​First off, thanks to those who donated to the fundraiser. With just two days left before the deadline and the total raised sitting at $2775, it’s pretty obvious we won’t meet the goal of $5500. Thanks to those whose donations will allow LWR to limp through another few months—we’ll operate till the funds get low, then cease taking in new birds in order to have funds to finish up with whatever’s currently in house. With luck, we might be able to stretch that $2000+ ($770+ has already been spent on more mice and various songbird/waterfowl feedstuffs) to the end of the year but I’m not optimistic on that front.  Too bad more of the 600+ of you who “like” the LWR Facebook page didn’t translate that “like” into financial support…

​The robin, last mocker and all three flickers are now released. The robin and flickers still expect handouts whenever I’m in the yard, which is fine; I can monitor their progress by how often they demand handouts and how long they hang around. They’re already grabbing a quick bite or two and flying away, so that shows they’re figuring out where the natural food sources are. 

The mourning dove fledgling from last week—the one who’d been attacked by a dog—started uncontrollably drooling blood Monday morning; apparently there were internal injuries. He was euthanized.
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The Eurasian collared dove, however, is looking good and perching. He hasn’t quite figured out the self-feeding thing, but he’s at least playing with the food he’s offered.

​Monday a chuck-will’s-widow came in; he’d been cat-attacked. He was missing most of his tail feathers and had a deep scratch on his belly. After treatment with antibiotics, he was released. While 10-14 days is the norm for a round of antibiotics, with some really stress-prone species, it’s best to release as soon as possible. Nightjars tend to fall in that category.

Sorry the video's sideways; it played horizontally on my PC...

​The brown thrasher and three red-headed woodpeckers went to the songbird flight last week; the thrasher is still there but the red-heads have been released. They flew the coop without a backward glance.

​The wood ducks are *thisclose* to release—maybe within the next week, certainly within the next couple of weeks.

​The young Mississippi kite with the wing damage is looking great. I don’t expect feather regrowth in the immediate future, so I may end up looking to transfer him out when funds start getting low; I can’t overwinter a bird without the money to feed him. 

​The flycatcher from last week is an Eastern kingbird, one of several members of the flycatcher family. He’s had a rough week, bless his heart. As you may recall, he was eating but not opening his eyes last week. Then about mid-week, overnight he developed severe diarrhea and was massively dehydrated the next morning. Then for half a day he couldn’t poop at all. I honestly seriously debated euthanizing but through all of this he was still eating well, so we did meds, wormer and crossed fingers. As of today—keep those fingers crossed—his poop is looking normal and he’s looking like he finally feels better. 

​The screech hasn’t been moved into the raptor flight yet, basically because it’s been too hot and muggy to deal with the between-birds cleanup required. The temps are moderating somewhat for the next few days, so he should be in the flight early in the week.

​We attempted to release the broadwing, as planned. It was the stuff of comedy. He came out between the flaps of the box before I could even open it…and proceeded to sun himself on the box…

​…then he hopped off the box and sunned some more on the ground…

​…then he proceeded to waddle along the ground like a penguin…

…at which point I gave up, scooped him up, and called colleague Kathryn Dudeck at Chattahoochee Nature Center (CNC) on my way home from the release site. Broadwings are social raptors so I knew to begin with that releasing him solo would be a crap shoot. I also worried about his initial weeks with the hamburger and worms idiot—how much handling and possible imprinting occurred then? He seemed wild enough in the raptor flight but I was able to walk up to him and pick him up off the ground in open space—not good.
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And to add to the general frustration, as soon as he was back in the raptor flight, he was flying like a champ again!

​Kathryn had a couple of broadwings in that she could put my guy with; CNC is also on a major broadwing migratory flyway and within driving distance of a site where they gather prior to migration—all better than I could offer the clueless little fellow here at LWR. The day after his failed release here, he was en route to Kathryn at CNC, where he’ll hopefully figure things out in time for migration. 

​As of today, we’re still sitting at $2640 of $5500 raised, with 15 new intakes this week. People don’t seem to grasp that caring for these birds is expensive. Why don’t I pitch in myself, you ask? Oh, I do. I don’t take vacations, as that would be spending money that could be used for rehab supplies. If I’m lucky, I might manage one or two weekends a year that I can get the hell outta Dodge for two or three days. This year that won’t happen, as all my “outta Dodge” pennies have gone into funding LWR. So you see, I’m not asking you to make any sacrifices I haven’t already made. I’ve also applied for a small local grant that instructs applicants to call if funding is an emergency. I called after submitting the application. I got stonewalled. Sadly, I can’t go pull money off trees to feed these birds. I wish I could. And I promise you, even if I had a street corner to stand on, at my age, clients would be rather sparse, so that’s out as a fundraising method, too…

​The pileated was released last week, finally. See that tree in the middle of the photo? Yeah, he’s on the other side of it. Little snot made sure he stayed out of camera range till I swore profusely and gave up.

