LWR has had its share of juvenile and adult ospreys through the years, but never a nestling. This bird came from a neighboring county and because it seemed late in the year for a baby I called DNR’s Bob Sargent, who’s over the state’s eagle program but also monitors osprey nests, for some guidance. He said it wasn’t unusual to have nestling ospreys as late as early August, so this fellow’s right in line with that time frame. Look at those blue-tinged baby feet!

I knew Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends had a better setup for ospreys—meaning a larger flight pen—so I contacted him upon intake of the bird Thursday, and we set the transfer in motion. Thanks to intrepid volunteer transporter Joy Daniels, the bird headed to Bubba & Friends this morning.

Also on Thursday an older juvenile barred owl came in with a concussion. After 48 hours of dark, quiet isolation, he perked up yesterday and ate his first meal since intake last night. Although he’s still a bit loopy, he’s now in the raptor flight with the slightly younger juvie already in there, and she ain’t happy about it!

The MIKI is self-feeding now but still requires his mice to be chopped up. Mice aren’t their normal diet; MIKIs are aerial insectivores: They snag and eat their insect prey on the wing. However, in a rehab setting, they generally readily accept mice.

The red tail is going through a complete molt. The bottom of his box is lined with molted feathers every day!

The Coop is rarin’ to go and will be released next week, making room for the red tail in the mini-pen.

And, of course, we have the crow, who has grown so much in the past week that he doesn’t even look like the same bird. He does have a left leg/foot issue, which could be a nest injury or the result of his fall from the nest. Nothing is broken; he just tends to curl that foot inward. That’s something I see fairly often in smaller songbirds, so I’m leaning toward nest injury—improper positioning of the foot in the nest.  Most birds adapt and by the time they’re releasable it’s not even obvious they ever had a problem.  Since he’s considerably larger and heavier than the average nestling songbird, though, we may end up having to brace or boot that foot/leg to give him a little help. I’m waiting a few more days to see, as he’s showing improvement on his own at the moment, just not as quickly as I’d like.

It’s not at all obvious who’s my favorite current guest, huh?!

Don’t forget about the Name That Crow fundraiser, ending July 31. Participation has been sparse, which kinda surprises me. I thought folks’d be eager to have a say in naming this gorgeous fellow! Fundraiser details are below:

1. From now till the end of the month, y’all can make donations and LIST YOUR FAVORITE NAME from those below with the donation. Donations can be via PayPal or mailed check; PayPal links are on each page of the website and here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=aO-V5zbhpx1TToyCsUjfOlBVCJTO5t2FwAxt7l6IsAfqUWrA1vMLXrBIv2zxb6LqR0AoH0&country.x=US&locale.x=US. Mailing info is under the “How can I help” tab here: http://www.laurenswildliferescue.org/how-can-i-help.html
   
2. The name that receives the highest amount in TOTAL donations by July 31 will become the crow’s name.
   

As y’all can see from the total donations listed below, Crowvid is currently in the lead. We’ll see if that changes before July 31…

1. Crowvid—$60
2. Poe—$25
3. Tarbaby
4. Cawrona —$25
5. Br’er Crow

​Just look at this baby—just LOOK! Y’all know I adore corvids, and I seldom get fledgling or adult crows—and never a baby, in 20 years of rehab. So yeah, I’m just a wee bit thrilled to have this little darling in the LWR nursery.

He (I call most birds “he”—easier) weighed a whopping 174g on intake, after being found the evening before near a golf course in a neighboring county. Honestly, when his finder sent photos, because she included nothing for scale and they were taken from a distance, I thought she had a grackle. When she arrived at LWR and I opened the box, though, it was quite clear this wasn’t a grackle. And yet I still couldn’t believe that I actually had a nestling crow. It took a while for it to sink in. 2020 may have thus far been an all-around crappy year for the world in all other respects, but I’ll now remember it fondly because…BABY CROW!!!

He seemed a bit off to me, which I knew could be stress and dehydration, but I was taking no chances. I hied me hence to my computer and emailed Dr. Kevin McGowan of Cornell University, the leading expert on crows. By the next morning I had a reply, thus beginning an invaluable two-day email correspondence with a man who’s, as a friend said, “rock star status” in the bird world. If you’re a rehabber or a birder, you know Kevin McGowan’s name immediately.

He was very interested, very helpful. We sorted the “off” issue—yep, most likely stress and dehydration.  He aged this baby, based on photos I sent him (app. 18 days on intake), and confirmed my ID as a fish crow—smaller than American crows. Georgia has both and the few crows I’ve seen in rehab have been a fairly equal mix of the two species. Additionally, he provided enormously helpful care advice based on his research on crows, as well as a chart to aid in aging young crows.
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This “leetle feller” is doing quite well, alert, eating voraciously and pooping like a pro—y’all know how important poop is to a rehabber!  And he’s THE most endearing little darlin’…

​So we’ve debated names here at LWR—while other birds are seldom named, all crows MUST have names—and here are our top picks:

1. Crowvid (courtesy of my niece, who shares my dark and twisted sense of humor)
2. Poe
3. Tarbaby
4. Cawrona (sorry; we like a good pun…)
5. Br’er Crow

To make this fun and raise a little money for LWR, we’re gonna do a sort of mini-fundraiser: Name That Crow. Here’s how it’ll work:

1. From now till the end of the month, y’all can make donations and LIST YOUR FAVORITE NAME with the donation. Donations can be via PayPal or mailed check; PayPal links are on each page of the website, and mailing info is under the “Contact us” tab.
2. The name that receives the highest amount in TOTAL donations by July 31 will become the crow’s name.

