Last week was a return to more normal fall activity, with just two new intakes, both red shoulders, to add to the raptor mix.
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First, though, the results of the screech x-rays: his wing is well and truly broken. It’s anybody’s guess if it will actually heal; we know it won’t heal for flight. So if, in a few weeks, the fracture has begun callusing over, we’ll worry about placing him as an ed bird. Right now, we just need to see if it’ll heal. The good news is, he’s keeping the wing level—no drooping—and his appetite is excellent. Personality? Ehhh…typical pissy screech.

​The first red shoulder to come in last week had a nasty open fracture; he was euthanized.

​The second was luckier; he only had a concussion, evidenced by the bruising on the roof of his mouth, but no fractures. He’s in the mini-pen now, awaiting release.

​The barred owl that was in the mini-pen was moved to the raptor flight to give him a chance to flex his flight muscles after two weeks in the mini-pen.

The barred recovering from the wing fracture continues to eat well; he has another couple of weeks before we re-x-ray that wing.

The house finch in the songbird flight is flying beautifully now—no signs of wobbliness at all. As I mentioned last Sunday, though, he and the mourning dove will stay put till first dove season ends.

The kestrel remains a source of amusement and bemusement. He’s about the most gorgeous little bird I’ve ever seen, and the better he feels, the pissier he gets. He’s determined to turn my hands into sieves!

He did open a small wound on the “head” of his wrist, so he remains on meds to keep it from getting infected. It’s scabbed over nicely, though, and when he rips off his wing bandage, which happens about every other day now, the wing doesn’t droop, so that’s good.
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He also continues to shred his paper daily, and every evening I remove all the shredded paper and give him fresh paper to begin shredding the next morning. Thus, he’s acquired a name: Sisyphus. And nope, I’m not explaining—if you don’t get it, look up the name and you’ll quickly understand!

​And look who visited yesterday! I’ve seen one at a time off and on over the past several weeks, but yesterday was the first time both vultures showed up at the same time in quite a while.

​So most of y’all are familiar with American kestrels (Falco sparverius) aka sparrow hawks, small falcons native to North America. What I bet a lot—probably most—of y’all don’t know is there’s a subspecies found primarily in Florida, Louisiana, eastern Texas and in the southern parts of Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia—the Southeastern American kestrel (Falco sparverius paulus). See range map below, which may be outdated now; the most current info I could find no longer lists Texas or Mississippi in their range—at least, their breeding range.

The Southeastern American kestrel (hereafter SEAK, to use an unofficial subspecies abbreviation, although the “official” one is AMKE for the entire species) has the distinction of being North America’s smallest falcon, topping out at a weight of around 95g (about 3.3oz)—smaller than a mourning dove, to put it in perspective for you, and the second-smallest falcon in the world. Their population has declined by some 90% in the past 50 years or so due to habitat destruction (“loss of longleaf pine habitat and degradation of the remaining longleaf habitat due to fire suppression, and removal of old-growth trees and snags,” per Pamela Lynn Maney, Survey of Reproduction of the Southeastern American Kestrel (Falco Sparverius Paulus) in Electrical Transmission Towers in South-Central Georgia, 2006, pp. 12-13), leading them to be listed as threatened in Florida and as rare and a species of concern by the Georgia DNR. Couldn’t find anything definitive on their status in the other states, but the USFWS also considers them a species of concern. The Georgia DNR has a program to place kestrel nest boxes on utility poles along utility companies’ wooded rights-of-way but I’ve not seen any current info on its success.
 
My personal opinion is that God was having a most excellent day when He created the kestrel. They’re little works of art—little masterpieces, plain and simple.
 
