Intakes remained slow last week, befitting the end of baby bird season, and none were even birds. While I’m licensed for small mammals, deer and reptiles, I generally don’t take in other species if I can avoid it; small mammal rehabbers are relatively more plentiful than bird rehabbers. That being said, I will occasionally take in a non-avian or non-flying squirrel rehab.

Last week an elderly caller was distraught that routine lawn mowing had disturbed a rabbit nest and killed one of the young ones. Based on the description of the rabbits, I suspected they were actually independent young juveniles who were probably still using the nest as a safety zone for daytime naps. But the caller lived in a bad area of town and was worried about the safety of the surviving sibs, so…what the heck? All they’d probably need was overnight observation to ensure they were actually eating, and then a quick release.

Sure enough, these were fat, healthy juvies who were ready to go the next morning. Rabbits have only a 10% survival rate in rehab because they’re such stressy little buggers, so on the rare occasions I take them in, I breathe a huge sigh of relief when I can release them quickly.

·        QUICK TIP: If a “baby” rabbit will cover approximately half a dollar bill, it’s old enough to be on its own unless injured.

I’ve moved the red tailed hawk (RT) into a flight pen temporarily, until I can get her in for euthanasia. While she cannot fly, there are low perches she can ladder up to, and at least she can get some fresh air and sunshine in her last days. I do have the means of euthanizing here, but it’s reserved for those intakes who are suffering and cannot wait for a vet to perform euthanasia. Because this girl’s healthy aside from the wing fracture that healed badly in the wild, I’d prefer a vet handle her euthanasia.

I know it’s not a popular topic, but let’s discuss euthanasia for a moment: Obviously, no one enjoys having to put down animals, especially those whose injuries have healed in the wild but leave them unreleasable because they’ll compromise the animal’s ability to survive. However—and this is a BIG “however”—if the animal cannot be used for educational purposes, i.e., an ed bird, it must by law be euthanized. And rehabbers worth their salt understand and accept this.

Sometimes the nature of the injury will prevent an animal’s use for educational purposes; sometimes its temperament will. Sometimes it’s a simple matter of educational facilities having a full complement of that species already, as is often the case with RTs.

And there are humane, quality-of-life issues to ponder, as well. Renowned Canadian owl rehabber Kate McKeever summed it up nicely she when pointed out that wild animals crave freedom to the point that if they’re offered the option of life in captivity or freedom and sure death, they will choose freedom and sure death. Can you blame them?  (And I know educational birds at wildlife centers have spacious cages, enrichment activities, etc. I’m not knocking wildlife centers who have ed birds and other ed critters. But these centers have budgets and staff that home-based rehabbers don’t have that allow them to provide quality lives to their nonreleasable ed birds.)

So yes, it sucks to have to euthanize an otherwise healthy bird whose wing broke and healed badly in the wild. But I’ve watched this girl in the flight pen for the past couple of days; I can see the longing in her eyes to be free, to soar in the skies—which she’ll never be able to do again. But if I opened the flight pen door and gave her the option, she would choose freedom and death over life in a cage. Sadly, the only freedom I can offer her—the only “release” available—is euthanasia.  

And finally, last week a 22.6 pound common snapping turtle was found beside a dirt road in the county with his face smashed. Based on his injuries and where he was found, here’s my reconstruction of the incident: The dust-covered snapper was on a dusty road, probably near the side, when a vehicle clipped his face and part of his shell. They probably didn’t see him and because only the front of the face was damaged, they probably didn’t even know they hit him. Snapping turtles cannot pull their heads fully into their shells; if he’d been able to do that, he probably would’ve escaped with only a slightly cracked shell, as the shell damage was minimal.

While the severity of the damage warranted use of my home-EU chamber, the snapper was slightly too wide to fit, necessitating a trip to Smalley’s Animal Hospital, where vet Jim Hobby performed the euthanasia.  As badly damaged as the poor snapper was—he was basically dead and didn’t know it—he fought tooth and nail. You’ve got to admire an animal that will still struggle to live when it’s that mortally injured…

Because his face was pretty messed up and some of you non-rehabbers are a bit on the squeamish side, I’m placing most of the snapper photos after the warning below.

