Let’s start by stating that I actually had to make a LIST of everything that came in this week, along with a list of the “old” birds, just so I was reasonably sure no one got left out—and I probably still omitted someone.  And when I finished and looked at the “new” and “old” columns, it suddenly dawned on me just WHY I’m so exhausted…

Starting with an older guest, I’m sad to report we did have to euthanize the leg trap GHO. When I took him in to Smalley’s Friday, both Peggy and Richie agreed that given the lack of neural response and “freezing” of the foot in a splayed position, his chances of survival in the wild were nonexistent. A songbird can survive and even thrive with limited use of a foot; a raptor cannot.  And sadly, this GHO didn’t have the personality to be an educational bird…unless you like to see your audience maimed…

As an aside here, a huge THANK YOU to the fine folks at Smalley’s, who worked me and SEVEN birds in just before they closed for a holiday weekend Friday.  World’s best vets and staff!
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The downy screech continues to do well and has been joined by another downy screech of approximately the same age. Given the size difference between the two, I’m pretty sure the screech from last week is female and the new one is male. Despite being at about the same level of development featherwise, he’s tiny compared to her!

​Of the two adult screeches from last week, one started having seizures. I attempted to treat for this with no success and subsequently euthanized him. The second, the one with the eye swollen shut, was one of the birds Peggy examined Friday. His left lens is luxated, which means the impact when he was whacked by the car literally tore the lens loose. When this happens, the lens can fall backward into the eye or forward through the pupil. Forward is actually better, as it may then pop back into place, given time. Luckily, this fellow’s lens fell forward. While Peggy examined the eye, I snapped a photo to show you what a luxated lens looks like when it’s illuminated where it can be seen.

​The older fledgling blue jay who came in last Sunday has been released; due to his age and probably having been mostly on his own for a while, he didn’t opt to hang around when he left. Below is a photo of him, the cardinal and the brown thrasher in the songbird flight.

“But I thought the thrasher had already been released?” I hear you ask. He had, as had the red bellies. But since I’m leaving the “escape hatch” open to give the cardinal a chance to leave, the thrasher and red bellies take advantage and fly in and out as they please…Brats…
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This nestling brown thrasher is, as are all thrashers, the sweetest little fellow. He was a cat-attack victim who was lucky enough to escape severe injury.

​An adult female cardinal was DOA; a young adult female had been cat-attacked and had a broken hip, requiring euthanasia. Other euthanasias included this poor little female bluebird fledgling who’d been dog-attacked and had a badly fractured shoulder...

​…a red-shouldered hawk with a nasty open wing fracture…

​…a HBC barred owl with trauma-induced glaucoma in his left eye…

​…and a pre-fledgling house finch whose fall from the nest resulted in nerve damage that caused wry neck so badly he couldn’t even eat. He seemed alert but a bit sluggish on intake just before dark but his neck had started twisting by morning and although I gave him time to see if steroids might reduce any inflammation and restore the neck to its proper position, it just got worse. I didn’t even take photos of it as it progressed; it was too painful to look at. The photo below was taken while it was still only mildly twisting…

​This broadwing hawk was found in the woods, grounded and unable to stand. He was on the verge of starvation but has perked back up considerably now that he’s getting regular meals.

​The nestling red shoulder from last week was joined by his sib this week. The same people found his sib in their back yard, where they’d found last week’s baby, and this week’s was also way too thin. Last week’s reluctant eater no longer has that issue, and while his sib, who looks to be the older of the two, has a healthy appetite, he’d rather scream and bow up in threat displays than eat at the moment.

