And too many birds to deal with in this heat! With temps hovering at or above 100 for the past few days and the same predicted for next week, the birds in the songbird and raptor flights are purely miserable; I’m refilling water dishes multiple times a day rather than once or twice.

And the pace hasn’t let up any, with 19 new intakes since Monday and number 20 on the way as I type.

Monday two new mockers came in; they were *thisclose* to fledging, so within a day or so they’d moved to the songbird flight. I don’t think I even remembered to take photos of them. Let’s face it: mockers don’t vary a lot in appearance—seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all!
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And yes, more raptors came in, as well. Tuesday a man cut down a tree without seeing the red shoulder nest and so LWR gained two confused and traumatized nestlings.

To his credit, the man was quite upset, as he said he always looks for nests and will leave trees for  as long as it takes for the babies to fledge, but he somehow missed this one.
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Also on Tuesday, this hatchling woodpecker, probably a red-headed by his sound, came in. He must have been the runt of his clutch, as he never showed any signs of developing for the three days he lived. None. No signs of feather growth; eyes opened only slightly—just weird “runt” stuff. He died on day 3.

​Wednesday an adult mourning dove came in with a nasty wound on her back. Her finders didn’t see cats around, but that’s still a strong possibility. Even with meds, she didn’t make it.

​A nest of four house finches was found in a trailer hitch after the trailer had been moved. They’re already starting to test those little wings.

And another mocker rounded out Wednesday. More on his fate later…

Thursday a cat-caught fledgling blue jay came in and by Saturday he trusted me enough I felt comfortable I’d be able to continue his meds in the songbird flight and moved him out there. Apparently there was more than just the cat bacteria going on, though, as he died Saturday night, literally falling over on the footstool I leave in there for a flat perch for the birds. I just realized I have no photos of him, either…

And yet ANOTHER red shoulder came in Thursday, as well. This one was on the ground and the teens who found him saw the nest but couldn’t reach it—and ants were already on the poor fellow.  He’s still not the happiest camper  but at least he’s eating. And ant-free.

​Yesterday yet another set of trailer hitch babies arrived. The boat trailer had been moved Friday afternoon and it was late yesterday before the trailer owner found the babies, so they’d been close to 24 hours with no food—in the brutal heat we’re having. Not good. Surprisingly , they’re doing quite well. I’m not entirely sure of species just yet but I’m leaning toward maybe phoebes. We should be able to tell by late this week.

​And today, I pulled up under my mother’s carport to find two of her barn swallows on the ground. I backed up and pulled forward again to try and startle them into moving. Nope. *sigh* Put the car in park, get out, walk up to shoo them away…and they’d fallen from the nest mere days before they would’ve fledged. Couldn’t fly. At all. So now Mama’s resident barn swallows are very unhappy with me because I have two of their babies…

I have no clue yet what tonight’s bird is; the caller said her daughter found it at church covered with ants. And once again PetSmart proves what idiots they have manning their stores; when the family took the WILD BIRD into a PET STORE, the geniuses there tried to tell them how to care for it instead of explaining it was illegal to possess wildlife without the proper permits and referring them to a rehabber. It was the mother’s initiative and continued Internet searching that alerted her to the illegality of possessing wildlife without permits and led her to LWR. God bless her for having the good sense NOT to listen to the fools at PetSmart.

The adult barred owl with the shoulder laceration was doing so well…until she wasn’t. She died overnight midweek.  And one of the red shoulder quartet, the runt, died 24 hours after they were moved to the raptor flight…And today within an hour, tragedy struck in my songbird flight as a rat snake managed to get in and eat a mocker and my precious robin between my hourly feedings. Needless to say, he was terminated with extreme prejudice. I know that won’t bring either bird back, but there are two things no-damn-body better ever mess with if they want to live: my family and my rehabs.

I did locate the entrance point for the now-deceased snake; there was a finger-width gap between the plywood of the blind and the bottom of the frame, hidden behind the base of one of the perches. It’s been closed now; I fixed that in today’s 100-degree temps. Too late for those two birds but the repair should prevent any more needless avian or snake deaths.

The adult barred owl who’d been at LWR since January was finally released, freeing the raptor flight for the red shoulder quartet, now trio. No videos or photos; he didn’t waste time skedaddling!
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The vultures have discovered how to use their wings, so now they’re as likely to be out of their pen as in it. This morning I sat some thawed deer meat out to get room temp, and an hour later I walked on the porch to find them out of the pen and deer meat all over the porch…

​The two juvie great horned owls are awaiting their turn in the raptor flight…

​…as are the barred owls, who at least are in bigger digs for the moment…

​…and the screech twins…

There’s probably somebody I didn’t update y’all on, but it’s late; I’m tired after having to make emergency repairs to the songbird flight in the heat; my Internet connection has been out and just decided to restore itself—AFTER I tried everything known to man before calling technical support, only to have to magically start  working 3 minutes into the service call; and I just wanna take a cool shower and try to get to bed before the wee hours.
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UPDATE: Tonight’s bird appears to be a fledgling chipping sparrow.

