All the “guests” at LWR were settled snug in their beds on Christmas Eve when vet Shelley Baumann texted me on behalf of her husband, DNR wildlife biologist Chris Baumann, to ask if I had room for a bald eagle. Seems his colleague, John Vescuso, had been alerted to a grounded BE a couple of counties away and was ready to transport if I could take it.

(And before anybody reaches rhapsodic heights of delirious joy at the notion of a majestic bald eagle, let me explain one major fact here: Bald eagles are ill-tempered, aggressive snots.)

When I met John to get the bird, he said he thought it might have been shot. The wing was bloody. Rather than me fighting the bird to get it into one of my boxes for transport home, he told me to just keep the storage box he had it in. He said it was feisty, evidenced by the sides of the box bowing as it fought to escape.

Once I was home with the bird, my nephew and niece-in-law came to help me set up a box for my Christmas guest and examine the injured wing. We worked by flashlight, as we were attempting to keep the BE’s stress levels as low as possible and make the transfer from the small storage box to the larger box easier for us.

First thing I always do with raptors is restrain the feet, so I reach for his feet—properly gloved, of course. I grab the feet and pull the bird out of the small box. Foot size and general body size indicate male. First thing the BE does is whack me in the mouth with the “wrist” of his right wing. Then I ease off a glove to examine the wings. He jerks his head around as I reach for the right wing and grabs my finger in his beak. Hey, it’s my fault—I took off the glove. But there’s no way to properly examine a bird with gloves on. Occupational hazard.

My nephew is getting ready to freak out: “What do I need to do? Do you want me pry him loose?”

I let my hand go limp and tell my nephew to flip the flashlight against his body. As soon as the light’s gone, the BE relaxes his grip slightly and I can jerk my finger from his beak. No serious damage done—just a small scrape. I finish examining his wings. He has a fresh wound on his left wing, still bleeding.

We get him in the larger box, and I leave him alone for the night. Can’t get him to the vet until Thursday, since tomorrow’s Christmas Day.

Christmas Day, he glares at me when I ease into the room where his box sits and take a few photos before tossing a couple of fish in for him, to see if he’ll eat. Not while I’m watching, by God, so I leave the room and wait an hour or so before checking back. Yep, he’ll eat. Nothing wrong with his appetite!

So we now wait until Thursday morning…I get up bright and early with plans to be at Smalley’s Animal Hospital as soon as they open.  Get all the other critters cared for, get dressed, call Smalley’s to alert them I’m bringing in a bald eagle—they’re ready; we’re good to go.

His box falls apart as I attempt to pick it up. He’s pooped under and around the edges of the puppy pad, and his poop has destroyed the box. I vent my frustration loudly as I go get my large crate. Cardboard boxes are better, as they deaden sound and block disturbing visual stimuli, which is why I always ask people to use cardboard boxes when they bring me birds. But I used my last two boxes creating a “holding cell” for this bird Christmas Eve, so…crate it is…dammit…

My niece meets me at Smalley’s to man the camera while we examine the eagle, as I know from experience that I won’t be able to hold this bird with one hand and snap pix with the other. After a very short wait, vet Richie Hatcher helps me move the crate into the exam room, where vet tech Autumn Parker asks if I want to go ahead and “suit up” for x-rays before we commence getting the bird out. Good thinking! Then the fun begins…

The BE wigs out and flails his wings around wildly when I reach in for his feet, but I get him out, with a death grip on those big ol’ feet. He then slaps me about the head and shoulders with his wings, starting the left wing bleeding again in the process, and smearing blood all over my neck. Meanwhile, my niece has taken cover behind a chair and all you can see is her arm holding the camera over its back. Oh what fun, right?

I’m trying to get his back against my chest to restrain him fully when the vicious snot lunges toward my face and takes a bite out of my jaw. Again—my fault. I started to bring my face shield and got sidetracked by the box cock-up. It’s bleeding a fair bit, they tell me, but it actually barely stings—maybe the adrenaline is in full force? I dunno. Everybody else seems more worried about it than I am.

We get him restrained. Richie looks at the wing and agrees with me that it doesn’t feel like anything’s broken. We get the eagle to the x-ray room, where it takes me, Richie and Autumn to restrain him on the table. X-rays reveal no fractures, no lead fragments anywhere in his body. Hallelujah!