​Unfortunately, the red tail wasn’t as lucky. When I moved her to a smaller box for the trip to Smalley’s for follow-up x-rays, she managed to twist her wing so as to create an open fracture. I found this out when I unboxed her in the x-ray room and saw fresh blood under her wing…and then the jagged edge of a freshly exposed bone. We x-rayed anyway, to see what had happened. The slightly displaced fracture of May had become a massively displaced fracture last week—no healing at all had taken place. We had to euthanize her.

​Another barn swallow came in, this one kept for 10 days by her finders. She was pretty much ready to go, so after a couple of days in the songbird flight, I released her into a flock last week. She still visits me for handouts periodically.

The robin and the mocker stubbornly refuse to leave; I may have to evict them, the freeloading rascals. The hummer died unexpectedly Saturday evening. I’d just topped her off with a hand-feeding—she was mostly self-feeding but I “topped off” hourly to be sure she was getting enough. She ate for me and seemed fine. Five minutes later I turned back to her cage and she was on her back. As she sometimes fell and got her feet caught in her wings trying to right herself, I went over to help her get untangled, and she was dead. My best guess is sheer stress.

I also had two mockers come in, a fledgling who’d had string hung around his leg, resulting in severe nerve damage, and a nestling covered with mites, which it took several hours to rid him of. The fledgling required euthanasia; he was unable to perch and dragged his injured leg behind him. The nestling died overnight, I suspect from blood loss from the mites.
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The flickers are in the songbird flight—well, two of them, anyway. The third chose today to leave through the “escape hatch.”  Were you watching what he did, robin, mocker and remaining flickers???

​This juvenile Cooper’s hawk was observed sitting in a driveway, seemingly oblivious to the traffic on the nearby road.  He had no obvious fractures and only a swollen eye, plus he had a full crop, so my assumption was that he was full and sluggish and got whacked—a concussion that shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Unfortunately, he had massive internal injuries and bled out overnight.

​Three additional woodpeckers came in, this time red-headed woodpeckers. They were stressed beyond belief on intake and still tend to hunker down even when begging for food. If my nest had been destroyed and I’d been fed a crap diet for nearly 24 hours, I guess I’d be a bit stressed, too.

​Both a nestling mourning dove and a nestling Eurasian collared dove arrived at LWR last week, as well, and are happily nested together. That’s one of the things I love about doves; they’re so gentle. The Eurasian collared is the larger, grayer bird; the mourning dove is the smaller, browner one.

​The wood ducklings are getting closer to release; we’re finally starting to see real feather growth on those wings. Good thing, too; they’re getting a bit cramped indoors now.

The broadwing passed his live prey test with flying colors and is ready for release early in the week; the screech is next in line for the raptor flight. I can only imagine how happy he’ll be to have all that space to fly around in.
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When a volunteer transporter called to say she was picking up a “baby bald eagle,” we both chuckled; experience has taught us that it’s never an eagle. Sometimes it’s not even a raptor. Sure enough, she called back shortly, laughing, and said it was either a kite or a broadwing. Given the time of year, my money was on kite and when she arrived with the little fellow, he was indeed a nestling Mississippi kite with a pretty nasty-looking wing injury.

​His wing was raw, bruised, swollen and missing a lot of feathers. The swelling made it impossible to tell if anything was broken, so obviously a trip to Smalley’s was in order the next day. While his little wing looked pretty awful, it had only a minor metacarpal fracture—a small “hand” fracture, as it were. This should heal just fine, and the swelling and bruising have diminished even since these photos were taken.

​The barn owl who came in Saturday may not be as lucky. His leg is broken badly; the open wound on the leg looks too perfectly round to be from a “natural” break, so I’m afraid lead may show on his x-ray, slated for Monday if possible.

And today, while I was trying to work on this update, four new birds came in.
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This little pre-fledgling Carolina wren had three siblings who didn’t survive the night to make it to LWR. Their parents were killed by a shop fan; the nest had been built somewhere in the fan and by the time anyone noticed the dead adults, the babies were in pretty bad shape. Sadly, this little one only survived two hours after arrival at LWR.

