Baby’s growing so fast!

The red tail’s growth is nothing short of amazing, y’all. As of this morning, the little rascal weighs 395g (13.9oz)—recall, if you will, his intake weight was 44.9g (1.5oz). And his feathers are coming in! And he’s standing, and toddling around his box!

In case the past two weeks didn’t make it crystal clear, I’m thoroughly besotted with the no-longer-so-wee one and immensely enjoying watching his progress. And here are the photos to allow you to share that progress:

We also had three releases yesterday, after nearly a week’s delay due to high winds. All three great horneds gained their freedom! (Despite the very bright sky, it was actually 6pm when they were released, two hours before sunset, which is the standard practice when releasing nocturnal raptors.)

The osprey’s wing was shattered; he required euthanasia.

Monday THREE barred owls came in; only one is still with us.

Barred one came from Dublin; he was found in a parking lot, about to be in the road. His nest was in a pine tree in the parking lot, but the poor fellow had broken a leg on impact with the pavement. X-rays showed it wasn’t fixable and he was euthanized.

Barred two came from a nearby county and had been kept illegally and fed a crap diet since Easter Sunday. On Monday morning he apparently jumped from the table where he was being fed the crap diet and broke his leg—in this case, due to MBD, metabolic bone disease, a calcium deficiency caused by an improper diet.  Had he been at LWR earlier or at least fed a proper diet, the distance from an average table to the floor wouldn’t have caused a great enough impact to break his leg. It was also unfixable and this poor baby also required euthanasia.

The third barred is an adult I honestly didn’t think was gonna make it. His eye was filled with blood, but that was the least of his problems; the impact when he was whacked by a car left him severely stargazing—his neck was badly twisted. Surprisingly, he’s almost back to normal now and eating quite well.

A fourth barred came in today, with an open wing fracture that required euthanasia.

With the great horned releases, the main flight opened up for the red shoulder. It’s too soon to tell if that wing healed well enough for flight; by the end of this week, we should have a better idea if he’ll be able to fly properly.

And the brancher barreds are in the mini-pen, where they sit and glare and posture threateningly at me when I feed them.