Baby season, part the…whatever

11/20/2016

Yeah, believe it or not, LWR received a NESTLING pigeon last week! This year is apparently the baby season that never ends…

While common “rock dove” or “city” pigeons aren’t protected under the MBTA, there are five species of pigeon that are: Band-tailed, Plain, Red-billed, Scaly-naped, and White-crowned. None of these species SHOULD be present in Georgia, ever, but given my proclivity for getting weird, out-of-range birds, ya never know…We’ll watch those feathers continue to develop!

On intake--not looking so good

Four days later--bright-eyed and alert!

I’m a bit worried about his legs; they appear to be slightly deformed as a result of improper positioning in the nest—they curve inward where they should be straight. Whether this will resolve as he matures or he’ll learn to adapt to it remains to be seen, of course.

On the fundraising front, as of today we’ve raised $890. Of that, $300 has already been spent on a mouse order; another $300 is about to go for another mouse order; $65 will go this week for a mealworm order for the flyers; $30 has been spent on a larger nestbox for the flyers; and the CO2 for the EU chamber is depleted, and replacing it will cost about $100. That leaves $75 of the funds raised thus far that hasn’t already been spent or earmarked for purchases. We’re $610 shy of meeting the goal, with 2 days left in the campaign. I do have the option of continuing the fundraiser after the deadline, but honestly, people, I don’t wanna keep harassing y’all through the month of December. Please donate generously to help us meet or surpass the $1500 goal!

This has been a “banner” fall for barred owls; two more came in this week, for a total of four in the raptor flight now. Of those, three actually showed me yesterday that they ARE capable of strong, sustained flight, so we’re looking at release ASAP for them. The fourth took three days to even leave the ground for a low perch, and his flight is uncertain and low, which leads to the strong suspicion that despite his ability to locate his mice, something is seriously wrong with his vision. He’s on borrowed time, as I really need to get the raptor flight emptied and ready for the barnies within the next couple of weeks.

No clue what the bluish-purple blob is on the wing; nothing with ink in the flight!

This great horned owl was carefully removed from a barbed wire fence in a neighboring county and brought to LWR yesterday afternoon. Her left wing is pretty shredded and the bone is exposed but not broken, as far as I can tell; we’ll get x-rays Monday to confirm. She also came close to losing her left eye, as the third eyelid looks to be ripped from snagging on the barbed wire. I hate that stuff with a passion; I see too many damn birds who have to be euthanized as a result of their encounters with it. And quite frankly, she may also require euthanasia; we won’t know for certain until Monday. In the meantime, all I can do for her is make sure she’s as pain-free as possible.

The flyers continue to be adorable and extremely active, rattling their cage so roundly that you can actually hear them outside at night! Given our “fall that isn’t”, I may forgo overwintering these sweet rascals. The jury’s still out on that. We’ll see…

And, of course, the barnies are growing like little downy weeds—well, mostly downy. Their feathers are showing considerable growth, especially around the facial discs and on the wings. The tail feathers are also starting to show. No screaming yet (which is fine by me until I can get them in the raptor flight) but lots of very impressive hissing and some random chirping noises they’ve just begun making. They’re gonna need a bigger box next week, and within a couple of weeks, they might be ready for the raptor flight. That’s the tentative goal right now.