With no new intakes, it was definitely a slower week for LWR, and no one here’s complaining!

The red-bellied woodpecker was released; he’s not coming down for handouts but I hear him in the trees, so that’s good.
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The mourning doves are headed to the songbird flight next; they need another day or two inside, just to  make sure they’re self-feeding sufficiently to be outside.

​The single hummer still with us has picked at his injured wing until he’s further damaged it, probably beyond repair—you can see the scabbed spot in the photo below. Sadly, he’ll more than likely require euthanasia now.

​The red-tail in the raptor flight is proving to be more severely vision-impaired than originally thought. He simply cannot find his food if it’s more than a few inches away from him, and forget perching—the best he can do is stumble around till he lucks up on a low perch. It’s not looking good for him right now, but I’m trying to give him a little more time in hopes that perhaps the vision issues are lingering aftereffects of head trauma that will slowly resolve.

​And, of course, the flyers are, as is always the case, too adorable for words. They’re getting a bit more active near feeding time now, and have started playing with solid food—not really eating it yet, but teething on it. 

This just in! (Sorry, couldn’t resist…) The flyer “twins” are about to be “quads,” as while I was finishing up this update, a text came in from one of my local game wardens, who’s en route with two more flyers.
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Finally, although LWR doesn’t work with arachnids, who could resist sharing a shot of a banana spider? Her web was so large that I managed to catch the far edge of it even while trying to avoid it, so she scurried over to see what she’d “caught” and I snapped this shot with my cell camera. Banana spiders (aka giant wood spiders or golden orb spiders for the goldish tint of their webs), despite their fearsome appearance, are actually fairly shy and not at all dangerous to humans. Their bite is milder than a bee sting, and you’ve got to actually work hard to get bitten. The males, a drab brown, are Lilliputian in comparison to the females, who can be upwards of five inches, legs included. Their large webs are very strong and are actually being studied by scientists, as apparently the material they’re made of is stronger than Kevlar. Interesting, huh?!

​LWR escaped mostly unscathed from Irma’s destructive path through Georgia: power out for 70 hours but no loss of frozen mice, small limbs scattered all over the place, a medium-sized chinaberry tree down over the path to the raptor flight—nothing that can’t be fixed. Irma also resulted in 13 intakes in two days, after people’s power started being restored and roads cleared.

​The poor red-tail who was awaiting Irma’s departure for x-rays didn’t survive, however. She died Tuesday night but I took the carcass in for x-rays Wednesday, anyway, as we needed to know if the GSW had caused her death. She’d been eating well and just keeled over, but she was also starvation-thin on intake. Surprisingly, the x-rays revealed only one pellet near her shoulder that wouldn’t have precluded flight after the wound healed; vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital and I feel it was the stress of the wound, compounded with her emaciated state, that caused her death. The game warden does know who the guilty party is; in this instance there was an eyewitness, so the shooter will be prosecuted.

​The MIKIs were all released late this morning and were quite happy to gain their freedom, although I’ll miss the mouthy little rascals. Safe migration, babies, and Godspeed!

​Their release meant the red-tail with possible vision impairment could go into the raptor flight, where he put on a good threat display and gave me lovely stink-eye in an attempt to intimidate me. Oooh, I’m shakin’ in my boots…

The hummer from last week who had a probable coracoid fracture died mid-week this week—stress from captivity and the urge to migrate without the physical ability to do so most likely caused his death.
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Three additional hummers came in, all on the same day. One was DOA; one was released after 24 hours’ observation; one is still with us.

​A very young quail didn’t last three hours after intake. Quail are stressy little things when they’re young, and this poor wee one wouldn’t self-feed, which quail normally do from hatching. This meant further stressing him out by handling him to force-feed—never a good thing with a bird that’s already showing massive signs of stress and debilitation.

​Three pre-fledgling red-bellied woodpeckers also came in after the tree their nest was in was downed by Irma. One, the one on the far right in the photo, died overnight; a second died the next night. The first death I expected—you can look at the bird in the photo and see it’s not looking healthy. The second death took me by surprise, as the bird was eating well and active right up till lights-out and dead the next morning. The third red belly is in the songbird flight now and will be released in the coming week.

​Three mourning doves were also orphaned by Irma, two about the same age and one a little younger. All are doing well and have healthy appetites.