So why all the info overload on SEAKs?
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LWR received a male SEAK Tuesday of last week, and he’s a beauty! He came in with a left wrist fracture; I was pretty sure it was right in the joint. X-rays on Wednesday confirmed my suspicions and also showed lead fragments. Given that dove season started in Georgia on Sept. 7, he was probably collateral damage from the “spray and pray” hunters over some dove field. Nevertheless, it IS a GSW (gunshot wound) and so it was reported to the state and feds as potential illegal activity, although everyone seems to agree with my assessment of collateral damage, i.e., non-intended consequences of sloppy hunting habits. (Although honestly and to be fair, as small as doves are, “spray and pray” is about the only hunting method available, I guess…)

The joint will freeze as it heals, meaning this gorgeous fellow will have limited to no flight capability—in other words, vet Jim Hobby of Smalley’s and I knew from the get-go that he’d be nonreleasable, but given their rare-to-threatened status, we were gonna do whatever possible to ensure this little beauty’s survival. So our goal was to minimize wing droop so that he was “aesthetically pleasing” and could be placed as an ed bird once his wing fully heals.  He’s eating quite well—he’s what colleague Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends calls a “light eater”: as long as it’s light outside, he’s eating. And it shows: from Sept. 10, day of intake, to yesterday, Sept. 14, his weight jumped from a thin but healthy 71.3g (2.5oz) to 89.8g (3.2oz). Yeah, he ain’t hurtin’ for food!
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And after some initial fussing and pulling wraps off, he’s decided the fourth version is “tol’able” and mostly leaves it alone now, which is good—the less I have to handle that wing while it’s healing, the better for him. However, he does have to sit in a cage all day using a knitted nest as a soft perch, so he alleviates his boredom by shredding the paper towels lining the cage. He’s quite good at it; I’ve debated giving him a job as a sensitive document shredder, as he’d work cheap. (JOKING, people—JOKING!)

He’s a typical small raptor, full of piss and vinegar, and convinced he’s T. Rex-size. Every morning when I freshen his paper and feed and medicate him, he flips over and foots me, and I laugh at him. “Yeah, you skeer me, little buddy!”
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As you can plainly see, I’m quite enamored of this feisty fellow and am hoping he continues to thrive and heal so we can see about his placement as an ed bird—but the most important thing right now is for that wing to heal; his future depends on that. First things first.

The SEAK was by no means the only bird LWR got in last week, just the most interesting.
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Monday a common nighthawk came in with a totally trashed wing; there was nothing to do but euthanize immediately. 

​Wednesday an adult male house finch arrived at LWR with some neurological issues. He’s self-feeding but still a bit wobbly. He’s in the songbird flight with the mourning dove from last Sunday’s update, where both will likely remain till the end of the month and the end of the first dove season. (Georgia has three separate dove seasons.)

​Thursday a gorgeous first year female red tail came in with only a swollen right elbow that I could find. Friday I took her to Smalley’s for x-rays to be sure the swelling didn’t mask a fracture. Nothing showed on the x-ray aside from the swelling originating near the elbow and going up toward the wrist but en route to Smalley's she’d plucked the feathers from her wrist, which felt cold and dampish. Vet Peggy Hobby and I examined both the wrist and elbow in detail and could find only bruising on the elbow—no explanation for the wrist plucking. We agreed a round of antibiotics would be a good idea in case there was something systemic that we were missing.

​Yesterday, however, she quite literally ripped her wrist off. I had medicated her that morning and checked on her periodically throughout the day to make sure she was eating, and about time for her evening meds, I walked over to see a mass of feathers in the bottom of the box. A closer look revealed it was part of her wrist. There was no option but euthanasia at that point—and still no explanation as to WHY she mutilated herself so badly. There was no pus, no infected smell…the best we can figure is she had some sort of severe nerve issue going on in that wrist—severe enough that self-amputation seemed to her to be the only solution.

​As I mentioned earlier, in the SEAK lect—ummm, discussion, it’s dove season, and we had hunters a bit closer than we liked to our property line so yesterday my nephew and I rode around the area of the property where they were hunting—a corn field just over the fence from our land. While making sure they stayed on their land, we found one dead mourning dove and an injured one on our side. The injured one surprised me by surviving the night. Both wings were shot, through and through on both, and although I don’t think so, there may be pellets in the body. While both wings are broken, neither is near a joint so the poor bird might yet survive this dove season and be able to fly again. We’ll see…

​And late yesterday, an adult male Eastern screech owl, gray phase, came in. The finder said he heard a thump while driving Thursday night but didn’t see anything in the road behind his vehicle, so he didn’t think about it again until he got back home yesterday and his dog went crazy around the front of his car. When he looked to see what had the dog so riled up, he found the screech hung either in the grille or the bumper; I honestly don’t remember which he said. He has a fracture in or near his right shoulder; we’ll get x-rays next week to determine the extent of the damage. Meanwhile, he’s giving me full-on threat displays and stinkeye when I check on him and seems to have a good appetite.