Let the naming begin!
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Obviously the crow wasn’t the only intake of the week. Monday an adult little green heron came in with a nasty wing fracture that required euthanasia.

​Midweek, a brancher Mississippi kite arrived, the first young MIKI of the season. This is about the time of year for them to start showing up in rehab, so I was expecting a nestling-to-juvie MIKI or two any day now when this mouthy little fellow arrived.

An adult great horned owl arrived via Animal Control from a neighboring county and died within hours of intake. He was bleeding from a minor wing wound on arrival, and it smelled infected although the blood was fresh. Unfortunately, it appeared he was the victim of rodenticide poisoning. Nothing I did stopped the bleeding. Every time I thought I had it under control he’d move and it would start again. He literally bled out as I tried to staunch the bleeding. Not a pleasant experience, and that’s probably the understatement of the year.
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Friday a juvie little green heron came in with a swollen elbow. Even though it was a Friday afternoon and Smalley’s was bustin’ butt, they managed to squeeze me in for x-rays on the little fellow. Nothing was broken but the elbow looked as if it might’ve callused over from a small fracture earlier. I stopped by my cousin’s bait and tackle store and got a bucket of minnows for the bird and headed home. Once in his box he perched on the side of the bucket, snagged a few minnows, and seemed fine. The next morning he was dead. Not a clue as to why. If I had to guess, I’d say there was some underlying systemic issue. We’ll never know for sure.

An adult barred owl also came in Friday, from a vet clinic in a neighboring county. The vet there did x-rays and showed them to me on her cell phone; it looked as if his hip was fractured. Ultimately, it was a non-issue, as he died overnight. I’m guessing hit-by-car and internal injuries.
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Yesterday, a nestling barn owl arrived—the third barnie this year. He’s alert and vocal—I use earplugs to handle him to change his paper or feed him. Again, because Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends already has three barnies now, this little one will go to Steve next week to be with his ever-growing “collection” of barnies. I feel kinda bad; it’s been a bit one-sided this year: I’ve sent Steve two, soon to be three, barnies and he’s only sent me the one Coop. Usually we’re a bit more even in our “trades.”

The screeches were soft-released late in the week and promptly vanished. Soft release gives them the option of leaving or not and hanging around should they want handouts to supplement their hunting.  Screeches, being T. rexes in their minds, don’t need no stinkin’ help. When they leave, they leave!
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A soft release means no release videos and no post-release photos, so here are the last photos and videos I took of them pre-release.

 ​With the mini-pen empty, the Coop got moved outside. Typical uncooperative, psychotic Coop, he lunges off the perch to the ground every time I go in to feed him, so the photo below is the best I’ve managed thus far. (And no, those aren't his feathers. I seldom remove the odd stray feathers from the various birds that've been in the mini-pen. Gives each new resident something to play with.)

​The barred owl is maturing nicely and should be releasable soon.

​And the red tail still favors his right wing, although nothing is broken. He apparently has some soft tissue damage that needs a bit more time to heal. He’s also going through a molt and has several more red tail feathers, although you can’t see them in the full-body photo.

Just because there was no update the weekend of the Fourth doesn’t mean nothing was happening at LWR, although it was a mercifully slow couple of weeks.
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The bluebird trio, both blue jays, Eastern phoebe and both mourning doves were released; the bluebirds, having been so close to fledging when they came in, wasted no time “getting shed” of human contact. The jays, surprisingly, stopped coming down fairly quickly too, although I can still hear them around the yard. The phoebe and doves also are around but not coming down for handouts. I managed post-release photos of a couple of them.

​An adult turkey vulture came in with no apparent injuries; after observation he was released. Not a great photo but he didn’t hang around to pose.

​A juvenile barn swallow dropped off by the public at Smalley’s wasn’t as fortunate; his right wing had an open fracture. He was euthanized.

​The Coop is maturing beautifully and is totally self-feeding; he’ll go into whichever flight opens up first.

​A slightly older Coop came in June 29 with a mild concussion and some minor eye swelling. After a couple of days to get over his headache, he was released. Yeah, see that tiny moving blur in the video? He didn’t hang around for post-release photos.

​The barred owl, after a three-day hunger strike, finally started eating like he should. It’s not unusual for raptors to refuse food for several days after being moved into an outdoor pen: new environment leads to stress. This is why we make sure they’re well-fed before a release, as they may go several days in the wild before snagging prey. He’s looking good and eating well now, though.

​On the Fourth a second-year male red tail came in, rail thin and with a nasty case of frounce. Luckily, we caught it in time and within 24 hours of his first treatment he was already self-feeding. Now his only problem is that I have no elephants to feed him. Honestly, his appetite is VASTLY out of proportion to his size; he’s a small male—like female red shoulder-size.

​Saturday a couple saw a cattle egret fly into a power line and immediately retrieved the injured bird and brought it to LWR. Unfortunately, the left wing was shattered. The bird was euthanized.

​The screeches continue to entertain me when I place their food in the min-pen or freshen their water. So much attitude in such a tiny package!