Last week’s adult barred owl with vision issues seems to be improving; we’ll wait and see. The barred sextet are still in the raptor flight; the plan is to release them either later today or tomorrow. That way the GHO trio can go in the raptor flight and the two “bee” red shoulder sibs can go in the crate that currently houses the GHOs. Sorry no current pix of any of these; it’s been a busy week and I focused more on the new intakes with photos…
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The trio of nestling woodpeckers did turn out to be red bellies, and they’ve feathered out quite nicely in just a week…

​…as have the Carolina wrens. We did lose one Carolina, sadly. They’ll just suddenly stop eating, sit in a corner, and within an hour or so, they’re dead. I’ve seen it happen so often I can almost nail down when the time of death will be, and nothing you do will change it—no force-feeding, no meds, nothing. They’re just odd little birds like that…

​The goslings have been moved outside to give them room to move around; the next step is to locate adults with babies near the same age and put these rascals out to be adopted. Geese are actually excellent parents and will readily adopt babies that aren’t theirs, but I wanted these fellows to be a bit older before we went that route, given the location they’ll be placed at.

​Many of you know I adore pileated woodpeckers, so when this gorgeous male came in with a swollen wrist, I feared the worst—a joint fracture that would necessitate euthanasia. Happily, his x-rays showed just a fractured “hand”, which should heal with no problem. Meanwhile, he’s set up with water, a log to demolish, and mealworms and suet to his heart’s content.

​This warbler (or maybe chipping sparrow…) was kept by his finders for TWO WEEKS and fed a crap diet they found on the Internet.  When I asked how they couldn’t find information telling them it was illegal to keep the bird yet they managed to find a crap diet, they claimed they “didn’t know” until recently that it was illegal, and that’s when they started looking for a rehabber. Oddly enough, they were reluctant to take the bird to either of the bird rehabbers I knew were in their area but were willing to make a day trip to get it to LWR…Hmm…Makes ya wonder, huh? 

The bird’s posture just isn’t right and he holds his wings oddly, making me suspect MBD may be at play from the crap diet. His breast and belly feathers were covered with old food, which is totally unacceptable.

As you well know by now, CLEAN feathers are a MUST for birds. Crud like this on the feathers is not only unhealthy; it will interfere with both feather development and waterproofing.
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Rather than stress the poor fellow out with a hand bath, I first offered a small dish of water to see how much of the gunk he could clean off on his own. Surprisingly, most of it came off when he took advantage of the bath water, but as you can see in the photo below, there’s zero waterproofing there.

He’ll probably go in for x-rays next week if that weird posture continues, just to see what we have going on bone-wise.

When a nest containing four killdeer eggs was in the path of a tractor, instead of simply avoiding the nest, the people stole the eggs and placed them in their chicken incubator. Let me stop right here and explain something ONE. MORE. TIME.

People, disturbing an ACTIVE nest—one with eggs or babies in it—is ILLEGAL. These people broke the law when a simple detour would have allowed Mama Killdeer to hatch her own young.

The eggs must have been close to hatching because the egg thief called LWR in a panic the morning they hatched, and it took all day to find a transporter to get them here. Killdeer are beyond simply stressy; they’re “look at me cross-eyed and I’ll die” stressy. This being the case, I wasn’t really hopeful they’d arrive in good shape or survive the night.
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They were indeed stressed when they arrived.

​But once they found their foster mama, they nestled right down under “her” and got quiet—well, as quiet as killdeer ever get. Thus far the sweet, paranoid little things are doing well, but killdeer and I don’t have the best history, so I kinda tiptoe around them with bated breath and crossed fingers…

This gorgeous late second-year red tail was found in a parking lot and, upon intake exam, was found to have what felt like a nasty wing fracture. I wasn’t hopeful we had something we could work with here, but she’s got the BEST personality—and that’s saying a lot, because red tails generally do have good personalities.
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She was also one of Friday’s vet visitors, where I was delighted to see on her x-ray that while the fracture is pretty displaced, it’s close to mid-bone and Peggy and I agreed that given her personality, it’s worth seeing how this heals. If she can’t fly properly after it heals, I’m going to do my level best to place her somewhere as an ed bird.