In an unusually—but very welcome—slow week, LWR had only one new intake, a DOA first-year sharp-shinned hawk. He was found in the road and died while the finder and I were en route to meet each other.

That meant that the entire week was spent working with the chimney swifts to get them ready for release, documenting the recently released birds still hanging around the yard, and trying to find placement for the first-year red-tailed hawk.

Thus far, no joy on placing the RT. Every educational center in the state either has a full complement of educational RTs or isn’t interested in a non-flighted bird. I’m reluctant to expand the search outside the state, as the paperwork involved in transferring a bird across state lines is reputedly a nightmare. We’ll keep looking…

The swifts are good to go this week, I think. Gonna give ‘em another day or two to be sure, but all’s looking good for a release by mid-week.

The Eurasian collared dove showed up late last week—first time I’d seen him in a while, so that was a nice surprise. It’s hard to see in the photos, but he’s beginning to get the “collar” around his neck that figures into his species name.

The mocker continues to seek handouts, although I’m seeing him less and less often now, and he takes less from me with each encounter.

The blue jay remains a relentless beggar, although he is starting to look a bit shamefaced about it when his wild buddies are around. It’s funny to watch: he’ll swoop down, raucously demanding a handout, and his wild buddies will start “alarming” because he’s near a *gasp* HUMAN…he’ll freeze, cock his head, and depending on his hunger level, either risk ridicule from his posse or fly away to join them. Gotta love blue jays, with that corvid intelligence and playfulness!

Sunning:

Bathing:

Preening:

Bathing again (it was hot that day!):

Late August usually marks the end of baby bird season for this area, although some late dove nestlings/fledglings aren’t out of the question. I know some of my mammal rehabber colleagues are already getting in baby gray squirrels, so second squirrel baby season has begun (gray squirrels have two baby seasons: late winter/early spring and late summer/fall).

From now through winter, most of LWR’s intakes will be injured migrating adults, which will mean many of the “usual” species and the odd “never had one of those before” species.

A “slow” week implies lack of activity, and there was no lack of activity at LWR last week—just fewer intakes!

Sunday night another juvenile Mississippi kite came in, unable to fly. X-rays Monday morning at Smalley’s revealed a very small wing fracture; additional X-rays on the adult M. kite showed continued callus formation. Both birds have since been transferred to Steve Hicks of Bubba and Friends, who’s amassing quite a collection of kites this late summer—I think 5, at last count.

In return, Steve sent this gorgeous first-year female red tailed hawk for wing x-rays, as his vet’s practice is temporarily closed due to vet illness. This has to be one of the weirdest injuries I’ve seen in a long while. We’ve tossed around numerous theories as to how it happened, the most likely being she was diving after prey and her wing hit a branch or stump or fencepost at just the “wrong” angle…and the very clearly visible large callus indicates this happened some time ago. She’s thin, so she’s probably been surviving on the small prey she could snag on the ground. There’s also a stray bit of bone sticking out of her side but with new skin growth over it. Just weird all the way around…Her chances of flying again are pretty much nil; we’re debating whether she’ll make a good educational bird.

In news of the less weird, all the former flight pen denizens have flown the coop. The bluebird is long gone; I hear her out with the other bluebirds around the place. The dove is hanging around within sight but won’t come near me. The mocker and blue jay, however, are taking full advantage of my soft release policy (I continue to provide supplemental feedings until the birds no longer come down to me), the opportunistic little rascals!

Here are some videos of them bathing before their release:

And here we have a few shots of them after release (guess it's obvious I have a favorite here!):

The chimney swifts continue to mature nicely; they’re not yet exercising those wings too often. I’ve seen a couple of tentative wing flaps in the past day or so—we’re getting there!

