The first rule of wildlife rehab is never complain about a slow week! Breaks are always nice, especially this time of year, with baby season behind us and annual reports looming. Having a chance to sit back and catch your breath, figuratively speaking, is always welcome—and it’s been a long time since I’ve actually had a really slow “slow” season.
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The red shoulder from last week did turn out to have a wing fracture; it’s close to the wrist and we haven’t gotten x-rays yet—that will be this week. Raptors especially have very strong muscles that can hide a fracture because they support the bones so well initially—and in his case, there was no swelling at the outset, so those strong muscles masked the break quite effectively.  The good news is that he’s holding the wing perfectly level, so I’m cautiously optimistic that x-rays will show a fixable fracture.

​The news is very good indeed for the red tail who finally got his turn in the raptor flight. He’s able to traverse the entire length of the pen airborne, so his stay at LWR is about to end. We have rain predicted here the next few days, but by midweek things are looking good for a release. He’s quite ready to go—whatever end of the raptor flight I’m in, he makes sure he’s at the opposite end!

​And that, folks, is it for this week, so you can get back to watching those feel-good Christmas movies or posting cute Christmas memes on Facebook…or whatever… 

​Yep, the poor lacerated-cornea red tail who’d healed weeks ago FINALLY flew the coop, after a two-week “rain delay.”  He wasted no time bolting from the box and kept soaring farther and farther from me when I tried to “stalk” him for a decent post-release photo. Below is the best I could manage, but I’m not complaining; his flight was strong, straight and utterly gorgeous to behold.

​This means the red tail whose wing fracture healed weeks ago finally has his time in the flight pen. Recall, if you will, that his fracture was pretty close to the joint so we’re not sure he’ll be able to fly but he’ll have several weeks to test his ability in the raptor flight.

​And now for the promised rant. LWR received a call early in the week about a barred owl a few hours’ drive away. It took all day but with the help of WREN (Wildlife Resources Education Network, a volunteer transport coordination group), one of our stalwart transporters picked up the bird and got it to LWR late that night. Why the haste? We discovered that the bird had been held illegally for TWO WEEKS with a broken wing because the finder “didn’t want him euthanized.”  But she was scared of him, so these are the conditions he lived in for two weeks:

The transporter said the steak in the bottom of the pen was crawling with maggots and there was moldy bread in there, as well.
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And when the poor owl reached LWR, his right wing was so badly broken that it faced upside down—see the post-euthanasia photo below.

​And he’d been in so much pain for two weeks that he’d begun to self-mutilate, gnawing at his own wing trying to stop the source of the pain.

All because some fool “didn’t want him euthanized.”

People, let me explain something to you: Euthanasia is often the kindest, most humane option we can offer badly injured wildlife. This bird’s suffering could have been ended two weeks earlier; instead, he sat in filth and agony until rescued and brought to LWR, where his suffering ended immediately.

If wildlife can’t be “fixed”, at least a properly licensed rehabber has the means to end its suffering quickly and humanely. Don’t fall into the “I’ll save it” trap and keep injured wildlife for days or weeks before contacting a rehabber—by the time you do, a fracture that might have been fixable earlier may be past repair now, or systemic infection may have set in or maggots may have infested the wound to the point that the tissue has been totally consumed down to the bone. Yes, I’ve seen all these conditions, and they all required euthanasia—and all might have been “fixable” had the wildlife been brought in earlier.

Time is of the essence with injured wildlife. Would you sit for days or weeks with an ill or injured pet or child before seeking treatment? Of course not! So why would any sane person think that was a viable option for wildlife?
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Contrast the above disaster with this red shoulder hit by a college student. The bird flew out in front of her in the rain; she couldn’t brake in time. She called LWR almost immediately afterward and because it was near dark, raining heavily and she was a couple of hours away, I explained how to secure the bird overnight. She didn’t need to be driving in the dark on rainy, unfamiliar roads. The next morning she had the bird to LWR ASAP. She didn’t ask on the phone if it could be fixed or what I’d do with the bird; she just did the right thing and brought the bird. As it turned out, he had a nasty open wing fracture, with a good two inches of bone exposed. When I showed her the wound and explained he’d require euthanasia, she accepted it with a simple, “I was hoping for a better outcome but I understand.” And she still made a donation to LWR. THIS is the type of young person who gives me some small hope for our future.

​And earlier this afternoon, the area FWS agent called with a HBC hawk—it was found by the roadside and seemed unable to fly. This didn’t bode well, I feared, but when he showed up, the red shoulder actually had only a minor ding on his foot and the tip of his beak had been peeled, exposing the softer keratin beneath. He’s still woozy and reluctant to perch but is well-fleshed and otherwise healthy-looking. No fractures, amazingly. 

​But the beak worried me; I didn’t want it to break in the wild and cause the bird problems. I consulted with colleague Kathryn Dudeck of Chattahoochee Nature Center, and after seeing a photo of his beak, she recommended just trimming the exposed softer portion and then seeing if he can tear into a rat or mouse. If so, he’s good to go; if not he’ll stay at LWR till the beak tip grows back. The trim was no problem at all, partially because the poor fellow is still a bit discombobulated. But it will be tomorrow before we try feeding; head traumas never eat when they’re still woozy.

