cleaning up from the week’s storm damage. We lashed them and a length of PVC pipe together and he went to the trap side of the drain while I pushed our cobbled-together prod through the pipe.
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The fox did run out of the pipe into the humane trap but it wasn’t secured on one side, allowing the injured animal to escape, leaving behind the leg hold trap and her foot. Once again, for the record, there’s a special place in hell for the cretins who use these abominations.

The game warden has been notified and will be collecting the trap this week; the homeowners in the subdivision are livid that one of “their” foxes was maimed and will likely die now—and that a trap that could have easily caught one of their dogs or children was callously placed in the woods where both dogs and children play. Meanwhile, all have been told to be on the lookout for the maimed fox so that maybe we can capture her and humanely euthanize rather than having her suffer a slow and painful death in the wild.
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Ending on a less gruesome note, the warbler’s wing was badly broken, as I suspected last week, but Richie agreed with me that given her young age and the fact that her bones are still growing, there may be a chance that she’ll be flight-capable. We opted to give her time to see.

​And the flyers are still enjoying their new digs and are reverting to more truly nocturnal creatures now that they’re mostly self-feeding.

This week we have perfect examples of what to do and what not to do when you find injured, ill or orphaned wildlife.
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This barred owl was found by the roadside in a nearby county. His rescuers then took him home and kept him for show and tell for TEN DAYS before seeking help, admitting they thought he was blind. When he came in to LWR, it was obvious that this was truly a case of “blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other.” The right eye was opaque; the left pupil was a torn and jagged mess; he couldn’t even keep that eye open.  After eating a couple of mice—I have this thing about birds dying hungry—he was euthanized.

People, when you find injured, ill or orphaned wildlife, it needs help from licensed rehabbers NOW, not a week or two down the road, when the novelty has worn off and your neighbors aren’t dropping by for show and tell anymore.  Aside from the illegality of keeping wildlife without a permit, use a little common sense and think of its condition—is it injured? Then you’re denying it pain relief and treatment of the injury. Do you have the proper foods for it? Can you provide a stress-free environment, with no screaming children, barking dogs or mewling cats? Bottom line: when wildlife needs help, it needs help NOW, and from a properly licensed rehabber.
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Now, on the other hand, we have this nestling warbler who came in late Saturday. The lady who called about him was actually at work; her young niece was dog-sitting for her and when she let her aunt’s dogs outside, one of them picked this unnested baby up off the ground. The niece rescued the bird and called her aunt, who called me.  Since she was at work and her niece was too young to drive, we coordinated with one of LWR’s volunteer transporters to get the bird to me within two hours of its rescue.

​Folks, THIS is the way it should work when you find wildlife in need of assistance.  The warbler has a broken and bruised left wing, but the damage looks more like a result of the fall from the nest. The day before he was found and that day were both quite windy, so it’s possible he was unnested in the wind; he’s a pretty active little fellow. The wing looks pretty nasty, and Smalley’s was closed when he came in, but we’ll aim for x-rays Monday. Given his small size—his intake weight was just 6.2g—this should be a fun x-ray. He’s able to hold the wing level and he’s a young bird whose bones are still growing, so I’m fairly optimistic he’s got a good fighting chance, though.

Last week’s nestling mourning dove required euthanasia; he began spitting back most of what he was fed, while desperately begging for food, effectively starving to death while being fed. After two days of attempting treatment, I called it rather than watch the poor bird suffer.
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The head trauma barred owl is ready for release; he spent the week in the raptor flight while I made sure he could find his prey no matter where I put it. He passed that test and is flying beautifully, so he’ll be outta here in the next few days.

No new pix of the red shoulder this week; he’s antsy and mouthy and just generally being a typical RS pain in the neck.  Another six weeks or so of this…I don’t know who will be happier, me or him, when x-rays show enough healing for him to go in the raptor flight. I’m leanin’ toward me, though…
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The downy barred owl continues to grow and eat like a bottomless pit, which is good. Rehabbers like healthy eaters!

​And the flyers have been moved into new, larger digs, which they’re loving. They were hysterical checking out their new nest box!