The nestling barred from last week was transferred out, and since Nature abhors a vacuum, another baby, a nestling great horned, came in.
The great horned nestling—despite his size, he’s not a brancher yet; he has a low perch in his box that he studiously ignores but he loves his nest—was brought into the finder’s yard by their dog, so there was no way to renest him. Fortunately, the dog didn’t injure him, and the finders called DNR immediately. A game warden picked him up and brought him to LWR, where he’s made it quite clear we don’t need to worry about imprinting with him. He’s self-feeding, so human contact is limited to taking his empty food dish out and putting the full dish back in—and every single time he tries to foot me, so he definitely knows humans shouldn’t be his friends.
The great horned nestling—despite his size, he’s not a brancher yet; he has a low perch in his box that he studiously ignores but he loves his nest—was brought into the finder’s yard by their dog, so there was no way to renest him. Fortunately, the dog didn’t injure him, and the finders called DNR immediately. A game warden picked him up and brought him to LWR, where he’s made it quite clear we don’t need to worry about imprinting with him. He’s self-feeding, so human contact is limited to taking his empty food dish out and putting the full dish back in—and every single time he tries to foot me, so he definitely knows humans shouldn’t be his friends.
It took us the full week, but we finally arranged transport for the barred and he’s now with a colleague in North Georgia who had two barreds already. Now she has a trio, and the little guy she acquired from me will learn to be a proper barred from being with others of his species.
And of course, today, the day after we transferred the bird, I got a call that two more baby barreds will be en route to LWR this afternoon…Nature has a warped sense of humor…
The adult barred needed release last week but uncertain weather forecasts kept him penned. I don’t mind delaying a release due to rain when we actually get the rain, but vague threats of rain with no follow-through do annoy me when a bird’s good to go.
The adult barred needed release last week but uncertain weather forecasts kept him penned. I don’t mind delaying a release due to rain when we actually get the rain, but vague threats of rain with no follow-through do annoy me when a bird’s good to go.
The screech is looking less likely to be releasable with every week, but he needs to be in a flight to be sure. He does already have placement should he be nonreleasable. As soon as the adult barred is released, the screech will go in the mini-pen and we’ll see what he can do. If you recall, his x-rays showed no fractures but he refuses to use that left wing. Soft tissue damage may or may not heal for flight, so we’ll see…
And the red tail showed last week that he’s good to go. Again, uncertain weather delayed his release, but we’re aiming at getting this gorgeous fellow back into the wild this week.
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