And while I was trying to work on this between feeding birds, two more birds came in, but ya know what? You can find out about them next week! I've been at this update long enough!

It was a busy week at LWR, as baby season kicks into high gear and the injured adults keep arriving, as well…
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This nestling Eastern screech owl was found three days before it was brought to LWR, and fed worms the entire time. While screeches can and do occasionally eat frogs, crickets, and even worms, their main diet is rodents and small songbirds—and given his young age, these are the foods his parents would have been providing, to ensure he got the vitamins and minerals needed for healthy bone growth. He’s got a healthy appetite and already has that screech “I’m a T. Rex” attitude firmly in place.

A couple of days later this adult red-phase screech was found by the roadside, apparently hit by car. Kudos to the volunteer transporter who carved a four-hour round trip out of her day to pick up the bird from people who could have delivered it to LWR in about a 90-minute round trip but refused to.
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His left eye is a bit bloody but that should heal; the right is crusted and swollen shut but looks to be intact. Basically, he just had a major concussion and needed a safe space until he could get rid of that nasty headache.

​And then a third screech, another adult red phase, came in the next day, also HBC. He was in worse shape, unable to even stand for long. Nothing is broken and his eyes are clear; he just has a massive concussion. He’s actually feistier today than the bloody-eyed fellow, although he’s not eating as well yet.

​These adorably awkward hatchling woodpeckers whose eyes hadn’t even started opening when they arrived were victims of a tree removal service. Tree removal and pruning services are supposed to check for active nests before cutting/pruning, but few actually do—the almighty dollar takes precedence over the lives of wild babies. We won’t know exact species for a while yet, but I’m pretty sure they’re either red-headed or red-bellied—at this age they look and sound pretty darn similar!

​The mourning dove and two red-bellied woodpeckers in the songbird flight have been released, as have the mockers.  No sign of anyone except the woodpeckers, who are almost as bad as blue jays about hanging around and begging for handouts.

​The brown thrasher took a bit longer to leave but he’s out now, too, and pretty darn independent. 

​The cardinal is in the songbird flight now.

The grackle didn’t make it; he was somewhat neurological when he came in but as nothing was physically damaged, I put it down to mild trauma from the fall from his nest. Apparently there was more going on; it got progressively worse despite everything possible being done to counteract it, and he lost the battle early in the week.
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The barred owl sextet have passed their live prey test and will be released as soon as we have three consecutive days with low/no rain predicted. We desperately need the rain that we’re getting right now, though, so a “rain delay” in their release suits me just fine.

The plan was for the adult barred from last week to spend some time with the juvies, rebuilding his flight strength before release, but despite being alert, active and eating well, he died between his morning and evening meals late in the week, and another adult barred was DOA a few days later.
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Once the barreds are out, the GHO trio will go in, and they’re chomping at the bit for a little “wing room.”

The leg trap GHO is still showing no signs of improvement in that permanently splayed foot; he cannot flex it at all. I don’t want to give up on him yet but it’s looking less and less like a release is in his future.
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The goslings are happy, messy, growing little waterfowl. I can’t believe how much they’ve shot up in just the past week!

When a lady noticed one of these Carolina wrens out of the nest and checked it, the nest had been wrecked and the other babies were also scattered, with no sign of the parents. It was near dark so she put them back in the remnants of the nest for the night, in hopes the parents would return. They didn’t, so she brought the nestlings to LWR. They’re stressy little birds and were used for show and tell before arriving at LWR, so we’ll see how that affects them long-term. Thus far they’re doing well.

