Blog Archives

That time of year…

6/29/2025

It’s that time of year, when the appetites of the birds under care mean new mouse orders every couple of weeks…. And that, of course, means a mid-year fundraiser. Our goal is $1500. We’re doing this low-key, through the LWR website’s PayPal links, basically because every fundraising platform out there takes its “fair share” of donations, cutting into the mouse money y’all donate. PayPal also takes a cut, of course, but their nonprofit rate is low enough to be tolerable. So…$1500 by the end of July? I think it’s doable, with y’all’s help!

As is usual this time of year, our week-long low-to-no rain chances last Sunday changed by the end of the day, and boy, am I glad we didn’t release anything banking on those original forecasts! Wednesday night into early Thursday morning, we had massive, sideways-raining, house-shaking, blinding-lightning thunderstorms that knocked the power out from 12:30AM to 8AM. We ended up with about 2-2.5 inches of rain.

So of course, the antsy red tail gal is still “antsying” in the flight, inciting similar behavior in the younger juvie and exasperating the nonreleasable to no end. The nonreleasable made her vet visit last week to get the certification we needed for Elachee to begin their paperwork to acquire her as an ed bird.

The turkey vultures are growing like weeds; they’re at that awkward half-down, half-feather stage that makes them truly funny to look at—and hissing and growling nonstop at me and each other. This morning they fought over ONE piece of food…with a dish full sitting in front of ‘em. Apparently that one piece was the best of the lot…

The red shoulder whose nest was destroyed has modified his behavior somewhat. Apparently he realized it’s not a good idea to foot the hand that feeds you! He stubbornly refuses to eat whole mice, though—still has to have them cut up like he’s a nestling. That’s gonna have to end; he needs to be eating like a young adult bird now.

He was joined at LWR last week by a Mississippi kite (MIKI) brancher from Toombs County. He’d been unnested in a storm, and the game warden who picked him up searched the area but couldn’t locate the nest. As is the case with all MIKIs, he’s just a gorgeous little fellow who likes to “pip-pew” stridently while his food is being prepared. I mean, he hasn’t eaten in at LEAST 15 years, to hear him tell it…

And after our midweek storm here in Laurens County, a power company lineman found a grounded juvenile male barn owl and called 911, who gave him LWR’s phone number. Instead of calling LWR, he took the bird to the Dublin police department, who coordinated with the Laurens County sheriff’s office to get the bird to LWR. He’s been a bit loopy since his arrival but finally started eating last night, so…fingers crossed. Barnies can be stressy, stressy birds. But so far he’s not been a “screamy-screamy” bird. Just y’all wait—the day I forget earplugs, he’ll cut loose and scream like a banshee, and my brain will try to crawl out my ears to escape the noise!

There will be no update next Sunday, July 6. Y’all enjoy y'all's Independence Day and long weekend!

0 Comments

RELEASES! FINALLY!

6/22/2025

0 Comments

And now we could use rain again—what’d I tell y’all last Sunday about that?

But last week was blessedly rain-free, and LWR was able to release SIX birds! I’m not sure who was happier: them, me, or the birds that ended up in bigger digs as a result of releases.

Let’s start with four of those glorious (okay, some were a little klutzy…) releases: the adult red shoulder and the barred trio. (One of the barred videos recorded sideways; I found an online site that rotated it for free but watermarked it unless I purchased their full services. Free is good. I can live with their watermark.)

This emptied the mini-pen for the red shoulder sibs, but by week’s end they were flying at the door and coming close to self-release every time they were fed. Having passed live prey testing, they were good to go, although I’d’ve preferred a little longer time in the mini-pen. But the turkey vultures also needed more space, so…compromises are sometimes necessary. The red shoulder sibs were released yesterday.

So now the turkey vultures are in the mini-pen, where they’ll remain till they’re fully feathered.

The remaining red shoulder brancher, the one from last week’s update whose nest was destroyed by an unknown predator, has morphed from traumatized baby to footy little rascal. I have to put on a handling glove just to put his food in his box!

The nonreleasable red tail will go in for a vet visit to confirm her nonreleasable status this week, after which the paperwork will be set in motion to place her at Elachee Nature Center in Gainesville, GA.

