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Black vultures released!

8/28/2022

Given the younger vulture’s swift transition from half-down, half feathers to very little down at all, yesterday seemed like a good time to open the mini-pen door and see what the rascals would do.

They spent the day wandering around the back yard, finding an old log to sit on, then moving over to the path leading to the main flight.

I left the mini-pen door open all day, in case they wanted to go back in, and near nightfall, when I went to close it, both doofuses were back inside, perched and already half-asleep for the night. This morning, they were ready to come out again and roam the yard some more. Oddly enough, the older vulture, who’s been at LWR since he was all downy, seems to be following the lead of the younger one, who’s not as trusting of humans since he came in as an older bird. This should be an interesting soft release.

Black vultures are so adorable!

The sharpie is eating again but pretty much just perches and glares at me when I’m in the main flight putting the food out. Accipiters are weird, psychotic little things...

The great horned, after taking a turn for the worse, as I mentioned last Sunday, died that night. I’m thinking very slow brain bleed, given the gradual decline throughout the previous week.

A barred owl came in from a state park about an hour south of LWR, brought there by a visitor who found it on the side of the road. Sadly, the owl had an open wing fracture and required euthanasia.

This afternoon, a local off-duty police officer brought another barred owl he and his family found last night on their way home from a city a couple of hours northeast of LWR. This one was luckier; he only had a bad road rash on one foot and some minor head trauma. His wings had no fractures, although he did favor the right one slightly—possibly some mild tendon sprain, as he could fully extend it when tested. He’s fairly alert but a little uncoordinated, which is typical for a bird whose bell’s been well and truly rung. I don’t foresee him having to remain a guest of LWR for more than a week or two.

There will be no update next Sunday, Labor Day weekend.

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Rinse and repeat

8/21/2022

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In other words, it’s the new normal for this year: several calls that didn’t result in intakes, and the same crew as in past weeks: the vultures, the sharpie and the great horned owl.

The sharpie has placed himself on a diet, eating next to nothing over the past week. Guess he’s trying to get back down to flight weight ASAP. Fortunately, everything he doesn’t eat can be recycled to the vultures, who aren’t exactly picky about their food.

The great horned, after perking up a bit, took a downward turn late in the week and isn’t looking great at the moment. Head trauma can be tricky.

And the doofuses—I mean vultures—are, well, doofusy. It’s a vulture thing. No loss of appetite on their parts, that’s for sure! The younger, newer one actually seems to be losing his down and feathering out more quickly than the older one did, so I’m holding off releasing the older one till his younger pen-mate is also ready for release. The buddy system is always best when possible.

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“Double your pleasure, double your fun”

8/14/2022

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Nah, it’s not with Doublemint gum, for those old enough to remember that commercial. Nope, LWR received a second young black vulture last week...and let the games begin!

This poor fellow was hidden in a brush pile that was demolished, and the workers saw him scurrying off and called DNR. The game warden who brought him to LWR was as surprised as I was about his odd nest site, as usually we see vultures nesting in old buildings and deer stands. However, there was no sign of an adult vulture and his hiding place no longer existed, so he’s now a guest at LWR.

Vultures are smart, as y’all well know. The afternoon of his arrival and the next 24 hours, I got the standard head lowered, growly-hissy “I hate you” treatment.

Day 2, app. 48 hours after intake: “Maybe you’re not awful but I’m still not sure.”

Morning of Day 3: “Hey, feeder person, whatcha got for us this mornin’?”

After some initial uncertainty, the older vulture has decided he rather likes having a buddy.

Gotta love vultures!

The great horned owl is eating well, alert, and his eye wasn’t damaged, after all. His balance is still off, though. He can lunge at the top of his box but when he falls back to the bottom, it’s kinda messy. And he just flops to one side or the other when he sits—something is off with his equilibrium. So we’re just giving him time to see if it corrects, as both ears are clear: no parasites to cause this weird lack of balance.

The sharpie will probably not go back in for follow-up x-rays, as after two solid weeks of hearing his nonstop repetitive thudding all day, yesterday I’d had enough and after checking his wing carefully for stability, I moved him into the main flight. He’s flying low but he is flying...honestly, I think I overfed him and he’s too dang fat to fly properly right now! But he’s trying. And in his stress from captivity, he managed to pluck out all his tail feathers. Hey, at least it wasn’t his flight feathers, right? Accipiters are high-stress birds...both personality-wise and for their rehabbers, as they’re known to do stupid and often fatal things while in rehab. The goal now is to get him back to flight weight, get him flight-conditioned, and get him out—before he can do anything stupid or fatal.

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A week into August already?

8/7/2022

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Only one new intake, an adult male great horned owl who was found on the road and brought to LWR yesterday. He had a little blood in his beak on intake, some slight bruising in his right ear, and his right eye is damaged. It looks as if it’s deflating (due to a ruptured eyeball) on the rare occasions he opens it, which doesn’t bode well for that eye, but he’s still so concussed and out of it, it’s hard to say for sure. No wing fractures, surprisingly, and both feet and legs are uninjured. But he favors that right side a bit, which could be a hip or pelvic fracture. Given his lethargy, I also worry about potential internal injuries; he’s shown no significant improvements in alertness since intake yesterday.

The sharpie has one more week before his follow-up x-rays. Despite his antsiness at being confined, he remains one of the calmest accipiters I’ve ever seen. They’re usually psychotic little snots, and he may well turn psycho once he’s in a flight pen, but for now, he’s actually fairly...well, not crazy...

The vulture could probably be released into the yard at this point, but I’m holding off for another week or so, to be sure he’s ready. He’s such a doofus, but he does love feeding time!

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Black vultures released!

Rinse and repeat

“Double your pleasure, double your fun”

A week into August already?

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