While we have him fairly well-restrained, Richie cleans and medicates the wing. We weigh him: 6 pounds, 12 ounces. He hasn’t missed any meals! Richie gives the BE an antibiotic injection, as well.

We then get him back into his crate and while Richie composes the requisite letter informing the feds that he’s seen the bird and briefly describing his treatment and prognosis, I call Laurie and Marshall Jackson, volunteers who transport birds between me and Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends Raptor Rehab. Steve has the necessary eagle permit and will complete the BE’s rehabilitation over the next couple of weeks. (While eagles have been delisted, they’re still highly regulated. It takes a separate permit from the regular raptor permit I possess to do more than triage and transfer them.) Steve, God help him, now has the ill-tempered cuss…

Our goal, in two weeks or so, is to put this adult male back in his home territory, as his mate was seen with him just prior to his capture for assessment and treatment. 

…and this rehabber, at least, has had a busier than usual pre-Christmas weekend. Maybe that will mean no calls on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day! (And I probably just jinxed myself…)

All week long, it was sloooow at LWR. Constant rain predictions that turned into less moisture than if I’d just walked outside and spat meant that I couldn’t release the barred owl, so he’s still a very unhappy guest at the moment. We’re aiming at a possible Christmas Eve release if the weather clears.

The flyers—all 7—are increasingly camera-shy, so while I see them eating and being adorable, the second I break out the camera, the little sweethearts scurry to the safety of their nests, so…sorry, no new pix of them this week…

After a week of no new activity, Friday a gentleman called with an osprey he’d found in his cotton field in Toombs County, south of me. We met, and a quick parking lot exam showed a thinnish bird—although it’s hard to tell with ospreys pre-weighing, because they’re naturally skinny birds, anyway—with several broken flight feathers and a scab on the right wing. Nothing seemed broken, and he had a death grip on a half-eaten bass, so I boxed him and took him to Smalley’s Animal Hospital, where an exam by vet Peggy Hobby confirmed no fractures. Peggy clipped the broken feathers while we had four hands available—mine to control and hers to clip. His little heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest, and I’ve never had even the most spastic bird have that kind of elevated heart rate.  He had not pooped at that point, so we had no poop for a fecal to test for parasites.

Once home, I started the osprey on antibiotics and made arrangements to transfer him to Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends Raptor Rehab Saturday morning.  Steve has a goodly supply of fish and more experience in dealing with the personality quirks of ospreys—and despite this guy’s half-eaten bass, he refused the fish I offered him, so I was more than happy to send him packing after an overnight stay.

Once he had the bird, Steve agreed that there’s something “off” with him, even for an osprey, the heart rate is “not right”, and as of yesterday, he wasn’t eating for Steve, either. He’s going to try to get a fecal run and has started some prophylactic meds in addition to the antibiotics, so that’s where we stand right now—meds, observation, and time. I’ll update you as I receive updates from Steve on his condition.

Friday evening, I got a call about a “baby” bird. Since this is the wrong time of year for babies, I figured the caller had either a screech owl or a small adult songbird of some sort.  When I asked her for a description, her description sounded as if she had an adult chickadee—which, in fact, it was. He’d been found on the ground in some leaves and seemed sluggish and out of it. He remained very calm when I got him home and was setting up his digs for the night—calm enough to eventually perch on my finger for photos. To be honest, while chickadees have been known to land on people’s heads and glasses, this sort of calm always worries me. Still, he had no injuries, so I figured we’d just see what Saturday morning held.

What the morning held was an exhausted little bird still sleeping when I walked in with the camera to check on him. It was too cute a photo op to resist. 

He woke up shortly afterward, alert and chipper. When I reached in to check him over one more time, he flitted right past my hand and flew beautifully, so I opted to release him rather than stress him out with another day of captivity.

Unfortunately, this adult cardinal wasn’t as lucky. I actually found him in my own yard Saturday morning. His eyes and nose were clear, his breathing was normal, his feathers were in good shape, he was fairly well fleshed…but he was grounded.  He attempted to fly—and I think he could have flown at least a short distance—when I netted him, but a cardinal sitting hunched on the open ground…well, it just ain’t right. I took him in, started antibiotics, and gave him food and water in his box. Given his strong grip with his beak and his normal level of cardinal aggression, I was pretty sure he was going to be an eventual release. Two hours later, he was dead. I don’t know if he was just an older bird at the end of his lifespan or if he’d gotten into some sort of poison—I just don’t know. Here’s another example of when it would be nice to have access to two or three “courtesy” necropsies a year from UGA. 

