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Very slow week, rehab-wise

9/25/2012

Not that I’m complaining—not a bit! After a hectic baby bird season, slow is good; slow is much appreciated.

The squirrels should be on their way to release this weekend; no updated photos of them, as they’re just too quick these days and it’s not worth the risk of escape before they’re fully ready.

The doves are still in the flight pen and will probably be released within the next week. The slight nerve damage to the Eurasian collared’s foot is proving to be insignificant for him, which is good. In his photo below, you can see the faint black band that gives his species its name. It will darken as he ages, to become more distinct. They’re flying beautifully, but because doves, as Columbiformes, are fed and weaned differently than Passerines (most other songbirds), I want to make absolutely sure they’re eating well on their own before they’re released. Currently, I’m still hand-feeding them once a day.

The only new intake this past week was an adult male black vulture. His left wing had been broken and healed in the wild; unfortunately, the bone had healed at an awkward angle that made it impossible for him to fly. He had been down a while and was rail-thin, as well, but that we could have corrected with good meals. If he had possessed a decent temperament, he might have been placeable as an educational bird, but he was the most aggressive vulture I’ve ever come across—NOT a good candidate for an ed bird. We made the decision to euthanize, which is often more difficult for me with vultures than with other birds because of the high level of intelligence you can see in their eyes. I’ll not argue that they’re unattractive birds—although black vultures are actually not that bad-looking—but they make up for lack of looks with high levels of intelligence.

And the flying squirrel continues to be impossibly cute, as are all flyers, and is growing like a little weed. This week he finally started showing an interest in solid foods, so he’s definitely making progress!

Finally, last week we had a drizzly, cool day that ended with this gorgeous rainbow—enjoy!

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Feathers, fur and shells

9/18/2012

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The squirrels are bouncing off the walls of their cage—literally. I can’t open the door for more than the few seconds it takes to toss in their food; otherwise the spastic little rascals are out and a merry chase ensues to get ‘em back inside. By next week they should be good to go. The folks who found these babies asked that they be allowed to release them back in their yards, so that’s the plan for ‘em now that they’re old enough and eating a wide enough variety of natural foods—natural in this case meaning the stuff they’d find in the wild, not “all natural, no preservatives”…although technically, I suppose it does mean that, too!

The doves are in the flight pen now. They look a little bewildered and somewhat bedraggled in the photos; this morning was their first experience with rain. Doves are mostly ground birds, so their tail feathers got a bit muddy, but manic grooming sessions, as you can see from the Eurasian collared’s photo, will soon fix that.

This adorable little flying squirrel came in late last week after being attacked by a cat. He was originally taken to raptor rehabber Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends, and volunteers Amy Rogers and Laurie Jackson coordinated to get him to me. Thanks to Steve for immediately starting him on antibiotics and to Amy & Laurie for getting him to me so quickly.

He was a very lucky little fellow; the cat only managed to injure his tail. Flyers use their tails as rudders, but the tails will snap off as a survival mechanism. Unfortunately, flyers can’t glide properly without their tails. This darling will have a permanent kink in his tail, but he’ll still have the entire tail, so his navigation system will be intact!

To give you an idea of the flyer’s size, his photos are larger than he is in real-life; he’s only app. 3 inches long, not including his tail, which adds about another 2 inches or so.

Remember this gopher tortoise from early August? This nasty gash was easily treatable, but I transferred this guy to Steve Hicks, who had an escape-proof turtle/tortoise pen to hold him while he healed.

Last week, Sir Gopher came back to me, at the same time as the flyer, for release. Look at the difference in his shell in just two months!

The person who originally found him met me and took him back to his home territory for release.

I still have one red bellied woodpecker from the summer randomly insisting on a handout. He calls and fusses and demands until—after holding it up where he can see it—I carefully place a pecan half on one of the platform feeders and step away. Then he flies over and scoots down the tree to the feeder to snag his snack!

Fall begins Saturday, hopefully accompanied by actual fall-like temperatures. As the temps cool down and the leaves begin changing, make time to get outside and look for flocks of migrating birds overhead—you never know what you might see. Several years ago, I was lucky enough to have a flock of migrating American robins roost in the woods behind my house. You think one robin’s noisy, try having hundreds of them chattering away at the tops of their lungs. I still grin thinking about seeing the trees filled with gossiping robins!

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Shhh! Has “slow season” started?

9/10/2012

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I’m almost scared to ask, for fear of inviting an influx of late babies! In the past week, though, I had just one new intake, so maybe…we’ll see!

The squirrels continue to grow apace; below are photos of them taken earlier today. In case you’re wondering, pecans are a treat, and I use them as a bribe to keep the little rascals still for photos—and sometimes, it actually works!

The single intake last week was this juvenile Eastern cottontail, who had massively infected eyes. After conferring with Rhonda Woods, a metro-area rehabber who specializes in rabbits, I made the decision to euthanize the poor little fellow. Had he survived the stress of captivity and several-times-daily treatment of his eyes, he still most likely would have been blind. Rhonda and I discussed the options, and I agreed with her that euthanasia was the kindest.

