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June 11 saw LWR’s 100th intake in 2009…

6/17/2009

…and we’ve still got six months to go in this year! Of course, after the height of baby season peaks, things will slack off slightly…maybe…we’ve still got a couple of months for feathered babies, and then we’ll have the late summer/fall litters of squirrel babies.

Nature has been kind to me so far this month, with considerably fewer intakes than last month—which is good, considering that at the end of May, I was reeling under the sheer volume of animals I was rehabbing!

The wrens, mockers , blue jays and brown thrasher from the last update were all released, as were the finches. Below are photos of some of them in the flight pen pre-release.

And here are some shots of some of them post-release. They’re all still mobbing me when I walk into the yard, but they don’t really need me. The blue jays are especially funny about this, as they’ll come screaming down for food from me with big, juicy worms or ripe berries already in their beaks. They then have to decide where to stash what they have to make room for what I’m offering. This results in either a quick gulp to down the berry or pinning the worm beneath a claw, followed by loud declarations that they’re starving to death. Ya gotta love blue jays—the loud, brash, greedy rascals!

And here’s something I’ve never seen before—one of my released mockers developed a cowlick before his release—it’s too cute!

Look closely at this series of photos—can you see the wrens in the first shot?

They’re more obvious here.

And here’s a good close-up of them. Wrens like places to hide, and this branch with dead leaves was an ideal camouflage for the night. Neat, huh? I almost didn’t see them myself, but when I did, of course, I ran for the camera.

The ground dove continues to progress nicely and is attempting to fly some now. She’s actually physically ready for the flight pen, but doves have to be totally self-feeding before they can be placed into a flight pen. We’re working on that now; she’s down to two hand-feedings a day.

In new intakes, I have a fourth deer. No photos of this one yet, as he’s slightly psychotic. Yeah, last year I had massively aggressive deer; this year I have two neurotics, one psychotic and one sweetheart. I need a blasted wet-suit to go into the deer pen, too, since the two neurotics take great pleasure in licking every exposed portion of my skin. I come out drenched in formula and deer spit—what a lovely combination!

I also have three adorable possums who came in with very little fur and eyes still closed. They were also ice cold and starving, but I couldn’t feed them until I got them warmed up—feeding a cold baby of any species, even a bird, will kill it. Their eyes have recently opened, but I don’t have shots of them with open eyes—the flash isn’t good for eyes still adjusting to being open, so you’ll have to make do with these shots of the group when they came in and below, a close-up of one of the cuties. (Come on, you KNOW you think possums are cute…at least, when they’re babies!)

We also received two barn swallows within two days of each other. One was a recent fledge who apparently had a nest injury and some other unidentified issues that didn’t show until she attempted to fledge and hit the ground like a brick. We gave her over a week, but she never developed the ability to fly, and she started losing feathers and weight, despite being fed every half hour. She was euthanized yesterday.

The other barn swallow came in as a tiny little thing, eyes barely opened (see above photo). It took a week of force-feedings before she decided she’d gape for me, and now she gapes like crazy and has grown like a weed. She’s a precious little girl who’s just started “flying in place” on the edge of her nest cup, so it won’t be long before she’s ready for the flight pen, too.

As with the 6-1 update, this was written in spurts between feeding critters and I’m still operating on 4 hours’ sleep a night, so any mistakes or omissions are due to sleep deprivation and the more important distraction of feeding my young charges.

Please do note that on the “Contact Us” page of the website, there is now an e-mail address in addition to the submission form: laurenswildliferescue@progressivetel.com .

And now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to feed the birds before I feed the deer, then feed the birds before I feed the possums, then feed the birds...

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31 days, 36 intakes...frazzled? Who, me??

6/1/2009

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What a month! I’ve never had more intakes than days in the month before, but there ya go—always room for a first.