For those of you who would still like to donate to LWR’s 2014 rehab efforts, the 2014 calendars are still available through Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/shop/laurens-wildlife-rescue-2014-calendar/calendar/product-21282459.html?showPreview=true. Remember that all proceeds above Lulu.com’s fees will be used to fund LWR’s operations next year—and we all need calendars, so why not get one that also benefits LWR? The button below will take you directly to the Lulu site and add a calendar to your shopping cart automatically. There’s currently a 10% discount on the calendars, and as an added bonus, Lulu.com is offering free shipping from now through Dec. 24 if you use the code FREESHIP, so you’ve still got a couple of days to take advantage of that deal.  We’re up to eight calendars sold thus far.

And finally, I leave you with this parting thought:

Let’s lead with an update on last week’s barred owls. The one that came in last Sunday—the grille barred, as I called her (once she unballed those feet, I decided “he” was actually a “she”)—did have life-ending injuries. Her shoulder was trashed, as you can see in the x-ray below.

The vision-impaired barred had an inflamed optic nerve in his “good” eye, so we opted to give him a little more time. He seems to be regaining vision in that eye and might be releasable by the end of the week, depending on his continued progress.

The “miracle” fledgling pigeon is now eating on his own, perching, and “flying in place” as he strengthens his wings. I have no problem admitting that I honestly don’t see how this bird’s still alive. Based on his starvation-level weight when he came in (15g, for those who don’t remember), he should actually be dead, and yet he’s gaining weight, alert, and now progressing normally for a fledgling pigeon. Amazing…

Great blue herons (GBHs) are rather shy birds, despite their large size, so when someone calls about a GBH, I can usually operate under the assumption that the bird is in pretty bad shape.  They’re either starving or have nasty injuries, usually from collisions with vehicles.  This guy was found by one of the roads in town, so HBC (hit by car) was a good guess. Even when debilitated, GBHs can be quite aggressive, however, so the important thing with them is to control that rapier beak first, before even attempting an exam.  Despite his being well-fleshed and quite feisty—as you can see in the short video clip, this GBH did NOT want to be examined—his left leg was shattered at the hip and his left wing was demolished at the wrist. There was nothing that could be done for him but end his suffering.

When fellow rehabber Korey Henderson of Valdosta asked me to take the four (count ‘em—FOUR!!!) flying squirrels she’d had since about the time my three came in, I obviously didn’t hesitate to say yes.  Like me, Korey adores flyers, but her release site isn’t quite as optimal as mine, so I now have seven overwintering flyers! The new quartet includes one lone female. They’re still a bit shy and unsure of their new digs, but I managed a few shots of them…

…as well as a few more of my original lot.

For those of you who would still like to donate to LWR’s 2014 rehab efforts, we still have our 2014 calendars selling through Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/shop/laurens-wildlife-rescue-2014-calendar/calendar/product-21282459.html?showPreview=true. Remember that all proceeds above Lulu.com’s fees will be used to fund LWR’s operations next year, so buy lots of calendars—they’ll make great Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers! The button below will take you directly to the Lulu site and add a calendar to your shopping cart automatically. There’s currently a 10% discount on the calendars, and as an added bonus, Lulu.com is offering free shipping from now through Dec. 24 if you use the code FREESHIP.  So far a whopping 5 calendars have been purchased; if sales don’t improve, I’m probably not gonna do a calendar next year. 

Finally, a reminder to all of you within driving distance of Dublin, GA's Ruby Tuesday restaurant: you have a great chance to raise money for LWR just by eating at Ruby Tuesday on Dec. 19! All you need to do is click on the link below (or copy and paste into your browser) to get the flyer you need to print out and take with you, then eat at Ruby Tuesday any time on Dec. 19 and present the flyer. And 20% of your meal total is then donated to LWR! You MUST present the flyer to your server for LWR to receive the donation, so please take advantage of this painless, tasty way to help us raise funds--and share the info   (and the flyer or link to the flyer) with your friends, as well!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hoz2tjx5j3crh7p/lwr%20ruby%20tuesday%20fundraiser%20flyer.pdf

Yep, the local barred owls continue to enact their mass suicide pact. LWR received two more barreds this week, one with life-ending injuries and one today whose fate is still uncertain.