Folks, when you find orphaned, injured or ill wildlife, PLEASE understand that it is already stressed to the max, and you do NOT need to add to that stress by having all the neighbors over to see your latest find, dragging it around to show off to the neighbors, or using it as show and tell for schoolchildren. Place the wildlife in a safe, quiet space, on low heat if you have unfeathered/unfurred or not fully feathered/furred babies, and CALL A REHABBER IMMEDIATELY. Do NOT attempt to feed unless you’ve been told what and how to feed by a wildlife rehabber—and do NOT wait 12-24 hours or longer to contact a rehabber. That bird/animal’s very existence is now in your hands, and in order for it to have the best chance at survival, you need to get it to a rehabber ASAP. No delays!
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This poor Carolina wren nested over someone’s door and even though they knew the nest was there, they continued to use the door.  She flew into their house when they opened the door after dark and she got spooked. She flew into their ceiling fan, and it killed her; she was dead on arrival. 

​Sadly, she also had three eggs in the nest, which I asked be brought along with her when I thought she might be savable, as the callers indicated they thought only her wing was broken. The eggs were stone cold upon arrival but a quick candling as I moved them from the nest to heat indicated they might be viable if they weren’t too long without heat. We’ll know in a few days if they start to show signs of further development, but I’m honestly not too hopeful…

​People, if you have a nest near/over your door and you know it's there, PLEASE, for God's sake, DON'T USE THAT DOOR until the babies fledge. Surely your house has more than one door, and yes, it might be a little inconvenient to use the back door rather than the front or vice versa for a few weeks, but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did your part to help wild parents safely brood and raise their young.  A little inconvenience for just a few weeks can make the difference between life and death for wildlife. Humanity does enough to screw up Nature; give these birds the space and safety they need to raise their young!
 
Four raptors came in Saturday from Libby Carey, mammal rehabber in Lowndes County, via volunteer transporters.
 
This HBC barred owl has no apparent injuries and seemed very alert and aggressive on intake, so I figured it’d be okay to stick him in the raptor flight with the barred sextet. 

​Oh no. No, the cool teen club did NOT appreciate my placing an old fogey in with them. They clustered at one end, making their displeasure known quite vocally, while he sat on the ground and made no attempt to fly. Based on the way the flash reflected off his eyes, it appears he’s actually blind, so he’s back inside. Sometimes blindness in head trauma victims is temporary; we’ll give him some time to see what happens.
 
This young red shoulder—or maybe Coop; at this age it’s sometimes hard to be sure, but he sounds like a red shoulder—is too small to be out of the nest but was found on the ground with no parents in sight. He’s a very stressed little fellow and must be force-fed.

​These two fledgling red shoulders were kidnapped by a well-meaning beekeeper, according to Libby. He was convinced they’d been stung by his bees, although Libby’s initial triage and my exam on intake at LWR showed no evidence of this.

​People, really, if a rehabber says put the birds back where you found them, please do so immediately. There’s no reason for these two birds to be in rehab except an overzealous person refused to accept a trained individual’s assessment that the birds were fine, had not been stung and would not bother his bees…
 
And just this morning, a caller reported rescuing a “baby” blue jay from mobbing robins the previous evening. The robins apparently had the jay down and were attacking him, so she shooed them away and placed the jay in a safe location. This morning his parents were around but so were the robins…and an outside cat…for the bird’s safety, it seemed best for him to finish fledging at LWR.
 
When she showed up with the bird, however, he turned out to be an older fledgling who isn’t real happy about being at LWR. Still, better here than ripped apart by someone’s free-roaming cat…

​Again, folks, especially during baby season, an outside/free roaming cat is a death sentence to nestling and fledgling birds. The nestlings can’t escape at all; the fledglings don’t fly well and haven’t developed the sixth sense for danger that an adult bird will have—they’re still relying on their parents to alert them to danger, and if the parents are off seeking food for their newly-fledged young, they can’t alert them to a marauding cat.
 
Bottom line—and repeat it with me; you’ve heard it often enough: keep cats indoors for their own safety and that of the wildlife around your yard!

