Last week saw three new baby intakes and one adult intake.
Starting with undoubtedly the cutest of the babies, we have a hatchling red shoulder. A local falconer got a call from an acquaintance in Twiggs County who’d cut down a tree without realizing it had a red shoulder nest in it—and while I usually rant about cutting trees during baby season, 9 months after Helene, people are still trying to clean up trees, some of which aren’t uprooted but are leaning dangerously, in their yards/on their properties. So I’ll forgo any rants due to mitigating circumstances.
ANYway…the nest had two eggs in it; the impact from the fall caused both to hatch prematurely. One was close enough to hatching that it survived; the other wasn’t and didn’t. Its membrane was ruptured and despite the falconer’s best efforts to keep it alive until the next morning, when he could bring them to me, it didn’t survive the night.
However, the surviving preemie is doing quite well and, of course, as all raptor hatchlings are (okay, maybe not barnie babies—they’re faces only a mother could love!), is impossibly adorable. He’s at 36.4g as of today and has an amazing appetite for such a teeny little feller. His eyes seem a little weak looking to me, but I could just be paranoid.
Starting with undoubtedly the cutest of the babies, we have a hatchling red shoulder. A local falconer got a call from an acquaintance in Twiggs County who’d cut down a tree without realizing it had a red shoulder nest in it—and while I usually rant about cutting trees during baby season, 9 months after Helene, people are still trying to clean up trees, some of which aren’t uprooted but are leaning dangerously, in their yards/on their properties. So I’ll forgo any rants due to mitigating circumstances.
ANYway…the nest had two eggs in it; the impact from the fall caused both to hatch prematurely. One was close enough to hatching that it survived; the other wasn’t and didn’t. Its membrane was ruptured and despite the falconer’s best efforts to keep it alive until the next morning, when he could bring them to me, it didn’t survive the night.
However, the surviving preemie is doing quite well and, of course, as all raptor hatchlings are (okay, maybe not barnie babies—they’re faces only a mother could love!), is impossibly adorable. He’s at 36.4g as of today and has an amazing appetite for such a teeny little feller. His eyes seem a little weak looking to me, but I could just be paranoid.
The other two babies are a first for me—turkey vultures. If you’ll notice, their down is white, while black vulture down is yellow. They’re also more prone to stress puke, effortlessly and without warning, so I’m moving veeeerrry slowly and talking veeeerrry quietly and only when necessary around them. So far, so good—they’re now only “growling” at me before, during and after feedings—normal for both species of vultures but each species has a different tone to its “growl.”
Their back story is interesting, as well: a Laurens County deputy knew he had a female turkey vulture nesting in a barn on his property; she had nested there for several years and had become somewhat acclimated to his coming and going from the barn. He knew she had babies, but then she abruptly disappeared and he found only a pile of feathers and the babies had moved from where she had them and were cowering in a corner 10 feet away. After bringing them to LWR, he continued to search for the mother for a couple of days, with no luck.
Honestly, I don’t think they’re as cute as black vultures but these two have a hilarious habit of stomping their feet hard while being fed—I’m still not sure if it’s an attempt to hurry up the feeding or an attempt to intimidate the feeder. If the latter, it ain’t workin’!
Their back story is interesting, as well: a Laurens County deputy knew he had a female turkey vulture nesting in a barn on his property; she had nested there for several years and had become somewhat acclimated to his coming and going from the barn. He knew she had babies, but then she abruptly disappeared and he found only a pile of feathers and the babies had moved from where she had them and were cowering in a corner 10 feet away. After bringing them to LWR, he continued to search for the mother for a couple of days, with no luck.
Honestly, I don’t think they’re as cute as black vultures but these two have a hilarious habit of stomping their feet hard while being fed—I’m still not sure if it’s an attempt to hurry up the feeding or an attempt to intimidate the feeder. If the latter, it ain’t workin’!
The red shoulder twins really need to be in the mini-pen; the goal is to get them outside this week. They’re self-feeding now, so they’re good to go in an outside flight.
That will mean the barred triplets will be moved to the main flight. They’re flying well in the mini-pen and need more space.
This will, of course, mean that the red tail currently in the main flight will either be released or euthanized—I’m still trying to give him time to show me he can fly, but so far, nada. Maybe he’s flying when I’m not around the flight, but I don’t think so. I hope I’m wrong.
The brancher red tail just today started limited self-feeding, but she’s flapping those wings a good bit now, so she’ll be needing an outside pen before long. This time of year it’s always a constant juggling act: move this one here, move that one there, bigger box for this one, release that one, find space for a new intake…
The broadie I was worried would die from handling stress did, in fact, check out last Sunday afternoon, poor fellow.
And about an hour ago an adult red shoulder came in from Screven County. The finder saw him late yesterday in the middle of the road and stopped to pick him up. Nothing appears to be broken but he’s obviously concussed and a little on the thin side, so he’ll spend a few days at the LWR B&B.
And about an hour ago an adult red shoulder came in from Screven County. The finder saw him late yesterday in the middle of the road and stopped to pick him up. Nothing appears to be broken but he’s obviously concussed and a little on the thin side, so he’ll spend a few days at the LWR B&B.
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