The barred owl who came in earlier in the week was found in the middle of the road. Both his wings were broken—both open fractures. I mean, his wings faced backward and upside down. There was nothing to be done for this guy but to end his suffering.

The barred who came in today flew into a driver’s truck grille on the interstate last night. His wing is definitely broken, but it’s not an open fracture. He also lists to the side, as if he might have a hip or pelvic fracture. X-rays tomorrow will determine his fate.

Really, the barred owl situation this year has been insane. In the past six weeks, 63% of LWR’s intakes have been barred owls, with a 60% euthanasia rate, due to the fatal nature of their injuries. That figure may go up to 80 or 100% tomorrow, depending on today’s barred intake’s x-rays.

Last week’s concussed barred owl now appears to be totally blind. A vet exam last Monday did confirm a luxated lens in the right eye. This means the lens was ripped loose by the force of impact when he hit the car. It’s not fixable, but we thought the left eye looked okay, and he was eating the white rats I placed on a white puppy pad in his box, so he had to be able to see them, right? He was doing so well I placed a perch in his box Friday.

Friday night he didn’t eat his rat. It had been unseasonably warm, and sometimes the warmer weather will dampen appetites a bit, so I wasn’t too concerned when his rat was untouched Saturday morning. However, when it was still untouched this morning, I began to suspect optic nerve damage in the left eye. To test the theory, I took his perch away. Within half an hour, the rat was gone. I offered a second rat, still no perch. Again, gone within half an hour.

The bird apparently had been finding the rats by feel. On the perch, he couldn’t see where they were, and he couldn’t see to get off the perch, so he just didn’t eat. I’ll be having him re-examined tomorrow, as well, to see if there might be a chance that issue in the left eye will resolve over time. Optic nerve damage can be tricky—you can’t see it, and sometimes it resolves but more often it doesn’t. We’ll decide this poor barred’s fate tomorrow, as well. I’m not optimistic.

And that will mean 100% euthanasias for barreds in the past six weeks. Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends and Jennifer Gardner of Gardner Veterinary Services (and also a licensed rehabber) are reporting similar outcomes for their barred owl intakes. The issue seems to be lack of prey, with the added burden of migration, so that hungry raptors are hunting near roads and having fatal encounters with vehicles.

When raptors DO snag prey, however, they eat everything—bones, fur, and flesh. Because they can’t actually digest the bones and fur, they regurgitate it in the form of pellets—much like a cat’s hairball. The pellet-casting also helps to keep the digestive tract clean and functioning smoothly. Why am I telling you this? Because I snapped a photo of a very nicely-formed pellet this past week for your viewing pleasure. Sorry, didn’t think about using the dissection forceps to pry it apart…

When a concerned young man called me about a pigeon down in town, I presumed he meant an adult pigeon. Upon intake, however, I was shocked to find that I had a fledgling pigeon—fully feathered, short tail feathers, still bits of “cactus fuzz” down sticking randomly through the feathers, and still making baby “whines” rather than adult coos.

He looked pretty rough and weighed only 15g, which is starvation-thin, near-death-thin for a pigeon. To put it in perspective, a fledgling mockingbird averages around 35-40g. He had poop caked rock-hard to his little bottom. He just looked rough. But…he was alert and fairly active, considering I’d gotten him in after dark.

Because he was dehydrated, the first thing was to get some fluids in his system. I couldn’t even start meds until he was hydrated. We spent the night becoming acquainted, with me pulling dried poop off his little butt and giving him fluids every few hours. (Relax, I did allow the poor bird some respite after 11pm, when all the poop was off and I’d gotten sufficient fluids in him.)

By morning he was looking better and had gotten quite feisty, trying to run from me to avoid food, water and meds. I’m still hand-feeding, as he refuses to attempt self-feeding thus far. His weight is slowly increasing, and he’s looking less rough, so I think he’s gonna have a pretty good chance at a spring release.