LWR is now housing 20—yes, TWENTY—raptors of various species. My earlier joking comment about stackin’ ‘em like cordwood ain’t lookin’ so funny now, as they’re everywhere I look and the songbirds are tucked into corners where there’s not a raptor box. And just last week alone, another 17 birds came in… The inn is rather full at the moment, but we’re not hanging the “no vacancies” sign just yet.

I’m not even sure where to begin…

We did have one release last week, the big juvie female great horned. She was happy to go, and it freed up the raptor flight for the barred owl who’s been at LWR since January.

I honestly didn’t hold out much hope the barred would really fly again, given the severity of his wing fracture; even though it had healed, it still looked like an awkward mess on x-rays. To my delight, he’s actually flying well and will be released pretty soon here, to make room for some of the other raptors waiting in the wings…oohh, no pun intended…

And who’s waiting in the wings? Three adult screeches, two juvie screeches, an adult great horned, two juvie great horneds, two juvie barreds, four red shoulders and two juvie black vultures. Three adult barred owls are recovering from injuries that require cage rest at the moment, so they’re on the back burner for the raptor flight.  Still, I need a flow chart or something just to figure out priorities here…

At least the songbirds pay well together and can all be placed in the flight together. These are the four mockers and brown thrasher from last Sunday’s update.

I guess the logical approach for the update is by day of intake last week.

Monday an adult barred owl came in with her shoulder slit open. She’d been found in the road, so she probably whacked someone’s side-view mirror just right to rip the skin. Luckily for her, she had no fractures, but there was pure muscle exposed. Vets Jim and Peggy Hobby and I debated, as there was no way to suture or Dermabond the wound closed—bird skin is thin, anyway, and right there on the shoulder, she’d be constantly ripping it open again every time she moved. We opted for heavy meds, topical sprays and lots of prayer. Thus far she’s actually doing better than I expected.

Tuesday a fledgling cardinal came in; he was reported as lethargic by his finder but was fairly alert on intake. His eyes, however, looked weak. He ate really well for one feeding, then had to be force-fed the remainder of the afternoon.  Something just wasn’t quite right, and he died overnight.

Also Tuesday, a nest of five Carolina wren hatchlings came in. The finders had watched the nest all day without seeing either parent, and after a day of no food the hatchlings weren’t in good shape. Once they were warm, they eagerly took food and seemed to be digesting it properly, but all died within 24 hours of intake: two overnight and the remaining three by the next afternoon.

Wednesday another young great horned owl came in, this one from a colleague who specializes in squirrels. She saw him sitting in an open field on her way somewhere else, and when she came back he was still sitting there. When she got out to check on him, he didn’t attempt to fly; he ran, and not very fast. After she described his situation to me, I felt it was best to remove him from the field for his own safety.

Thursday a cat-attacked nestling grackle who’d been kept for 24 hours and fed cheap cat food, judging by the crap all over his face, came in. As a reminder, cat saliva contains bacteria that’re fatal to wildlife if antibiotics aren’t administered promptly. Twenty-four hours is the outside window for treatment, and in this poor bird’s case it was too late. He died within an hour of intake.

A cat-attacked mocker also came in Thursday, with what appears to be a broken shoulder. Smalley’s was closed Friday for a long weekend, so the mocker gets a reprieve till we get x-rays.

Friday an Eastern bluebird fledgling, also cat-attacked, came in with a broken leg. I honestly don’t think the leg is fixable, but we’ll wait for x-rays to be sure.

Are you seeing a pattern here, people? KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS. An indoor-only cat cannot maim or kill wildlife. If you care at all about the safety of the wildlife in your area, you will keep cats inside. I have two indoor-only cats. They’re perfectly happy to use the nearest window as their TV.

Saturday was a bumper-crop day, with 6 intakes in under 8 hours.

A barred owl was pulled from a barbed wire fence. The flesh is pretty ripped up and the right wing, which wasn’t drooping on intake yesterday, is drooping today. He’s another candidate for x-rays.

The people who brought the nestling robin deserve a medal for going above and beyond. The entire nest fell a week ago. Unable to replace it near where it fell, they sat it on a windowsill and placed the babies back inside. Within minutes the parents were feeding their babies in the relocated nest. For the next week, however, the runt of the litter kept getting pushed out by his larger sibs. And every day, multiple times a day, they placed him back in the nest. After a week of this, and seeing that he was behind his sibs developmentally, they gave up and called LWR. He’s a perfectly healthy, happy little fellow who probably hatched 24-48 hours later than his sibs, putting him at a developmental disadvantage. His rescuers said his sibs were ready to fledge; he is not. His wings aren’t even fully feathered out yet. But now that he’s not fighting older sibs for food and constantly getting kicked out of the nest, he should be fine!