Another mocker arrived, with a leg fracture right in the joint and no neural response at all below the joint. He was euthanized.
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This brown thrasher also arrived today. They’re the sweetest birds…

​And while this nestling is in the flycatcher family, I’m not sure which species yet. He ate well up till lights out but never opened his eyes at all; the finder saw her dog near him and wasn’t sure if the dog had attacked him or not. I couldn’t find any injuries but internal injuries often don’t show till it’s too late, so…we’ll see. I adore flycatchers and am curious to see which he is, so fingers firmly crossed that he makes it.

…For at least a few more months. We’ll take it a month at a time. A huge ‘thank you’ to those who’ve donated already; your generosity will allow LWR to continue to “give Nature’s children a second chance.”

 Meanwhile, the fundraiser is still active for another two weeks, and we’re at $2590, 47% of the $5500 goal, with no new donations in two days.  Part of the problem, I think, is that there’s not that sense of ownership with wildlife; you can’t pet a hawk or cuddle with a blue jay, or physically adopt them. So while people will donate out the wazoo to domestic animal groups, they’re less likely to see funding wildlife rehab as “their” problem—until they need a rehabber and discover there are none available because they all shut down from lack of funding. Then there’s a huge hue and cry about how “somebody oughta do something.” Well, folks, YOU are that “somebody” and it’s better to act now than bemoan the lack of rehabbers when it’s too late.
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We should all view wildlife as a trust, to be maintained for future generations.  We don’t “own” wildlife like we do cats or dogs, but it’s our duty to protect our wildlife so that our children and their children can see these creatures in their natural habitat, not read about extinct species in books or see them only in museums or zoos.

Despite the grim funding situation, LWR did have seven new intakes this week, all on Monday, nearly balanced by six releases throughout the week.

An adult chimney swift was DOA; a post-mortem exam showed that the left wing was broken but the bird was also rail-thin and had probably starved to death en route.
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Hot on the swift’s heels was an adult Mississippi kite with an open wing fracture, also left wing. Despite his alertness and overall health otherwise, the wing fracture was a death sentence.

​Then a fledgling mocker was found wandering alone around a body shop. He had a bit of a bloody beak on intake but is fine now. Sorry for the low-quality photo; I was working on this update when I realized I’d not taken any other pix of the little loudmouth this week.

​That oversight was more than likely due to my utter fascination with the next three intakes, nestling Northern flickers.  While LWR has seen several adult flickers through the years, these were the first babies we’d seen, and I admit to being a bit mesmerized by the cute rascals.

On intake I worried that they might have aspiration pneumonia or issues stemming from a crap diet, as their finder had kept them over the weekend, giving them water and feeding them some godawful grits-Purina cat chow mixture and managing to kill the fourth one—which is when she miraculously discovered LWR’s number.

They’re doing great, though, and should be ready for the flight pen by late in the week, I’d guess.
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The final intake for the day—and, as it turned out, the week—was a juvenile hummingbird, a female ruby-throat. Her finder kept her for a solid week, giving her sugar water laced with vitamins—sorta like giving your child a steady diet of Sprite and multivitamins and then wondering why the young’un has health problems, huh? 

She does have some missing flight feathers but nothing seems broken. Both wings are level and move as they should, but the missing feathers prevent flight. The good news is, she’s pretty much self-feeding, so there’s no running to feed her every 15-20 minutes.
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The last four killdeer were released…

​…as were the last two of the nest of four mockers. They’re still hanging around demanding handouts, though.

​The barn swallow, despite her best efforts, was never able to fly—she never managed to even lift herself off whatever perch she had hopped up on. The plan had been to “merge” her with swallows of about the same age who were beginning to fledge under my parents’ carport, as attempting to place her in the nest when she came in could have caused them to fledge prematurely. I figured once they’d fledged, given swallows’ social nature, nobody’d notice one more mouth to feed. Sadly, the stress of attempting to fly and not being able to apparently took its toll on the little sweetheart and she died overnight Wednesday.

The mourning dove, after doing so well for so long, also began to struggle early in the week and started losing weight drastically despite eating normal amounts of food.  When nothing seemed to improve his situation and he began to obviously physically deteriorate, I opted to end his suffering.
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The robin is doing beautifully in the songbird flight and should be releasable as soon as we have several days of low/no rain chances.

​The broadwing, bless his little heart, is slowly beginning to figure things out—he even flew to the “big boy” perch this week, for the first time!

​The wood ducks are getting huge but still not big enough to be outside. Their tail feathers are gorgeous but their wings are still stubby little bits of fluff.

The screech, red tail, pileated and geese are still with us, just no photos this week. See above—I was a bit fixated on the flickers!
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And in closing, I’ll leave you with this photo taken with my phone camera mid-week; it was all I had handy when this gorgeous scene appeared. Of the several shots I took, this one is my favorite because of the bird. It serves as a reminder to me that things will work out somehow, so I’m trusting in the universe and generous donors to aid and abet that “working out” so LWR can continue its mission.