The female red tail from last week has issues aside from possible frounce and/or capillaria. The second time I fed her, she strained to reach the plate I had the cut-up mouse on, so I moved it closer. She ate from the plate, but I still had her restrained. For the third feeding, I sat the plate in my lap—on a folded towel—and let her sit in my lap and eat from the plate, with only my hand resting on her back as restraint. For the fourth feeding, I placed a bit of mouse on the glove and held it out so that she had to flit over to the glove. She rocked back and forth a couple of times, then launched herself right at the glove, tearing into her “reward” as soon as she landed.

In fact, she refused to come off the glove; I had to ease my hand out of it to finish feeding her. I sat her and the plate in my lap and let her have at it, totally unrestrained, as I snapped photos. Yep, we have a bird whose major problem is her past interactions with humans…If she’s a screwed-up falconry bird, which seems likely, someone needs to lose their falconry permit; if it’s “just” a case of some untrained idiot attempting to make a pet of her, which seems less likely but still possible, that person should be fined to the max for illegal possession of a raptor. Sadly, we have no way of knowing who screwed her up, but this should be “fixable” so that she can return to the wild. At least, that’s the plan right now; her behavior will dictate whether she’s releasable or a candidate for an educational bird. So far, so good: she’s progressed to eating whole rats, which I honestly didn’t think she’d manage this quickly!

The mourning dove and Eurasian collared (EC) dove are looking less like cacti and more like birds now. The EC dove seems to have some nerve damage to his right foot, but at the moment it’s not slowing him down any. We’ll have to wait and see how it affects his perching. So far he’s not attempting to perch but is flapping like crazy when I feed them. He can lift himself about two inches when he tries; the mourning dove can manage short flights/jumps from the perch to the cage floor and back. If they continue at this pace, they should be in the flight pen by the end of next week, maybe sooner!

Eurasian collared dove

Mourning dove

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Waiting for “slow season” to start…

9/3/2012

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The squirrels are growing like weeds; the two older ones have now been moved to the porch cage as they’re being weaned from formula.

The younger guy still spends a lot of time napping.

This totally out-of-season hatchling Carolina wren came in last week, struggling to survive. Well, that’s not accurate. He was determined to die; I was determined he’d live. He was dehydrated; I gave him fluids. He struggled to breathe; I started antibiotics. He threw up his food; I treated that. We had a brief stalemate, but ultimately, he won. I don’t like to lose, particularly when a little life is at stake, but whatever his issues were, my efforts were apparently too little, too late.

I had higher hopes for this cat-attacked hummer. Aside from a small scrape on his side, he didn’t seem injured. Both wings functioned, but he couldn’t fly, which I figured was due to the location of the scrape, making it painful to move those muscles. Still, I treat any critter taken from a cat with antibiotics: as I’ve mentioned before, cat saliva is toxic to pretty much everything; it contains bacteria that break down flesh.

He ate well but never seemed quite “right.” Still, he was alert and fairly active, so things seemed to be going well. Five days into his treatment, he was fine when I uncovered the hummer cage that morning; within four hours, he was struggling to breathe. I have no clue why. After all my attempts to help him failed, I made the decision to euthanize; there was no sense in allowing him to continue to suffer.

The nonreleasable female is now alone again, not that it seems to faze her. I feel bad for her, but she doesn’t seem worried. She’s busy as a bee in her little cage, and about the nosiest little thing I’ve ever seen. Nothing—and I mean NOTHING—escapes her notice!

This nestling Eurasian collared dove came in a few days ago. They’re actually an invasive species and are larger than mourning doves, but data from Cornell’s Project Feeder Watch would seem to indicate that both species co-exist peacefully.

Doves of all species are such awkward looking babies—they remind me of a cactus!

Eurasian collared dove on intake

What a difference only a couple of days makes!

Sunday, this pre-fledgling mourning dove came in. The finder’s dog found him; luckily, the dove wasn’t injured.

Here’s a shot of the two doves with a Coke can for scale and for size comparison.

And tonight I got a call about an injured falcon. We don’t have falcons in Middle Georgia, as we don’t have the proper nesting sites for them, so I guessed the caller had a kestrel or maybe one of the smaller hawks. When we met, however, it turned out to be a first-year red tail. She’s smallish, but based on the feet size, I’m pretty sure she is, in fact, female.

Nothing seems to be broken, but she is on the thin side and the inside of her mouth is pale to the point of almost being white. Her throat, which I thought in the semi-dark, cursory parking lot exam showed signs of frounce, is actually clear. She’s been given fluids, treated for capillaria, and hand-fed a small mouse, chopped up. She ate, but reluctantly, which could still indicate frounce that I can’t see yet, so I’ll start her on meds for that in the morning.

And finally, I guess most of you know that Aug. 31 was a blue moon, the second full moon in the month. This doesn’t happen often, hence the expression “once in a blue moon.” In fact, I believe I read that the next blue moon won’t be until 2015! So…here’s a photo of the August 31, 2012 blue moon. Enjoy!

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Very slow week, rehab-wise

Feathers, fur and shells

Shhh! Has “slow season” started?

Waiting for “slow season” to start…

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