Sadly, the nest of hatchling barn swallows who also came in Saturday were true orphans. Their finders said the parents were feeding the previous evening but the mud nest was shattered and the babies scattered on their porch the next morning, with no parents in sight. One baby had died on impact; another had obvious bruising and internal injuries. He died within hours of intake. Another died overnight. The sole survivor is struggling but I’m hopeful.

And rounding out Saturday, another mocker fledgling with a broken leg came in. His leg looks pretty trashed but I’m waiting for x-rays on him, too.

Today a mallard duckling came in with a totally missing leg. It was a fresh wound; probably a snapping turtle got him, poor baby. He was alert and trying to move around on that one leg, but realistically speaking, a duck cannot survive with only one leg. And federal regs also require the euthanasia of any bird with only one leg. He was humanely euthanized.

The black vulture babies continue to grow and eat everything in sight. I’m (only half jokingly) threatening to start collecting road kill for them.

The screech twins are starting to test their wings.

The red shoulder quartet is as mouthy as ever, and so melodramatic about their food—to hear them tell it, they’re starving to death. The 30-40 small mice or 15-20 medium mice they inhale daily tell a different tale, though!

The adult barred with the leg fracture is doing great; the wound has completely scabbed over and he continues to put weight on that leg.

The older of the juvie great horneds still under care is insistent that he wants out of his box, and he really does need to be in the raptor flight. I’ll probably put both juvies and the adult out there next. Maybe. There’re too many raptors vying for that same space at the moment; maybe I should do a raptor lottery to see who gets their turn next!

And I think that sums it up for the past week…Maybe I didn’t leave anybody out…

Last week’s sole raptor intake brings the total raptors at LWR to 18. Plus five songbirds. And two recent songbird releases still demanding handouts…
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Starting with the raptors, midweek DNR brought an adult barred owl found in the road. While his wings appeared to be fine, his right leg was broken and scraped raw on the back. He had his foot balled, often a sign of nerve damage in a leg fracture, but it was, of course, worth an x-ray to see what we had going on. Since he’d come in late in the evening, I stabilized the leg until the next morning.

​Lo and behold, the next morning he was flexing his claw and putting weight on that leg! X-rays at Smalley’s confirmed a pretty nasty break, but vet Peggy Hobby said since he was doing so well with just my stabilization, we’d maintain that, changing the bandages to prevent infection from the raw spot on the back of the leg.

He’s eating well; the raw spot has scabbed over nicely and, most importantly, he continues to put weight on that leg and flex that foot.

The songbirds who came in the day before and after the barred weren’t as lucky.
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A fledgling Eastern phoebe was seen dangling upside down from the nest; when her finders pulled her down, they discovered her leg had been caught in the nesting material. Sadly, this had happened while she was still a nestling and the lower portion of her leg was already black and withered from lack of blood supply. She couldn’t stand on her one good leg, so humane euthanasia was required.

​And an adult barn swallow was found in the road in a neighboring county, with no outward signs of trauma.  On intake, I suspected a coracoid fracture, as the bird favored the left shoulder a bit but I could feel no fractures. Again, since this was a late-night intake, the goal was x-rays at Smalley’s the next morning, but the swallow apparently had internal injuries and died overnight.

​Then someone called with a nestling songbird of indeterminate species, cat-caught. He’d taken it from the cat the previous night and got it to LWR late the next morning. HOWever…he’d been feeding the bird all this time, a mixture of water and dog kibble. Hard dog kibble. As soon as I took the bird from him, I could hear the click-breathing that indicates aspiration. The poor bird vomited water and bits of dog kibble for the entire two hours it lasted after intake, struggling for each breath. I started antibiotics immediately, but it was a lost cause. Birds, especially baby birds, have tiny lungs and it doesn’t take much to aspirate them, causing them to literally drown from the fluids that enter their lungs.

THIS is why I cannot stress enough NOT to feed a bird until and unless you’ve been given CLEAR, DETAILED instructions from a rehabber on a safe emergency diet, and NEVER attempt to give them water. No bird should have to suffer like this because of someone’s ignorance.
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A nest full of mockingbirds ended up at LWR after the tree their nest was in was cut down without anyone checking to see if there were any nests in it.  The people who cut the tree did at least call the game warden to see what they needed to do. Then they tried to get me to give them gas money to bring the birds to LWR…

As a reminder, LWR is a home-based rehab facility and receives no state or federal funding, i.e., no salary. Further, if I ran out to pick up every bird I received a call about, when would I care for the ones currently under my care? It is the finder’s responsibility to get any wildlife needing assistance to a properly licensed rehabber; we simply do not have the time and resources to pick them all up.
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And Friday night, people brought a nestling brown thrasher found in the road. There was no nest in sight.