​Hope y’all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and if I can offer a recommendation, spend “Black Friday” in nature’s majesty and not in stores fighting crowds of crazed bargain hunters.

It was a thoroughly exasperating week; between the weather and an inconsiderate public with zero follow-through, my patience was tested to the max. So you reap the benefits with a list of what should be common-sense rules of etiquette when dealing with wildlife rehabbers.

Before diving into the list, however, let’s get the true update out of the way: no new intakes, and a week of rain prevented release of the red tail in the flight pen, so the red tail in the house is still awaiting his flight time…no rain is currently predicted after Tuesday of this week, so…fingers crossed….
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Now, to some basic, common-sense-if-your-mama-raised-you-right rules of etiquette when dealing with wildlife rehabbers:

1. ONE CALL is sufficient. If you leave a message and the rehabber returns your call and sets up a time for you to bring the bird, leave it at that unless something changes—the bird dies or your schedule changes, etc. DO NOT blow up the rehabber’s phone with calls and texts every couple of hours with cryptic “Call me” messages.  
2. If you set up a time to bring the bird that day, the next day or in a couple of days, HAVE THE COURTESY TO NOTIFY THE REHABBER if there’s a change in status. It’s not our place to ride your arse to get the bird; YOU called US. Believe it or not, we do have other things going on in our lives: other wildlife to care for, jobs to keep our lights on, family matters to deal with, etc.
3. DO NOT bypass the rehabber’s voicemail message with an immediate hang-up and text. There is important information in the voicemail message. When you do an “end-run” around the voicemail message, you miss vital information and irritate the rehabber.
4. Text ONLY when the rehabber hasn’t responded to the voicemail you left within thirty minutes to an hour. We don’t have time to text back and forth with you for half an hour when a five-minute phone call could have addressed the issue.
5. In voicemail messages, leave your location as well as your phone number.  Feel free to send a CLEAR photo of the bird via text but mention in the voicemail message that you’re doing so; that way we know where that random bird pic came from.
6. If you insist on texting first, send a CLEAR photo of the bird to begin with—saves time. Also, see #5 above—include location and phone number.
7. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO GET THE BIRD TO THE REHABBER. We are NOT employees of DNR or FWS. This means we actually have paying jobs in addition to our VOLUNTEER work as rehabbers. Whether we work outside the home or freelance from home, we CANNOT drop what we’re doing and ignore deadlines and the wildlife currently in our care to drive up to 150 miles round-trip multiple times a day to pick up more wildlife. And if you live less than 50 miles from a rehabber and balk at driving  the wildlife to the rehabber, SHAME ON YOU.
8. Just because we’re home-based—and most rehabbers are—doesn’t mean we don’t eat or sleep at some point during the day/night. If you call during normal meal times—which 90% of people seem to do—there’s a good chance we’re at least wolfing down a pack of crackers at that point and would prefer not to try to talk to you while chewing our food. WE WILL CALL YOU BACK. Give us time. Similarly, if you call after 8pm and we say wait till the morning to bring us the wildlife you found, PLEASE DO NOT INSIST ON BRINGING IT THAT NIGHT.  We do need time to bathe and sleep, and even continue working on our paying jobs in many cases. Hard as it may be to believe, we’re more effective as rehabbers when we have a few hours’ rest a night.
9. LEARN THE GENERAL GEOGRAPHY OF YOUR STATE. If the rehabber you’re about to call is a day-trip away, be sure you’re willing to drive three or more hours one way to get the bird to them. If not, seek help closer to home. There IS a public list of licensed rehabbers available in every state. Most game and fish agencies have that list on their website; many rehabbers also post the list on their websites. Please DO NOT call a rehabber 150 miles away and then tell them it’s too far to drive and ask them to spend 15 minutes trying to locate a rehabber near you—the lists are out there and easily accessible.
10. DON’T EVEN call/email a rehabber in another state and ask for advice on caring for wildlife illegally. The rehab community is fairly small and we tend to at least know each others’ names if we’re not personally acquainted. And we talk to each other. So we KNOW when you’re lying about there not being a rehabber near you. Chances are, we know the rehabber who lives less than 10 miles from you that has already told you to bring them the bird.  And we tend to get a bit pissy when we’re blatantly lied to.
11. (Yeah, I know—even God only had ten commandments.) Please understand that as a rule, rehabbers are NOT “people” people. We don’t like people too much; we deal with them only because we have to in order to help the wildlife. So if, when you bring us a bird or other wildlife, we ignore you while examining and actually talking in dulcet tones to the wildlife, it’s not personal. We just prefer the wildlife to you.

There were no new intakes last week; this week looks to be busier. LWR already has two birds on the way in the next couple of days.
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The barred owl from week before last that I was not real hopeful about did indeed have a nasty, unfixable fracture. He was humanely euthanized.

The red tail with the healed corneal laceration is still in the raptor flight; weather hasn’t been cooperative for a release. That means the red tail with the healed wing fracture hasn’t been placed in the raptor flight yet.
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And that, folks, is this week’s update. And I’m really not complaining. A slow week here and there gives me time to catch my breath.