​The barred owl in the mini-pen is ready to go and still here only because I just haven’t had time to release it; the barred that came in last weekend and needed x-rays did have a fractured ulna but it’s not right in the joint so we’re gonna give him a month to heal and see what happens.

While most folks were enjoying a quiet (or festive) Labor Day, LWR was receiving birds—three for the day. Then the pace slacked off the rest of the week, with only one additional arrival.
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First, I’m happy to report the barred owl I suspected might have vision impairment last week does NOT. He can see just fine and would have been released last week but for lingering uncertainty about Dorian’s path till late in the week. So he’s slated for release this week.

One of Labor Day’s three arrivals was a juvenile male cardinal, just going through his juvenal molt. (Yes, this is the correct term: juvenile birds experience juvenal molts—although there’s a growing trend not to use the word. But I like it. So there.) He’d been found in a swimming pool and was missing tail feathers but seemed alert and spunky, so I started meds and honestly thought he’d be an eventual release.
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He was dead the next morning—whether from internal injuries or chlorinated water ingested while in the pool, who knows?

​Next up was a barred owl whose wings were fine, although his right shoulder seemed swollen. The bigger issue, though, was his inability to stand or use his legs and feet at all. He showed no neural response, but I was hopeful maybe a little steroids would bring down any inflammation that might be causing the non-response. And the next morning he did actually flex his feet and wrap them around my fingers—progress! Alas, that was the last of his progress. I gave him another 48 hours, and he remained unable to stand. He was euthanized.

​Finishing out the day was an adult mourning dove with a wing fracture who’d been kept for about a week by an elderly woman who didn’t drive. A neighbor found out and volunteered to bring the bird to LWR. The wing had already begun healing—avian fractures begin calcifying quickly—but despite a pronounced wing droop, the dove could move the wing fairly freely and strongly. After an additional week of cage rest, he was placed in the songbird flight yesterday, where he’s actually doing better than I expected, to be honest. He may be releasable in another couple of weeks; we’ll see.

​And then the rest of the week passed with no intakes until Friday, when a barred owl with a broken wing came in. His fracture is at/near the wrist, and we’re awaiting X-rays this week to see if it’s fixable. My gut says not, but I can’t tell with certainty if the fracture is in the joint or just really close to it, so…we’ll wait and see.

It’s all about balance, right? Send a few back into the wild, and a few more come in to replace the releases…Still, I’d say baby season’s officially over and now the migrating birds will start trickling in.

The mockers flew the coop without a backward glance—or a photo. They were so ready to get out they didn’t even wait an hour after the escape hatch was opened before taking their leave.
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The red tail was slightly more cooperative, with a gorgeous release flight. He was at the far end of the camera’s zoom post-release, though, and flew away when I started to move closer, so the one post-release shot is a bit grainy.

​The wood ducks are finally on their own. The oldest had been testing his wings hard the week before his release, so he showed off his skills immediately. The slightly younger three were content to swim their way to freedom.  The video quality is a bit off; I used my waterproof camera, which has less zoom and a lower image resolution. (It does great underwater, though!) That’s my three-year-old great-nephew and my mother you hear in the background; he had to see the “baby ducks” released and “quiet” is not in his vocabulary.

​And for slightly less than 24 hours, all LWR’s pens and cages were empty. But as you know, Nature abhors a vacuum and by noonish the day after all the releases, a head trauma barred owl came in. He was found near the road and was probably sideswiped by a car. He has no fractures but after placing him in the mini-pen, I’m suspecting vision impairment—not uncommon with head trauma, and it often resolves itself in a week or so. Sometimes the damage is permanent, though, so we’ll wait and see.

​And yesterday a cat-caught Carolina wren came in. Aside from a minor leg injury, he had no other outward signs of damage, but of course we started antibiotics. He was alert, inhaling mealworms like he was starving…and this morning he was dead. There were obviously internal injuries.

​Meanwhile, this exhausted rehabber is enjoying the slow period while she can. It won’t last!