There are just some weeks that make you question your sanity, your skills, and your self-control. Everybody has one of those types of weeks at some point; all too often, rehabbers have ALL those weeks rolled into one. This was one of THOSE weeks…

It started badly when first thing Monday morning, the gorgeous little bluebirds who’d been doing so well had crashed overnight. One was dead; one was unresponsive and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t pull her back. She died before the end of the day.

The next day the two Carolina wrens who were thriving also crashed.

Then a mammal rehabber whom I don’t trust with birds—there are a few who are competent to triage birds before transporting them to me; I’ve mentioned those people here by name, and this person is NOT in that select group—called about a barred owl that she was sending to me the next day.

No problem there, but when the transporter showed up, he also brought a fledgling phoebe the finder had fed nothing after finding, on the mammal rehabber’s instructions. This had been the previous afternoon. It was nearly TWENTY-FOUR hours later that the poor phoebe reached me, and the damn mammal rehabber hadn’t fed the bird in the interim, so needless to say we had a dying bird on our hands.  I tried fluids, low heat, and small and more frequent than usual meals and thought she’d turned the corner and might make it, but she crashed overnight.

People, rehabbers would prefer that you NOT feed wildlife because the wrong foods can kill it. But SO CAN STARVING IT TO DEATH. If you MUST keep a bird, in particular, overnight or for more than a couple of hours, please, PLEASE call a BIRD-LICENSED rehabber for emergency feeding advice. Do NOT rely on what you see online—too damn much of that crap is more “how to kill a bird in 24 hours or less.”

Oh, but the universe wasn’t through sucker punching me, not yet. Then some person contacted me with a photo of them using an ENORMOUS eyedropper to feed a mocker. I begged them to get the bird to me or another rehabber ASAP, as aspiration was a very real threat, plus I had no clue what crap Internet recipe was in that eyedropper.  “Oh, I’ll get him to you this afternoon…”

By nightfall I didn’t have the bird, so I reported the person to DNR.

Then some crass person texted at 9:00 that night with a bird, trying to “bribe” me to come pick it up or meet halfway. I explained that nighttime is when I do my paying job and I was actually working and could NOT stop; I had a deadline to meet.

And let me offer this aside here: attempting to "bribe" me to come pick up your bird with vague promises of a "generous" donation quite frankly insults me, as it implies that without a donation I won't take the bird--reducing what I do out of a passion for wildlife to your crass "money is king" standards. I don't do this for money, as there's no profit to be made in wildlife rehab, nor do I do it out of any love for humanity; on the contrary, I have a great antipathy toward humanity as a whole and immense sorrow and anger at the unmitigated disaster we've made of nature. I'm a licensed wildlife rehabber because someone's got to care for the victims of man's stupidity and utter disregard for nature. That's it, plain and simple: I do what I do to try and correct your screwups where nature is concerned.

But back to our texter: I explained that the bird didn’t need to eat at night, so she could just get it to me ASAP in the morning.

Late that next morning, she informed me that she was sending it by the same person I’d reported the previous night for not bringing me THAT bird…

Yeah, my head nearly exploded, too. Thankfully, both birds did actually arrive and were only slightly worse for wear.

But wait, there’s more…THEN I get a long, semi-incoherent message from a teen who wanted to know AAALLLL about my facility: what I fed the birds, if they were released; could she come visit…See where this is heading? She had what she “thought” was a young red-shouldered hawk, and I could tell from the message she didn’t just find the bird recently.

When I called back, I got some cock-and-bull story about her “holding” the bird for a friend, but she slipped up when I asked her how long she’d had the bird: THREE WEEKS. Blood pressure skyrockets. What has she been feeding it for three damn weeks? BEEF.  Apoplexy on the horizon…

Yeah, a growing bird that NEEDS the calcium and minerals from the bones of the prey its parents provide was fed BONELESS, STEROID-FILLED, ANTIBIOTIC-LACED BEEF for three. damn. weeks.

I explained, none too politely, that she was in violation of state and federal law, to say nothing of endangering the bird’s health. In tears, she promised to get the bird to me THAT DAY.