Last week was a typically predictably unpredictable week. Confused yet? You’re welcome; I try…

The absolutely great news is that the gunshot Mississippi kite will NOT require surgery— as I’d hoped, once the infection was treated and the swelling went down, the bones are nearly perfectly aligned. Vet Jim Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital was as excited as I was upon seeing last week’s x-ray! The caveat is that because of the position of the pellet, removing it would do more damage than good…We’ll play it by ear; he’ll go back for follow-up visits and x-rays until there’s a nice callus forming, and then we’ll go from there.

The mockers, blue jay, bluebird and dove all went to the flight pen last week. They’ve all pretty much got the self-feeding thing down pat now, but we’ve had rain predicted for the past several days, so there they sit, bless their hearts, waiting for lower rain chances. In Georgia in the summer, isolated thunderstorms, especially later in the day, are a given, but when the chances are higher than 40%, I hold off on releases. 

Because the barred owl’s eye was almost completely open and clear Monday morning and he was bouncing off the walls, I  cancelled his vet trip. By Tuesday he let it be known he was by-God ready to go. Honestly, some of the guests at the LWR bed and breakfast are SO ungrateful…

When the call came about three “baby pheasants” I was positive the caller had one of three species: quail chicks, turkey poults, or killdeer chicks. All three are high-stress species; one of the birds the caller had was found with a broken leg. Not good.

When the birds came in, they were tiny little quail. I was pretty sure the leg fracture was fatal but ran the bird to Smalley’s to confirm. What I hadn’t noticed in my haste to have vet Peggy Hobby examine him was that the leg was broken at both the hip and ankle—open fracture at the ankle. In other words, this little guy was a goner.

Still, the surviving sibs seemed alert; they appeared to be eating; their poop looked good…maybe they had a chance. I set them up with the requisite low heat and feather duster for stressy precocial birds. (Precocial just means they hatch with their eyes open, covered with down, and leave the nest immediately after hatching to follow their parents around.) Maybe, just maybe…

Alas, the next morning both sibs were dead under their feather duster.  I wish I could say I was surprised, but I really wasn’t…

The world’s messiest possum finally got big enough for release. He didn’t care; possums are so clueless…I, on the other hand, was delighted to be relieved permanently of daily wash-up duties. In the video below, you can see he was still pretty messy when he was released. Watch for that huge yawn that shows just how concerned he was…I released him in an area with plenty of grubs, etc., on the ground, which you can see he’s chasing every which way!

Yesterday two new chimney swifts arrived. As you might recall, swifts are very high-maintenance birds in a rehab setting. Plus it’s pretty late in the year for babies this young. Nevertheless, here they are…The older sib seems a bit weak-eyed to me, so I’ve already checked with the next-closest songbird rehabber in my area, some 50 miles away, in case I need to place the younger one with another group. Swift singletons generally don’t fare well. Unfortunately, because it IS late in the season for baby swifts, she has none...Again, we’ll just have to play it by ear and hope for the best.

And just this morning, despite my clear message that I’m currently accepting only birds and flying squirrels, someone left a message about a cat-attacked rabbit. Against my better judgment I called the person back, figuring if nothing else I could at least humanely euthanize the poor thing. He seemed alert despite four open wounds, two on each flank, and was moving all four limbs and attempting to eat, so I treated the wounds, started antibiotics, gave him a bit of food…and ended up euthanizing a few hours later when it was obvious he was crashing.

Folks, here’s the deal, from someone who’s both a cat lover AND a wildlife rehabber: if you don’t want your cat wreaking havoc on the wildlife in your yard, KEEP THE CAT INDOORS. It’s not only safer for the wildlife in your yard; it’s safer for the cat, who is no longer exposed to ticks, larger predators, worms, etc.  If you truly love your cat you’ll keep it safely indoors; if you allow your cat to roam freely, it WILL kill birds, rabbits, squirrels and any other small prey animals it can snag. Cats are predators. It’s what they do. I can’t fault cats for acting on their nature, but I can damn sure fault people who irresponsibly allow their cats to roam outdoors and blithely ignore the damage they do to our native wildlife.