​And the week ended with the intake of three flying squirrels orphaned by Irma, two females and a male. Sadly, the runt female didn’t make it through her first night at LWR. The surviving flyers are doing well and gaining weight daily. They’re still in the “eat and crash” phase; within another week or so, they should become slightly more active.  These babies are about four weeks old and flyers aren’t released until they’re about 20 weeks old, which would put their release date in late December/early January. Obviously, that ain’t gonna happen; you can’t release flyers into a winter landscape with no nest and no larder of winter goodies, even though they’d join the colony in the woods here. They’ll overwinter at LWR.

 Yeah, Laurens County—and indeed, it appears, all of Georgia—is gonna be slammed as Irma moves northward. So I’m breaking from prepping for probable power outages to fill you in on this week’s critters, the good and bad news, and will provide a few wildlife tips for post-Irma—or any severe storm, for that matter.

Let’s get the sad news outta the way first: the WNV red-tail died, despite all our efforts. If you’ll recall, I mentioned last week that I suspected he was in Phase 2; he struggled for two more days before giving up the fight.

Also, on Labor Day, two barred owls came in. While one showed no signs of injury, he could not stand—at all. This is usually a sign of a pelvic fracture, and since he also refused to eat—very unusual for a barred owl—I opted for euthanasia. Pelvic fractures in birds are very iffy as far as recovery, and chances for recovery are nonexistent if the bird goes on a hunger strike from stress.

The second barred owl seemed fine aside from a little swelling at his wrist; I was debating whether he needed x-rays, but he died overnight, so apparently there were internal injuries.

The Coop with the wing fracture didn’t make it in for x-rays; he died Monday night. Coops are high-stress birds, and it was more than likely stress rather than injury that led to his death.
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The barred owl from last week’s update was released. It was a messy release; he hem-hawed around until I was about to turn the camera off, then he took off and made a godawful awkward landing in a tree. I did manage to get video of the release and a not-great shot of him in the tree after he got his wings under control. The shot was a long zoom and the camera decided to focus on the crabapples in front of the owl instead of the owl himself…

​The second red-tail, also originally suspected to have WNV, actually seems to be severely vision impaired. He’s not blind; he just has real trouble seeing low-contrast items. This is more than likely a dietary issue, as he’s showing marked improvement now that he’s getting steady food. If you’ll recall, he was also rail-thin on intake last week.

​We also had a juvenile ruby-throated hummingbird come in this week. Nothing appears broken; wings are perfectly level and move as they should…but the bird cannot fly. At all. It could be a coracoid fracture, which you may remember is similar to a clavicle fracture in humans. These just require time to heal, and sometimes they don’t heal to allow flight. We’ll just have to wait and see on this little fellow.

​Yet another red-tail came in last night, this one brought by a game warden from another county. She’s a first-year bird, rail-thin, and has a gunshot wound in her right wing. On intake last night, it felt as though it may have missed the bone; this morning, with swelling down somewhat, I’m not so sure. It will require x-rays, which she won’t get until Wednesday, more than likely, thanks to Irma passing through. Even if Smalley’s is open Monday and Tuesday, the rough weather they’re predicting for our area means this rehabber will not be on the road.

​And the MIKIs that I was afraid would be unreleasable have proven me wrong, which I’m delighted about! If not for Irma, they’d’ve been gone this week. As it is, they’re safer in the raptor flight for the next few days.

Now, for those of you in Irma’s path through Georgia, while there WILL be wildlife needing assistance, please be smart and stay safe. If the winds are taking down trees around you, yes, there may be nests of flying squirrels in them, and there may be birds slammed into trees, buildings, etc., but you can’t help them if a tree lands on you. Wait till the worst of everything passes over before you start trying to assess damage and check for injured/orphaned wildlife—and for God’s sake if there are downed power lines, stay away till they’re taken care of by professionals. When it’s safe, look around downed trees for birds or baby squirrels—and this is gray squirrel breeding season, as well as flyer breeding season. Look amongst the branches and check for cavities that may contain babies.

If you find injured birds or orphaned squirrels, the first thing to do is contain them safely.

For songbirds, a small cardboard box lined with paper towels or an old T-shirt will be fine. For raptors, use a larger box but also line it with paper towels or an old T-shirt.  Once they’re safely contained, call a rehabber for further instructions. DO NOT FEED.

For gray or flying squirrels, DO NOT FEED. Place them in a cardboard box—a shoebox lined with an old T-shirt will be fine. For eyes-closed babies, place a heating pad on the lowest setting under one end of the box. If it’s an auto-off heating pad, check it frequently to make sure it’s on. No heating pad? Use Hot Hands or a similar product, wrapped in a paper towel and placed beneath the T-shirt in the box. No hand warmers? Fill a sock with rice and microwave it for a minute or so, then place it under the T-shirt in the box. Then call a rehabber for further instructions.