​…And I’m not complaining. A slow week is a good thing at this point in the season. I’ll gladly take it.
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The MIKIs were released; since they’re aerial insectivores and not a threat to my songbirds, I just opened the raptor flight door—for THREE DAYS in a row—and let them decide when to leave. Interestingly enough, they all chose to leave on the same day, one at a time. I snagged a photo of two of ‘em sitting on the open raptor flight door a few hours before they flew the coop.

The killdeer was also released; as usual with songbirds, I opened the “escape hatch” on the songbird flight and let him leave at his leisure. He didn’t hang around the yard once he left, so no photos of him.

An adult mocker was DOA; he actually died en route. I suspect, given his necrotic leg, sepsis had set in.
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Yesterday a male barred owl came in with an unfixable wing fracture: it was broken right in the shoulder and, as you can see in the post-euthanasia shot below, it was trashed. When a wing will twist in an unnatural position like that, it’s done for.

The two young mockers are in the songbird flight as of today; no photos this week, as they’re still in full-blown panic mode. Takes a day or so for ‘em to settle down enough for photos.
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The red tail will be moving from the mini-pen into the raptor flight for a few days pre-release, to make sure he’s good to go. The goal is to release him by week’s end. 

​And the ducks should be releasable by the end of this week…which will actually be the end of the month, as well!

​The vultures still visit one or two days a week, sometimes singly, sometimes together. Last week they visited as a pair, so I snagged a few zoom shots of those gorgeous faces.

​Late in the week, a fledgling song sparrow was cat-attacked after his initial finders did everything right by monitoring him and leaving him alone in their yard. The poor baby wandered into their neighbor’s yard, however, and the neighbor had a free-roaming outdoor cat. So the song sparrow is now on meds at LWR, and thanks to Virginia colleague Maureen Eiger for helping me ID the little cutie, as it’s not a species I’ve previously seen in rehab. Little brown jobs can be difficult to ID; I’ve threatened to just start listing them as LBJs on my annual reports, but like the Elephant’s Child, my ‘satiable curiosity gets the better of me and I spend hours poring over nestling and fledgling ID charts, comparing “baby” pix and videos and calling colleagues who enjoy a good bird mystery as much as I do. Song sparrows can be especially difficult to ID because it seems there’s wide variation in the appearance of the young. Despite being on meds, he’s not as perky today as he has been the past couple of days, so…fingers crossed…

​Earlier in the week a second-year broad-winged hawk came in with an open left wrist fracture. I don’t see broadies often, so I hated that there was nothing I could do for the poor bird but end his suffering.

​Yesterday another mocker came in, a late nestling—too young to be out of the nest, as his wing feathers are still mostly encased in keratin. He was nearly a dog-attack victim. He’s in with the older mocker.

​A juvenile Cooper’s hawk also came in yesterday, with a wing fracture. En route to LWR, the Coop, true to the species’ psychotic nature, decided to rip open the swollen flesh around the fracture, so it was oozing copious amounts of blood upon his arrival. It took forever to get the bleeding under control, even using styptic powder, and he still died overnight, probably from a combination of shock and blood loss.

​In better news, LWR had three releases this week: the great horned owl, the barred owl and the juvie red tail.
The great horned owl wasted no time skedaddling. While I saw the tree he landed in some distance away, when I got about halfway to it for a post-release photo, he headed even deeper into the woods—no paparazzi, thanks!

​The barred owl flew low and landed on the ground, but when I headed in his direction to see if I needed to recapture him, he took off into the trees and kept flying farther away as I tried to get a post-release photo of him.

​The red tail shot out of the box and circled behind me—and I didn’t press the record button hard enough and missed gorgeous footage. He was considerate enough to remain perched for some post-release photos, though.

​The oldest wood duck is good to go; the younger three aren’t far behind. I figure another 7-10 days and they should all be on their merry way. They weren’t as cooperative with the “cute” stuff for a video this week—just peeping and sipping water.

The killdeer remains inside; I don’t want him doing something stupid before he’s able to fly well. He’s also too spastic for photos; just changing his paper and giving him food and water nearly stresses the poor bird to death.
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The MIKIs are in the raptor flight as of yesterday and flying pretty well; their landings, however, are still just downright ugly. It’s a work in progress…

​The second-year red tail is in the mini-pen and looking good. He offered an impressive threat display when I fed him this morning. Red tails are so gorgeous!