The vocal juvie is flying like a champ now and should be releasable within the week. I kinda hate to see her go; she’s a delight to watch. But she was well-fleshed when she came in, so we know she can fend for herself in the wild.

And the youngest red tail is part of the reason I hate to release Miss Vocal. I feel like he’s learning more from watching her, fresh from the wild, than he will from the nonreleasable, who’s been at LWR since the end of January.

We’ll see; she may need to hang around a while longer, till Little Feller is ready for release, too.

0 Comments

Still in a holding pattern

6/15/2025

0 Comments

The good news is it appears we may have several days of low-to-no rain chances beginning Monday, so maybe—just maybe—we can get some birds released and others moved around this week. Y’all keep those fingers crossed!

Only one new intake last week—a late nestling/early brancher red shoulder from Pulaski County. The couple who brought him had watched the nest in their yard from the very beginning and had been enjoying seeing the babies grow. Sadly, they came in from work one evening last week to find the nest destroyed and were able to locate only the one surviving baby in the brush nearby.

He was understandably traumatized and still hunkers down in fear when I put his food in his box, but he is at least self-feeding, so that’s one less source of stress for the poor fellow—no handling for hand-feeding.

The mature red shoulder will be the first in line for release this week if the weather cooperates. He’s SOOOO ready to go.

And the weather-contingent plan is to release the barred trio so the juvie red shoulder duo from earlier in baby season can go into the mini-pen. They’re about to go stir-crazy, poor things.

The barreds have indicated they’re quite ready to be free, so let’s hope, after two weeks of rain delays, we can finally give them their release.

The turkey vultures are growing and feathering out like nobody’s business. Soon they’re gonna need more space, too—already do, if I’m being honest.

And all three red tails are tolerating each other nicely in the main flight. The youngest, the one I thought was female, now looks like a small male in comparison to the other two. The now-second-year bird is going through a molt and has at least one red tail feather coming in; we’re still waiting to see if placement is an option since he’s nonreleasable. The vocal probable female who was new to last week’s update is flying beautifully. She apparently thinks she has to sing for her supper, as she does a beautiful although subdued red tail cry at every feeding—see last Sunday’s update for the best example of that. It rained too dang much last week to try for any video.

(And a month from now, when it’s bone-dry and hotter’n a firecracker on the Fourth of July, we’ll all be wishing it’d rain…)

0 Comments

The best-laid plans, part the I-lost-count

6/8/2025

0 Comments

All those plans for release and rearrangement I bandied about last Sunday? Yeah, they were based on Sunday’s week-long forecast showing no rain chances. HAH! It rained or there was a substantial chance of rain nearly every day last week, so needless to say nobody got released and there was minimal rearranging of LWR’s guests. And this week’s forecast is showing high chances of rain nearly every day. I need three days of low or no rain chances to release any birds, and I can’t do much rearranging without some releasing, so we’re spinning our wheels here.

LWR had just one new intake last week, a gorgeous juvenile red tail from Upson County who was observed having difficulty flying—according to witnesses, he could fly only a short distance and not over three feet above ground. Sounded like a classic coracoid fracture to me, and those frequently can’t be seen on x-rays. The good news is that coracoid fractures usually heal with no issues, so this vocal and quite gorgeous fellow just needs time.

The female brancher is totally self-feeding now and is sporting a bit of a Mohawk as her head feathers continue to come in.

And the older red tail still shows no signs of flight but there is a facility interested in him as a program or display bird. We’re still working out the details.

Meanwhile, to ease space constraints, the two older red tails are currently being housed together in the main flight. Given that they’re all passage birds, the plan is to move the female outside soon, too—gives the poor first-year fellow time to adjust. The juvie already continuously screams for food from the nonreleasable red tail, who glares at ME when I’m in the flight, as if to say, “What in tarnation have you saddled me with here?”

Sadly, the preemie red shoulder didn’t make it. He seemed to be doing so well, aside from those weak eyes I mentioned last week, and then, out of nowhere, he began vomiting blood and was dead within two hours. Given that it was old blood, not fresh, I suspect there was a small internal injury when the egg fell and was forced into premature hatching, and as he began to grow, the bleeding increased correspondingly.