Good thing I didn’t hold my breath. She’s been reported to DNR and FWS, and all I can do is mourn for that poor bird, who probably already has MBD so bad that every time he moves he breaks a bone. I hope the authorities can get the bird, but honestly, they’re likely to take one look at its condition and euthanize on the spot. It’s out of my hands now…

So yeah, there you have it—this is a sampling of what rehabbers experience on an ongoing basis, along with the day-to-day feeding, cleaning and medicating of the critters under our care—and the euthansasias, and the vet trips that we must somehow squeeze in somewhere. And THIS is why we get short with you when you call and hem and haw and hedge about the wildlife you’ve found and want help for. GET IT TO US IMMEDIATELY, PERIOD—no ifs, ands or buts. Then we might actually smile at you. Maybe.

And now that I’m done venting—for the moment—let’s move on to this week’s other events…

The flyers were released over the course of two nights; they didn’t all leave at once.
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The phoebes are worrying me—they’re past fledging age but cannot seem to gain lift. They flap and flap but the best they’ve managed is to lift up a few inches off the nest or perch, and when I tried them in the flight pen, they just scooted along the ground. None of this bodes well for their eventual release, but I’m giving them time to see what develops.

​The barred owl mentioned above is doing well aside from still favoring his right eye a bit, so I’m holding him another few days.

​The flight pen denizens of last week are still there, aside from the singleton Carolina wren, who did seize her chance at release. The eyedropper-fed mocker is also in the songbird flight now.

​These three hatchlings—I think maybe mockingbirds—were found in a blueberry packing plant, nest and all, mixed in with the hand-picked berries. The worker who brought them thought they may have been there overnight; she wasn’t sure.  Since they weren’t dehydrated on intake, I doubted that was the case, but there was no way to be sure. Sadly, they didn’t make it through the night.

​And this adult female cardinal was found on the ground and brought to LWR after being kept for two days, lying in her own waste because she couldn’t move out of it. She needed euthanasia but handled things herself before I could euthanize, poor lady.

​The leg-trap GHO still awaits follow-up x-rays but his lack of movement in that affected foot makes me think the tendon/ligament damage we were initially worried about is going to be a bigger factor for him than the leg fracture. He’s still refusing to flex that foot at all. Not good for a bird whose feet are his weapons…

​The goslings continue to grow and are looking quite good.

​This grackle was found in a yard near dark and the finder couldn’t locate the nest before work the next morning. Because of her work schedule, she was unable to bring the bird to me before 7:30 that evening, so a volunteer transporter got it to LWR within an hour of her call. Grackles are kinda awkward, gangly babies and even as adults they don’t have a pretty song, but their adult coloration compensates and then some!

​The GHO trio remain as goofy as ever and might be in the raptor flight sooner than I’d anticipated.

​The reason? The barred owl sextet are doing quite well and beginning to find their food wherever I hide it—which is a recent development; as of midweek I was still having to hand their food to them using feeding forceps if I didn’t wanna deal with ants everywhere at the next feeding. So now they just need to keep totally self-feeding  and then pass a live prey test, and we’ll release them and move the GHOs in…like a Depression-Era flophouse with no pause between occupants…

​Hoping for a better week this week—for my sanity, or what’s left of it, and the safety of the public!

The week got off to a depressing start, with the unexpected deaths of two seemingly healthy birds, the euthanasia of another apparently healthy bird who nosedived and three DOA birds. Thankfully for my sanity, the rest of the week wasn’t as deadly or depressing.

The red shoulder with the hand fracture was fine at lights-out last Sunday and dead the next morning—no clue as to why. He was alert, eating well and energetic…and then he was dead.

The nuthatch followed a similar scenario: fine, alert, eating, dead. Again, no clue as to why.