As promised, the drawing for the tickets to Bring It On: The Musical in January was held on Friday, and the winner is Teresa Hooks of East Dublin, GA. Congrats, Teresa! You should be receiving an email shortly with further details.

For those of you who would still like to donate to LWR’s 2014 rehab efforts, we still have our 2014 calendars selling through Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/shop/laurens-wildlife-rescue-2014-calendar/calendar/product-21282459.html?showPreview=true. Remember that all proceeds above Lulu.com’s fees will be used to fund LWR’s operations next year, so buy lots of calendars—they’ll make great Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers! The button below will take you directly to the Lulu site and add a calendar to your shopping cart automatically. I’m retaining the 10% discount for at least another week, and as an added bonus, Lulu.com is offering free shipping from now through Dec. 24 if you use the code FREESHIP. 

And because I like to end the updates with a dose of cute when I can, especially this time of year, I offer you a few more shots of the flyers eating mealies and peering suspiciously at the camera. Enjoy!

No holiday would be complete without at least one rehab call, and sure enough, just before dinner (that’s the noon meal here in the South, folks) on Thanksgiving Day, “the call” came in. A lady on her way to her mother’s for Thanksgiving had found an owl in the road.  Since she was several counties away, it would be several hours before she could get him to me, so we made plans to meet later in the day.

When I met her and picked up the bird, an adult male barred owl, a cursory parking lot exam didn’t reveal any obvious broken bones, but the poor guy had a massive concussion. His head was “sho-nuff” hurtin’. He kept his head hanging low most of the time; his feet were balled…Still, no broken bones—that was a GOOD thing!

When I got him home under better lighting for a more thorough exam, his beak was cracked and both eyes were cloudy, the right more so than the left. Cloudy eyes are never a good sign. There’s blood in the eyeball, so we have eye trauma. Sometimes it’s just blood that reabsorbs; sometimes it signals more serious damage to the eye.  I didn’t see any obvious lens damage, but there was so much blood that it was hard to see anything else, so…we wait until the blood begins to dissipate to see what damage there is to the interior of the eye. 

Concussed raptors generally won’t eat for 24-48 hours, until their poor heads stop ringing, so I waited until Saturday night to offer a rat. The cracked beak worried me, but I wanted to see if he could a) eat without the food being cut up and b) locate the rat on his own.

I’m happy to report that while both eyes are still cloudy and the left looks like there may be a lens issue, he’s able to locate the rats in an enclosed environment and eat them without any help!

Don’t worry; that bloody spot you see behind him is all that remains of his morning rat!

My vets were closed for the holiday weekend, so I’ll be taking this guy in Monday for further assessment of his eyes, but I’m cautiously optimistic that he might have a chance, if we just give those eyes a little time. One is probably trashed, but because owls hunt primarily by hearing, as long as he has one good eye, he should be fine for release at some point in the near future.

As a reminder, there’s just one week remaining in the LWR online raffle, and we still have only three people’s names in the pot for the prize.  To jog your memory, Macon, Georgia’s Grand Opera House has very generously donated 2 tickets to Bring It On: The Musical in January and through Dec. 6, donors will have their names entered into the drawing for the tickets, valued at $100. For every $5 donated, your name will go in the pot once, i.e., donate $25 and you’re entered 5 times. You can use the PayPal links located on each page of the website to donate, or mail your donations to Laurens Wildlife Rescue, 1101-L Hillcrest Pkwy, PMB #255, Dublin, GA 31021. The lucky winner will be announced in the Dec. 8 update!

Sales of the 2014 calendars, featuring 12 photos of LWR’s “guests” in 2013 and available from Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/shop/laurens-wildlife-rescue-2014-calendar/calendar/product-21282459.html?showPreview=true , are still quite sluggish—3 sold so far. Remember that all proceeds above Lulu.com’s fees will be used to fund LWR’s operations next year, so buy lots of calendars—they’ll make great Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers! The button below will take you directly to the Lulu site and add a calendar to your shopping cart automatically. I’m offering a 10% discount for at least the next week, and as an added bonus, Lulu.com is offering free shipping from now through Dec. 24 if you use the code FREESHIP.

And finally, while the flyers are increasingly camera shy, I did manage these few shots of them being impossibly cute, so enjoy while I can still snag a few shots of them every now and then!