It’s August, late in baby season. I’m exhausted, stressed out and experiencing late-season burnout to the point that I recently described myself to fellow rehabbers as a “rehab krispy kritter”. So I was dee-lighted to transfer the juvie Mississippi kite and two juvie barred owls to Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends and to release the two Carolina wrens and the grackle, who shot off before I could even focus the camcorder on him…Six down, three to go, and then maybe a short interlude before any new intakes. Riiiight…what was I thinking???

Nine new intakes arrived…No rest for the weary just yet…

The week was bookended with mocker intakes: one found in the middle of the road, the other found and kept by an elderly couple for a week before they located the contact info for LWR. Luckily, he was at an age where the crappy Internet diet they found and used didn’t do too much harm.

Folks, I cannot stress enough that at least 99.9% of the diets circulating on the ‘Net are sure-fire ways to kill a bird with improper nutrition. Please, puhLEEZ, when you or any of your friends, relatives or acquaintances find a baby bird, make your first Google search for a LICENSED REHABBER in your area. Spread the word and help save baby birds from killer diets!

Adding to the general insanity, this young Eurasian collared dove was found beneath a tree—and doves of all species build absolutely the most half-cocked, ramshackle nests you can imagine—and the finder decided the bare spots under his wing and on his sides (where feathers were just coming in) were where he was “raw”…so the poor bird was slathered with greasy salve…

Yeah, I still don’t have all that gunk out of his feathers after a week of once-daily baths. It’s got some kind of staying power, whatever it is. 

Another helpful tip from your increasingly exasperated and decreasingly friendly rehabber: salves and ointments that can be used on humans and other mammals CANNOT be used on birds. They damage existing feathers and can interfere with feather growth—to say nothing of what could happen when the bird ingests these goopy messes while preening.

Once again—if you find a bird that you think is injured, LOCATE AND CONTACT A LICENSED REHABBER before attempting any sort of treatment on your own!

The person who found these hatchlings on the ground with no nest anywhere in sight did just that: within a few minutes of finding them, she called me. In under an hour, I had the birds. Ideally that should have given them a good chance at survival, but sadly, three of them didn’t make it. They apparently didn’t get enough of the parents’ saliva to fill their sterile hatchling guts with beneficial bacteria, and each of the three died overnight over a three-day span. The fourth, who appears to’ve been the first to hatch, may have gotten more of the gut flora he needed from his parents, as he seems to be thriving. I’m cautiously optimistic about his chances.

And the people who found this red-headed woodpecker also did the right thing: as soon as they found him, they called DNR to locate a rehabber. Again, within two hours, I had the bird. Nothing appears broken and he seems alert and eats well but has no sense of balance or motor control and his right eye, which was somewhat swollen yesterday, was completely swollen shut this morning. The alertness rules out WNV in my opinion; the swollen eye could be from being sideswiped by a car, which would also explain the loss of motor control. He’s on antibiotics as a precaution and anti-inflammatories for the eye. We’ll see how things look tomorrow and decide whether a vet trip is needed.

And a final “they did it right”: the couple who found this barred owl today immediately sought help. When they called me, I referred them to a raptor rehabber closer to them but when they called, they got a message that the rehabber wasn’t taking any new birds until mid-month. So this couple drove two hours one-way from the coast to bring me the injured owl.

His left eye looks trashed when he opens it—which he’s not doing often right now. Nothing appears broken, but he definitely has a concussion and I do foresee a vet trip in his immediate future so we can fully assess the damage to that eye.

Here, my friends, is a shining example of why the poor possum must be bathed at least once daily…

The gunshot kite’s nasty wing infection is finally cleared up and he’s much feistier than he was this time last week. Jim Hobby at Smalley’s Animal Hospital and I have agreed that perhaps with the swelling down the bone displacement will have also resolved somewhat. The plan is to snap another X-ray tomorrow and determine where to go from there.

And finally, leaving you with “rehab makes strange roomies” cuteness overload, enjoy these multiple shots of the bluebird and blue jay buddying up with each other!