And it tells me all I need to know about just how little you value my services as a wildlife rehabber and—more importantly—the very wildlife I care for. I’ll keep the doors open as long as possible, but as things currently stand, we’re looking at closing the doors for the remainder of the year by the end of the month.
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To give you an idea of average expenses, a small order of mice to feed the raptors costs about $400. I have to place an order twice a month—it’s cheaper than losing a large freezer full of mice in one of our frequent rural power outages.  A small order of mealworms (app. 20,000) sets the LWR account back $120. Because these are best fresh, I order them weekly. A can of dried bloodworms—a great self-feeding incentive for ducks, killdeer and some smaller songbirds and a nice treat for recuperating songbirds—runs almost $18. I go through 2-3 cans of bloodworms a week—let’s use 2.5 for calculation purposes. And then there are the puppy pads and human-sized incontinence pads that I use to line cages and boxes for waterfowl and raptors, and paper towels and tissues to line the songbird nests and enclosures—that’s another $60-100 a month—again, let’s use about $50 for calculation purposes…And that doesn’t even include the various nonprescription meds I keep on hand and the various feeding formulas. The total just for the items I listed prices for and approximate monthly usages of is $1510. That means from January through June, $9060 was required to feed, house and medicate the birds and flying squirrels who came through LWR’s doors—or were still here from late last year. I’m asking for just over half that amount to limp through the second half of the year. It’ll be tight but with the end of baby season—and assuming no late clutches of baby barnies come in again this year—it should be doable. I didn’t just randomly pull a figure out of thin air; I sat down and calculated the bare minimum I thought LWR could scrape by on for the remainder of the year. 

​Thankfully, given the funding crisis, this week saw only four new intakes; sadly, two of the four didn’t make it.
Last Sunday, a woman came home from a weekend trip to find an adult barred owl hanging by a string from a bush in her back yard. Before attempting to cut the bird down she called LWR for help and advice, which she followed perfectly. On arrival at LWR, the owl’s leg was still wrapped in string, with branches still entwined in the string. The leg was raw and irritated but not broken, and the owl was alert, well-fleshed, and vocal. He was also flexing the foot and putting full weight on both legs, so I had high hopes we could, with meds and time, get this bird back into the wild.

However, between noon and four Monday, the owl just keeled over. We suspect internal trauma of some sort probably caused his death.
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Monday, both a robin and barn swallow came in, both late nestlings. Both are among my favorite species to rehab, because they have such great little personalities.  The swallow was found on the ground with the remains of his nest and a dead sibling in a grocery store parking lot; the robin was found in a driveway with no signs of a nest nearby. After a few days of isolation, I put them together for the company, and they immediately nestled down and became best buddies. Rehab makes for strange bedfellows, but they’re cute together, and both seemed to perk up once they had a buddy.

That's not food on the barn swallow's wing; the robin pooped on him.

​The windowstrike juvenile cardinal who came in Tuesday wasn’t as lucky. He remained unable to stand and required euthanasia.

Of the six mockers, two required euthanasia—oddly enough, it was the oldest and youngest, both of whom had come in after being rescued from ants. Both went from doing well to struggling to even stand within the space of hours, days apart.
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Two of the nest of four mockers have been released; the other two are looking as if they’ll head out this week.

​The killdeer are ready to go and will be released this week.

The geese are also ready for release, as soon as I can get them to the site.

The pileated is also good to go; his escapes this week when his cage was being cleaned are evidence of that. No pix of his greasy little butt; he decided last week it would be fun to roll in his suet, so currently he could make a 1950s greaser weep in envy. He’ll need several more baths before release, and then holding for a few days longer, till he can “rewaterproof” his feathers.
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The screech currently spends his days preening, sleeping, eating, and glaring at me—basically living the life of Riley.

​And the wood ducks are growing nicely.

​The red tail is getting antsy, so I think the follow-up x-ray is imminent. Hopefully we’ll get good news, although she’s stuck inside till the juvie broadwing gets his act together. Bless his little heart, that may take a while…at least he’s mantling his food now, so that’s good, but he’s about as clueless a hawk as I’ve ever seen—that’s usually an owl thing. At least he’s adorably clueless…

I’ll keep the updates going until these babies are all released; as things stand now, I cannot afford to accept any new intakes.