And first off, let’s update you on the status of Harvey Wallbanger, the pileated woodpecker who came in with the broken wing New Year’s Eve ’08. As you may recall from previous updates, the wing had healed properly but Harvey refused to use it, despite daily PT. As best we can figure, there was nerve damage. This meant he was unreleasable, but because he was a healthy bird who seemed unfazed by captivity--drummed, called, ate nonstop: all the things a normal pileated would do in the wild—I was very reluctant to euthanize, so I started searching for placement. After two months of looking, I’m happy to report that thanks to the efforts of Chris Baumann, Wildlife Biologist with Georgia DNR, Harvey has been placed at Flint River Aquarium’s (Albany, GA) new aviary, with other native, nonreleasable birds.

As for releases, all the denizens of the flight pen have been released; at right and below are photos of a couple of the released wrens, one sunning and one perching in a Cherokee rose bush.

The rabbits have been released; two more came in and were also released—no photos of them, as they were only with me overnight for observation, since they’d been taken from dogs’ mouths. There were no injuries, and they were at the age where it was best to return them to the wild ASAP. I’ve seen both the most recent releases hopping around the deer pen lately, so I know they’re doing well.

Here’s a shot of the wrens from last update right after they started perching…

…and some of them perching in the flight pen with the two mockers who also came in over the past couple of weeks.

We also received a brown thrasher, Georgia’s state bird and one of my favorites to rehab because they’re such sweet, attractive birds. As adults, they have gorgeous yellow eyes; this little lady still has juvenile brown eyes.

I also received a nestling ground dove, the victim of a cat attack. Her wound looked pretty life-threatening, as a chunk of her tiny wing was missing and I wasn’t sure when it healed that the feathers would grow in, but she’s feathering out nicely, and we have new feather growth where the wound was. Obviously, she also was given antibiotics, as cat saliva and to a lesser extent dog saliva is toxic to birds, as well as squirrels, rabbits, etc. Here she is the day she came in.

This is our dove a week later…

…and just yesterday.

Two blue jays also are temporary residents of LWR. One was rescued from a dog pen; one was unnested during stormy weather and came in with severe lung crackling which made me doubtful he’d pull through. After several days of antibiotics and force feedings, he decided he was going to live, though, for which I’m grateful. I’d have to rank blue jays among my faves to rehab, as well. They’re the smallest members of the Corvid (crow) family and as such, are lively, intelligent birds who’re just loads of fun to watch. Here we have the two “Big Boys” pre-flight pen…

…and in the flight pen.

We also had a nest full of house finches, just days old, come in. Here they are upon arrival...

…and yesterday, when two of the four decided to perch. This morning, all four were perching.

There have been two more mocker nestlings, as well, one last week and one yesterday. At left and below are photos of the older mocker upon arrival and yesterday.

And here’s a shot of the mocker who arrived yesterday. Cute tale with this little guy: the lady who found him in her carport brought her sons with her to deliver the bird, and she informed me that the younger boy had offered to chew his corn at lunch and feed it to the mocker, as he’d read somewhere that mama birds regurgitate food to their babies. Actually, the little fellow wasn’t far off, as pigeons and doves do feed their young dove or pigeon “milk”—the baby sticks its head into its parent’s beak and is fed this “milk,” which is partially digested food. I have high hopes for this caring young lad!

We also have two more deer, shown separately here. No shots of the three of them together yet, as my hands are rather full when they’re all three up and active—that means it’s feeding time and I’m fighting to avoid drowning in deer spit and drooled formula!

In transfers, we had a downy hawk, exact species still up for debate, who went to Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends…

…and a young red fox who went to Bonnie Walker of M&W Wildlife Rehabilitation.

And that should bring us up to date for the moment…I think. No rants, no real details, no discussions of the ones who didn’t make it for this update—I’m having to do it in spurts between feedings. At the moment, my days are broken into 20 minute chunks—that’s about the longest I have between rounds of feedings, from 6:30 am until 8:30 or 9:00pm, after which I begin my “paying job” of freelance editing—what, you thought my bills paid themselves because I devote my time to wildlife rehab? I wish! Then maybe I could get more than 4-5 hours’ sleep a night during this very hectic baby season!

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June 11 saw LWR’s 100th intake in 2009…

31 days, 36 intakes...frazzled? Who, me??

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