Keep in mind that, depending on the severity of Irma’s trek through Georgia, rehabbers may be without power as well, and roads may be impassable. Cell phones should still be functional, so you should be able to contact one of us, and if there will be a considerable delay in your getting the critters to us, we will provide you with emergency feeding instructions at that point. Please, please, puh-leez DO NOT FEED any injured/orphaned wildlife you find UNTIL YOU’VE SPOKEN WITH A REHABBER.

And for those of you in Florida already getting slammed and here in Georgia about to be slammed, batten down the hatches. It’s looking to be a rough few days.

With baby season over and first-year raptors being told by the resident adults to pack their bags and get outta Dodge, raptor rehabbers will begin seeing more first-year birds in trouble. That was certainly true at LWR this week, with intakes of two first-year red-tailed hawks, a first-year Cooper’s hawk and a young adult barred owl, all with varying degrees of trauma.
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The first red-tail came in early in the week and was thin, lethargic and having tremors. I suspected West Nile, but withheld judgment till the bird had seen a vet. At Smalley’s Animal Hospital the day after intake, vet Richie Hatcher agreed that the symptoms could be WNV. The problem was that those symptoms could also be from a combination of capillaria and head trauma—and the bird was found by the roadside. We agreed that general supportive care and treatment for the possibility of capillaria was the best course of action. Thus far, the bird isn’t responding to treatment. It’s not looking promising.

According to the University of Minnesota (UMN) Raptor Center website, there are three phases to WNV:

• Phase 1: Depression, anorexia, weight loss (in proportion to duration of anorexia), sleeping, pinching off blood feathers. Elevated white cell count.
• Phase 2: In addition to the above, head tremors, green urates (indicating liver necrosis), mental dullness/central blindness and general lack of awareness of surroundings, ataxia (clumsiness), weakness in legs.
• Phase 3: More severe tremors, seizures.

​I’d guess this bird was solidly in Phase 2, heading toward Phase 3, given that he doesn’t respond to his surroundings to any great extent and we were able to sit him unrestrained on the exam table, where he rocked and nearly tipped over sideways.

Sadly, there is no treatment for WNV; all rehabbers and vets can do is provide supportive care and hope. Again, according to the UMN Raptor Center, “There is no prescribed treatment. But supportive care can be provided, and it is possible for birds to recover. In general, the likelihood of recovery depends on what phase the bird is in. Phase 1 birds respond reasonably well to supportive care. Once they reach Phase 2, some birds respond to supportive care, but others do not and proceed to Phase 3. Complete recovery is uncertain. Birds suffering from the severe tremors and seizures characteristic of Phase 3 are close to death.”

The second red-tail came in a few days later; his symptoms and response to treatment are eerily similar to the first. If they’d come from areas close to each other, I’d honestly warn the county officials they might have a West Nile outbreak, but they came from counties north and south of Laurens County.

​The Coop has a broken right wing. He came in late Saturday and with Monday being Labor Day, it will be Tuesday before we can get x-rays. I’m not real hopeful; there’s a scab right at the elbow that leads me to think we have an open fracture. He’s typical Coop feisty and crazy, but the wing just doesn’t look like the x-rays will be good news.

​The barred owl apparently hit someone’s vehicle running board and was left for dead. A neighbor saw the bird and sought help; he was transported to LWR late yesterday, as well. Nothing feels broken, which is good news. His left eye is cloudy and he’s got some major head trauma going on, but with time and supportive care he should be okay.

​In more upbeat news, the mourning dove was released and still shows up every couple of days or so.

​The great horned owl was also released, but I have no footage or photos of the actual release. The snot barreled out of the box before I had the camera fully focused, sat on the ground and stared at me, so after a couple of seconds, I turned off the camera and turned to put it down and grab the gloves. I turned back around to see the uncooperative doofus headed for the tree line. I ran over to where he entered the woods, hoping for a couple of post-release perching shots, but when a GHO doesn’t want to be seen, you’re not gonna see him. Sooo…below is the video of him sitting on the ground…for what it’s worth…

The Mississippi kites are showing some improvement in their flight skills. I’m still not sure they’re gonna be capable of the sustained, swift flight they need, but they’re already doing better than I thought they would, so I’ll be delighted if I’m wrong.

The photos below show the difference a cloud passing overhead can make in the quality of the image. In the video you can hear two characteristic MIKI vocalizations.