​As y’all may have noticed by now, this has been a raptor-heavy year, in addition to the usual full complement of songbirds and a few flying squirrels. As of today, LWR has seen 217 intakes, about half of which have been raptors, and the year is only half over. Things should slow down considerably after July, when baby season begins to wind down, but raptors are generally long-term guests who will still need feeding. This many birds, raptors especially, means pretty hefty monthly expenses, to the tune of an average of $1500 a month thus far this year. With that in mind, we’ve started a fundraiser to make sure we have sufficient funds to see us through the end of the year—hopefully without having to hold a second fundraiser later in the year, as was required last year. The goal is $5500, and the fundraiser will run throughout the month of July. Please donate as generously as your budget will allow, and remember that your donations are tax deductible.

​In other news, it was a week of releases, with all five red shoulders, a barred owl, both brown thrashers, a red-bellied woodpecker and four killdeer sent on their merry way to life in the wild.

​This adult male red tail, pulled from the grille of an 18-wheeler, required euthanasia; both wings had open fractures.

​Four more mockers came in after a dog destroyed their nest in a hedge and the dog’s owner decided it was a smart idea to post on Facebook trying to give them away. Fortunately, one of his friends tagged me and I was able to get the dog’s owner to bring the birds to LWR, where they joined the single mocker from last week.

​A sixth mocker came in yesterday from mammal rehabber Libby Parker-Carey, a younger nestling than the others. He was found on the ground covered with ants but is doing well at the moment.

​Libby also sent a fledgling crow with a wing fracture, but he died en route. The volunteer transporting these two birds stopped along the way to collect a cat-attacked Carolina wren. The cat’s owner swore her cat couldn’t have attacked the bird. Yeah, and hell ain’t hot, either. The photo she sent Libby showed a bird so drenched in cat saliva that when Libby forwarded me the photo I couldn’t even guess at species. He had raw spots on his head and a swollen wing that may or may not have been broken. As lethargic as he was all yesterday, I was not surprised to find him dead this morning.

People, I know I’m preaching to the choir on this, but even if you keep your cats inside, there are idiots who don’t. Spread the word; use every opportunity to explain why outdoor cats are a danger to wildlife, as well as at risk themselves. I’m sick and tired of people refusing to take responsibility for their marauding moggies.
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The younger quartet of killdeer continue to mature and will be fully feathered fledglings before you know it. With the release of the older four, larger digs became available for the younger ones, who initially weren’t sure about all that space.

The mourning dove is doing well and just needs to learn to self-feed to make everybody happy now; then he can go into the songbird flight and in short order gain his freedom.

​When LWR received a message that a falcon had been found by the roadside, I was positive it was in fact NOT a falcon; we don’t see them in Middle Georgia too often. Sure enough, when the finder showed up, he had a mature red-shouldered hawk who was starvation thin and “eat up” with frounce. He seemed to be responding well to both frounce treatment and regular meals and was even totally self-feeding, as opposed to having to be force-fed when he came in, but after casting two slimy gray pellets late yesterday–not their normal color or consistency—he died  last night.

Let me digress a bit here for a public service announcement: People, I don’t care how docile and “friendly” a raptor may appear to be, it’s still a wild bird with talons that can inflict serious damage if they dig in and a beak capable of ripping flesh and—in the case of some raptors—breaking fingers. DO NOT handle these birds bare-handed and don’t EVER assume they’re safe to just tote around like a ragdoll. They’re not. Use common sense and proper precautions when handling raptors: gloves are a given; if you don’t have gloves, a towel, blanket or even a sheet folded several times will give you a means of picking up the bird without acquiring interesting new body piercings. Sometimes you can even herd them into a cardboard box—and here again, NEVER assume because a raptor is stunned or lethargic that it can’t or won’t suddenly go ballistic when you start your vehicle. ALWAYS restrain the bird in a box BEFORE you start your vehicle.
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I also have a huge “oopsie” to admit to—the downy baby that had been fed hamburger and worms for two weeks before being surrendered to LWR is NOT a red shoulder. He is, in fact, a broadwinged hawk. Broadwings “officially” aren’t supposed to breed in Georgia, so even when this fellow didn’t act or sound like a red shoulder should, I chalked it up to his two weeks of less-than-stellar conditions before arriving at LWR. But no, he is a broadwing, which became obvious this week. The young broadwing is now in the raptor flight. The plan was to move the screech out there after the red shoulder quintet was released, but this fellow was going stir crazy, while the screech is in an inside pen large enough to flit about a little, so…change of plans.

​The wood ducklings continue to grow and make bigger and bigger messes in the process. They’re getting real good at splashing water over the edge of the tub during their daily swims…

And the pileated and red tail recovering from wing fractures are doing well and due for follow-up x-rays as soon as I have time to get them in.