The baby turkey vultures, on the other hand, are doing quite well and their stubby wings are starting to pin out. They’re less clownish and more aggressive than black vultures at the same age.

The concussed adult red shoulder from last week, bless his poor heart, is still at LWR since the rain precluded any releases. He’s not happy but he is eating well.

The fledgling red shoulders –which is what they’d be by now in the wild—are ready for a flight pen but both flights are full. They’re antsy and vocal.

And the barreds are actually ready for release. As much as I’d prefer they have some flight experience in the main flight, space constraints may mean they’ll be released from the mini-pen. We shall see. As I said last week, it’s that time of year when space is at a premium—and the weather leaves birds cooling their heels and me wanting to pull my hair out!

0 Comments

Baby season is in full swing

6/1/2025

2 Comments

Last week saw three new baby intakes and one adult intake.

Starting with undoubtedly the cutest of the babies, we have a hatchling red shoulder. A local falconer got a call from an acquaintance in Twiggs County who’d cut down a tree without realizing it had a red shoulder nest in it—and while I usually rant about cutting trees during baby season, 9 months after Helene, people are still trying to clean up trees, some of which aren’t uprooted but are leaning dangerously, in their yards/on their properties. So I’ll forgo any rants due to mitigating circumstances.

ANYway…the nest had two eggs in it; the impact from the fall caused both to hatch prematurely. One was close enough to hatching that it survived; the other wasn’t and didn’t. Its membrane was ruptured and despite the falconer’s best efforts to keep it alive until the next morning, when he could bring them to me, it didn’t survive the night.

However, the surviving preemie is doing quite well and, of course, as all raptor hatchlings are (okay, maybe not barnie babies—they’re faces only a mother could love!), is impossibly adorable. He’s at 36.4g as of today and has an amazing appetite for such a teeny little feller. His eyes seem a little weak looking to me, but I could just be paranoid.

The other two babies are a first for me—turkey vultures. If you’ll notice, their down is white, while black vulture down is yellow. They’re also more prone to stress puke, effortlessly and without warning, so I’m moving veeeerrry slowly and talking veeeerrry quietly and only when necessary around them. So far, so good—they’re now only “growling” at me before, during and after feedings—normal for both species of vultures but each species has a different tone to its “growl.”

Their back story is interesting, as well: a Laurens County deputy knew he had a female turkey vulture nesting in a barn on his property; she had nested there for several years and had become somewhat acclimated to his coming and going from the barn. He knew she had babies, but then she abruptly disappeared and he found only a pile of feathers and the babies had moved from where she had them and were cowering in a corner 10 feet away. After bringing them to LWR, he continued to search for the mother for a couple of days, with no luck.

Honestly, I don’t think they’re as cute as black vultures but these two have a hilarious habit of stomping their feet hard while being fed—I’m still not sure if it’s an attempt to hurry up the feeding or an attempt to intimidate the feeder. If the latter, it ain’t workin’!

The red shoulder twins really need to be in the mini-pen; the goal is to get them outside this week. They’re self-feeding now, so they’re good to go in an outside flight.

That will mean the barred triplets will be moved to the main flight. They’re flying well in the mini-pen and need more space.

This will, of course, mean that the red tail currently in the main flight will either be released or euthanized—I’m still trying to give him time to show me he can fly, but so far, nada. Maybe he’s flying when I’m not around the flight, but I don’t think so. I hope I’m wrong.

The brancher red tail just today started limited self-feeding, but she’s flapping those wings a good bit now, so she’ll be needing an outside pen before long. This time of year it’s always a constant juggling act: move this one here, move that one there, bigger box for this one, release that one, find space for a new intake…

The broadie I was worried would die from handling stress did, in fact, check out last Sunday afternoon, poor fellow.

And about an hour ago an adult red shoulder came in from Screven County. The finder saw him late yesterday in the middle of the road and stopped to pick him up. Nothing appears to be broken but he’s obviously concussed and a little on the thin side, so he’ll spend a few days at the LWR B&B.

2 Comments

That time of year…

RELEASES! FINALLY!

Still in a holding pattern

The best-laid plans, part the I-lost-count

Baby season is in full swing

Archives

Categories