​No true slowdown in sight yet, if last week is any indication, with six new intakes.
 
Early in the week, a hit-by-car barred owl came in. Nothing is broken; he just had a concussion and some lingering head trauma but should be releasable soon.

​Another juvenile MIKI came in, again transferred from Bubba & Friends. This one’s about the same age as the earlier transfer from Bubba & Friends.  Sending the MIKIs to LWR puts them a little closer to their final winter destination in Central America. All three are ready for the flight pen, as soon as the red tail is out.

​Speaking of which, yesterday FWS brought another red tail, this one about a second year bird—already getting those signature red tail feathers. He’s a bit on the thin side but alert. No signs of frounce but capillaria is always a possibility, so he’s being treated for that.

​And as y’all may have noticed, the MIKIs are back inside. Their brief foray into the mini-pen ended when I realized the great horned owl from last week’s update needed to be outside first. He’s slated for release ASAP, as he’s doing quite well and moving about in the mini-pen will keep his muscle tone up.

​Another new intake was a juvenile hummer, probably a ruby-throat and most likely female. She was kept for nearly a week before the initial rescuer took her to a neighbor who had numerous hummer feeders in her yard. The neighbor contacted LWR and shortly afterward, the hummer was transported here. It was hard on intake to tell what might have been scabs and what was dried, sticky nectar, as you can see in her photos. Had the initial finder sought help earlier, there might have been a chance to repair the injury; as it is, the wing has healed at an awkward angle that looks as if it will preclude flight. I’m giving her some time to be sure, but odds are she’ll require euthanasia.

​A late-nestling mocker was found in the road with no nest in sight and the finder called LWR after searching for a nest until dark, with no luck. Since the finder would’ve had to travel unfamiliar back roads in the dark to bring the bird that night, I suggested she bed the bird down for the night and gave her feeding instructions for the next day, until she could get the wee one to LWR. Happily, she followed my instructions to the letter and a sassy, noisy, well-fed mocker arrived the next day.

​A Laurens County deputy brought an adult MIKI found in a local fast-food joint’s parking lot yesterday. Sadly, he had multiple injuries, one of which required euthanasia. His right wing was dinged at the wrist; his left leg was broken mid-bone; his chest had an open wound. The fatal injury, however, was the broken left wing—the fracture was right in the joint. That, as y’all know by now, cannot be fixed, especially in an aerial insectivore that absolutely must have 100% use of both wings. More than likely he was hit by car while in pursuit of an insect.

​The juvie red tail in the raptor flight is flying beautifully; he just needs to pass his live prey test and he’s good to go.

 The adult killdeer attempts escape with every paper change and food/water freshening, despite the fact that he has almost no primaries on one wing. He’s off meds for his exposure to cat saliva and wants his freedom badly. They’re such stressy birds, even as adults, that I’m actually considering sticking him in the songbird flight to see how well he can fly. If he shows me he can fly well enough, we may release ASAP, to avoid any further stress on the poor fellow.
 
​The juvie barnie would very much like to join the killdeer in escape; she’s not a happy camper either. I’ve put out word she’s nonreleasable and am attempting to place her as an ed bird.
 
No photos of either of these two this week; not worth the fight to get a decent shot while deflecting escape attempts.
 
The wood ducks continue to grow rapidly; the older one is actually good to go but I don’t want to release him alone, so he’s stuck at LWR till the younger three are also ready for release—which won’t be long, judging by the feather development on their wings! (Sorry about the white balance; the camera decided to screw it up in the midst of filming...)

​And look who visited this week! Early in the week both juvie black vultures showed together up for a day or two, then they disappeared again, and yesterday only one of the sibs showed up. As you can clearly see from the poop on his back, he’s roosting at night with other vultures. I seldom get to do soft releases with raptors since I can’t very well release them in my yard along with the songbirds, so I’m enjoying this to the max. (First photo is overprocessed; I used HDR to pull the vultures out of the shadow in the original phone camera image. That's why I don't use HDR too often...)

