The weird year continues, with reports last month from a county a little over two hours away, verified by DNR and USDA, of some 700 black vultures dead from HPAI, avian influenza. Steve Hicks, a colleague who lives closer to the area, did a little more research and found that the vultures had comprised one of the three or four largest roosts in Georgia.
This leads me to believe, as Steve and I have discussed several times this year, that the HPAI outbreak in Georgia has been more severe than has actually been documented to date. The lower number of intakes—and for fewer species—many of us have been seeing would seem to support this. Unless large numbers of birds are found dead or dying, as was the case with the vultures, most of the public won’t think twice about finding one or two dead birds—if they’re found at all, as most likely died in the woods and were never discovered. People can’t report what they don’t recognize.
It also makes it difficult for rehabbers, who are used to accepting overflow intakes from colleagues, as DNR is discouraging this common practice to avoid potential spread of HPAI into areas not currently affected. Sadly, it’s a sensible recommendation from DNR, as no one wants to be known as the person who brought the disease into their previously uninfected area.
However, all isn’t gloom and doom. The sharpie who’d come in months ago with the wing fracture and subsequently stress-plucked all his tail feathers finally grew enough tail feathers back for a release.
This leads me to believe, as Steve and I have discussed several times this year, that the HPAI outbreak in Georgia has been more severe than has actually been documented to date. The lower number of intakes—and for fewer species—many of us have been seeing would seem to support this. Unless large numbers of birds are found dead or dying, as was the case with the vultures, most of the public won’t think twice about finding one or two dead birds—if they’re found at all, as most likely died in the woods and were never discovered. People can’t report what they don’t recognize.
It also makes it difficult for rehabbers, who are used to accepting overflow intakes from colleagues, as DNR is discouraging this common practice to avoid potential spread of HPAI into areas not currently affected. Sadly, it’s a sensible recommendation from DNR, as no one wants to be known as the person who brought the disease into their previously uninfected area.
However, all isn’t gloom and doom. The sharpie who’d come in months ago with the wing fracture and subsequently stress-plucked all his tail feathers finally grew enough tail feathers back for a release.
And the barred owl who came in with only road rash on one foot is slated for release early this week.
A second sharpie came in from a game warden in another county last week; he was rail-thin and too weak to hold his head up. After being placed in a donut for support, he was offered slurry every two hours, but it was too little too late. He didn’t survive the night.
The lady who hit this red shoulder said he came out of nowhere and she slammed on brakes but still clipped him. Nothing is broken but there does seem to be some soft tissue damage—maybe a coracoid fracture, which frequently doesn’t show on x-rays. He’s alert and eating well, so we’ll just give him time to heal.
And of course, the recently released black vultures are still hanging around. The older of the two, who’d been at LWR since he was a downy baby, remains more likely to get close enough for good photos and follow me around; the younger of the two, who came in half-grown, is less trusting and tends to go off and do his own thing, but is quite willing to accept handouts.
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