The weather and my work schedule haven’t cooperated for the juvie great horned release; there was about a three-day window last week with no rain predicted but tight editing deadlines prevented me from releasing her. She’s not an unhappy camper, really, just aggressive and bored in the raptor flight. Fortunately, I was able to snag her live prey several days last week to further hone her skills and help alleviate her boredom.

The adult barred and all the others—the adult and brancher great horned, the brancher barreds, the three adult and two brancher screeches, and the half-feathered black vultures—waiting in line, as it were, for the raptor flight, however, are most definitely not happy.
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Speaking of the vultures, look at how they’ve grown!

​The two brown thrashers in the songbird flight did finally decide to fly the coop and are still hanging around for handouts. The one Carolina wren left in the songbird flight also utilized the “escape hatch” and quickly took up with a clutch of recently fledged wild Caros, so she only came for handouts one day.

The kingfisher died—no clue why. He was eating well, alert, aggressive…and then dead. I suspect it was sheer stress; he was most definitely NOT a happy guest at LWR.
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The brancher barreds and great horned are almost totally self-feeding now.

​The four red shoulders are also beginning to self-feed, which cuts down on the screaming fits quite a bit. Hand-feeding four mouthy red shoulders is truly a pain in the ear!

​And just look how the screech twins have grown! Recall, if you will, a mere three weeks ago, they were eyes-closed balls of fluff with their egg teeth still intact, and just look at them now! They’re also beginning to self-feed.

Apparently it’s gonna be a raptor-heavy year; at the moment, LWR has 11 owls—3 adult screeches, 2 baby screeches, 1 adult barred, 2 baby barreds, 1 adult great horned, 1 juvie great horned, 1 nestling great horned—2 still-mostly-downy black vultures, and 4—yep, FOUR—nestling red shoulders of varying ages…all still typically red shoulder mouthy, though.

As I type this, it’s after 7 pm Sunday—by which time I normally have the LWR weekly update done. HAH. Not this Sunday. This is the first time I’ve sat down since eating a quick dinner with my mother around noon—too many beaks to feed, phone calls to field, boxes to change…

Let’s start with the new raptor babies, shall we?
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May 2 a nestling red shoulder came in, all mouth and attitude. 

​And today, after storms all around us last night, he was joined by three additional nestlings, two sibs whose nest was destroyed and an “only” who narrowly missed being lawn mower fodder.

​A nestling barred owl was also unnested during last night’s storms.

​As for the older raptor babies, the vultures are now in a playpen (yes, an actual toddler playpen), as they’ve outgrown all the boxes I have and need room to stretch their wings. It won’t be long before they’ve outgrown the playpen, as well. Poor babies look a bit scruffy as their feathers are slowly replacing their down. Other raptors look kinda cute during this process; the vultures just make me shake my head and tell ‘em, “Bless your sweet, scruffy little hearts…”

​The screech twins don’t even look like the same birds! But look at those expressions—even as babies, screeches have had enough of your nonsense, thankyaverymuch!

​The nestling barred owl who had the eye injury is looking great; he has full use of that eyelid now, which is more than we expected. 

​The juvie great horned in the raptor flight has passed her live prey test not one but twice, both times with flying colors; she’s good to go as soon as the weather cooperates.

​All wasn’t sweetness and light at LWR last week, of course—never is. An adult brown thrasher came in Monday evening and died overnight.

​An adult barred owl was brought by a FWS agent, but he had an open fracture at the shoulder and a closed fracture on the opposite leg and required euthanasia.

The chipping sparrow was feathering out nicely and then keeled over last night…
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Two nestling Carolina wrens didn’t even survive long enough for photos, and of the “pet store” Caros, only one survived and is in the songbird flight now, along with four others—three who came in together and one who came in today. Today’s Caro is looking stressed to the max, so I’m hoping placing him with the others will ease his stress; otherwise I don’t expect him to survive the night. 

​Joining the Caros is this adorable little blue-gray gnatcatcher.

No clear shots of the Caros or gnatcatcher in the flight pen; they’re active little rascals!
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And the brown thrasher from last week’s update was joined by a slightly older thrasher, both of whom are also in the songbird flight.

The kingfisher is eating well but most definitely NOT a happy camper. Just in case he’s not releasable, I’ve contacted Flint Riverquarium in Albany, GA, and they’ve expressed an interest in placing him in their aviary of nonreleasable native Georgia songbirds. I hope that’s not necessary but it’s nice to have a plan in place.

The adult barred and great horned owls, along with the adult screeches, await their turns in the raptor flight; the plan at the moment is to place the adult barred out there as soon as the juvie great horned is released, and then get all the adults in and out as quickly as possible to make room for the babies as they mature.