Last week’s mourning dove apparently had some sort of rupture or something overnight, as when I went to feed him Tuesday morning, he was gasping for breath with blood oozing from his mouth. Obviously, I euthanized the poor bird to end his suffering. Again, we have the frustration of not knowing what happened—he had been fine at lights-out the previous night.
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The cat-attacked nestling mocker didn’t respond to treatment; he rallied a bit and then died overnight, as well.
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And this tiny little hatchling, species uncertain, was found on a porch. Based on the rescuers’ descriptions of the bird’s general physical condition, I thought the poor little baby had a chance: no hard, swollen belly, no bruising, gaping—all sounded promising. And when the bird came in, their descriptions were accurate, and it ate well and pooped normally, so I was quite hopeful.  At 1:30AM the baby was sleeping and breathing normally, but by 7:30AM the poor little thing had died. 

​And then, topping off the whole series of tragedies, a woman rescued a “blue jay” from her cat, kept it without food or meds for over 7 hours before contacting LWR at 10:30PM, and by the time transporters were able to get the poor Eastern bluebird fledgling the next morning and get it to LWR, it was too late.

Folks, THIS is what free-roaming cats do. This little female bluebird never had a chance to learn to fly well. She never had a chance to learn to self-feed. She never had a chance to mature and lay eggs and raise young of her own. Her death was preventable if the cat who attacked her had only been indoors and not preying on helpless fledglings and nestlings. This is NOT acceptable when the simple solution is to KEEP YOUR DAMN CATS INSIDE. As I’ve said on numerous occasions, I have cats. I love cats—INDOORS, where they belong, for their own safety and that of our native wildlife. I submit to you once again that if you allow your cats to roam freely outdoors, you a) don’t love your cats; b) are an irresponsible cat owner; c) care nothing for our native wildlife.
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Last week’s brown thrasher is now in the flight pen.

​He’s joined by two red-bellied woodpeckers who came in mid-week...

​…and a cat-attacked mourning dove who also came in mid-week.

​Rounding out the current flight pen residents, we have a fledgling Carolina wren…

​…and a fledgling mocker.

​Two other newbies are these Canada goslings. They’re not siblings, but after some initial down-pulling and pecking, they’re getting along just fine.

​These two nestling Carolina wrens were found still in the nest with dead sibs on the ground below. Their rescuers drove from Augusta—basically halfway across the state—to get them to LWR. They grow so fast; they’re changing daily!

The flyers are pre-release now; I seldom see more than a little brown head peeking out of the nest box while I freshen their food and water.

The leg trap GHO is due for follow-up x-rays as soon as I can manage to get him to Smalley’s—I’m trying to wait till most of the remaining inside songbirds have “graduated” to the flight pen, so I have fewer additional birds along for the ride because they can’t miss feedings. Once they’re in the flight pen, they’re doing a fair amount of self-feeding, so trips to the vet for other birds become less of a massive logistical nightmare.
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The downy GHOs are, well, not so downy these days. They’re feathering out beautifully.

​The barred owls are also looking great. These shots were a rare photo op; they’re seldom all clustered together like this.

​The “little brown jobs” I thought were Carolina wrens last week feathered out to be Eastern phoebes.  I knew the voice didn’t seem right; they never developed that “crickety” call that identifies young Caros. And then as the feathers came in and the beak morphed into that characteristic flat flycatcher shape, I was delighted to discover we had phoebes! They’re little sweethearts who’re starting to wing flap and perch a bit and have been moved into a larger indoor enclosure to give them room for both.

​And the bluebirds are, of course, utterly adorable, sweet and just too photogenic. They’re also juuust before fledging—some occasional perching but no wing flapping yet.

​Finally, a bonus shot: this is an eyed click beetle—totally harmless despite their fierce appearance. The “eye” part of their name is pretty obvious from those big ol’ spots on their upper body; the “click” part comes from the clicking noise they make when threatened or when flipping from their backs to an upright position. I don’t see these often, so I’m delighted to share this shot with you!