Back after a week off

Of course, even when there’s no weekly update, our work at LWR continues, and part of that work this past week was to work on creating a fundraiser. This is our first fundraiser this year, and if we meet our $1800 goal, it should be our last for the year—that’s the plan, anyway!

As for our actual birds, the screech had to be brought inside last week due to the cold snap we experienced pretty much throughout the South. His severely compromised feathers provide no insulation against the cold, so this will be the pattern throughout the winter: in the mini-pen when the weather is fairly moderate and inside when it gets too cold. Those overgrown talons also needed trimming back, which is a slow process, and his right foot is swollen, an indication of bumblefoot, caused when one of those overgrown talons pierced the pad of his foot. That has to be treated daily, so his being inside was best for that, too. So overall, the poor fellow has numerous issues going on at the moment, none of which will be cleared up overnight.

During our “downtime” we also had a red-tailed hawk come in, emaciated and with a large wound at the base of his tail. Despite being given pain meds and having topical meds applied to the wound, he continued to pick at it, which meant it continued to bleed. At the end of his day of intake, it appeared we finally had both the picking and bleeding under control but during the night the bleeding started back and the next morning the pad in his box was saturated; he bled out overnight. And yes, it sucked big time to find him dead the next morning; I don’t like losing birds, and I especially don’t like losing red tails.

And late last week, LWR received a call about an injured barred owl that was at a local school. The teacher had the bird in a classroom, apparently unsecured from the students, as when she called LWR she indicated a child had been scratched when he or she tried to pick the bird up. As teachers cannot leave their schools during the day, as a general rule, I told her to bring me the bird after school let out; meanwhile, I canceled a meeting to be available at the end of her school day. By dusk, no bird had arrived. No message. I contacted the person and was informed she’d put the injured bird out on the school grounds, as she couldn’t fit delivering it to LWR into her busy schedule.

People, first off: SECURE any wildlife you find and immediately place it in the darkest, quietest place you can find. A classroom full of noisy children doesn’t qualify as quiet or dark. Second, in no scenario is it acceptable to simply release an injured bird in unfamiliar surroundings. THIS IS A DEATH SENTENCE for that bird. Third, if you KNOW you cannot bring a bird to LWR or any rehabber, tell us this up front; most of us have volunteer transporters who can pick up wildlife for us and get it to us. Finally, if you plan to bring the wildlife and something comes up to prevent this, LET US KNOW. We have lives, too, and when we disrupt our schedules to be available and are left hanging, it’s extremely frustrating. A simple call or text saying you can’t make it after all will give us a chance to mobilize one of the previously mentioned volunteer transporters.

Rant over...for this week...