July 2019 marked LWR’s heaviest ever intakes for that month, so hopefully August will see a slowdown, with baby season winding down. We shall see…

I was rather proud of myself for getting last Sunday’s update done early in the day, despite the back issues (still twingy but not excruciating; thanks for asking). HAH. Within half an hour of posting it, LWR received notice of three birds en route from two different locations…

A volunteer transporter delivered two of the birds, a first-year red tail and an adult great horned owl.
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There was nothing to be done for the red tail, who’d been crammed into a box much too small for a bird his size that was then lavishly slathered with packing tape, as if the poor bird were some sort of vicious monster. His near-wrist fracture apparently had been an open one and maggots had eaten all the flesh, tendons and ligaments from the bird’s right wing. He was humanely euthanized.

The great horned also came via the volunteer transporter—slightly bigger box but still taped out the wazoo. Really y’all, for future reference—in case y’all ever need to know this—a cardboard box with the flaps closed and maybe a couple of strips of tape to hold them closed if the bird gets antsy, and you’re good to go. Taping every exposed surface of the box is massive overkill!
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At any rate, aside from the area around his cere being a bit bloody, the owl was fine; he now awaits his turn in the raptor flight.

​Shortly after these two arrived, a family brought an approximately three-month-old barn owl with a wing injury. We have a fair approximation of age because the father knew the nest was in his deer stand in May and had been checking it periodically to monitor the progress of the babies. This bird is old enough to be on its own but the wing felt dislocated in the elbow to me. Sure enough, X-rays at Smalley’s confirmed a dislocation, but it had already started healing in that position. Vet Jim Hobby and I agreed it was worth trying to pop the bone back into place, and so we gassed down the barnie and Jim attempted to manipulate the bones back into proper alignment. It wasn’t happenin’, however, and Jim was afraid he’d end up breaking the bones if he kept at it. So this young barnie, full of piss and vinegar, is a nonreleasable bird and I’ve already put out overtures to see if any in-state educational facilities would be interested in her.

​Tuesday, a brown thrasher nestling fell from its nest at a local daycare. One of the workers brought it to LWR, where an intake exam revealed its right leg was broken at the hip. Even though I know hip fractures can’t be fixed, I gave the poor baby 24 hours’ observation to make sure the lack of neural response wasn’t just from swelling from the injury before making the call to euthanize.

That same day, a hatchling woodpecker, probably red-belly, came in with a pretty nasty belly bruise from his fall from the nest. I was hopeful but not optimistic that there was no internal bleeding, as it wasn’t hard and swollen…yet…but sadly, he died the next morning. Belly bruises on a bird that young almost always indicate internal bleeding.

​Wednesday morning a barred owl with a broken wing arrived at LWR. I was pretty sure the fracture was fatal but took him in for X-rays anyway. The x-rays confirmed the shoulder was trashed beyond repair and he was humanely euthanized.

​That evening, an adult killdeer arrived, most likely a cat-attack victim. His finder said they’d had a stray cat show up on their property recently. He’s missing tail feathers and most of the primaries on his left wing but is on antibiotics and doing well. 

​All four red shoulders were released, finally for three of them; the fourth was the bird who’d come in with frounce and spent his last few days at LWR in the raptor flight with the other three birds. I managed short videos of two of the releases—the two who sat on the ground for a few minutes, threat-displaying, before flying away. The other two took off like greased lightning. Hey, vids of two outta four ain’t bad…

​The remaining red tail is now in the raptor flight; his buddy in the mini-pen self-released when I went in to replace their water late in the week. I saw where he landed and took both a net and camera, so if I couldn’t recapture him—which I knew was unlikely—I could at least get a few shots of him after his self-release.

​The ducks continue to grow; the oldest of the four has maybe another week or two before he’s releasable.

​With the remaining red tail in the raptor flight, the MIKIs are now in the mini-pen. They’re still not real sure they like it, but whether they realize it or not, we’re working against a migration deadline with them, so as soon as the red tail is flying well and passes the live prey test, he’s outta here so the MIKIs can get fully migration-ready in the raptor flight. These two tickle me to death with their polar opposite attitudes toward food. The younger bird, who’s been at LWR since he was a downy handful, is like, “Oh, eating is so overrated; don’t you think? I ate yesterday, so I’m not really sure I want anything today.” The older one, the transfer from Bubba & Friends, is like, “Ooooh, grub! Praise the Lord and pass the mouse bits!”

More on that question later…

“Oh, we’re all in this together because we love animals so much.” This was the gist of a statement made to me Monday when a person brought a barred owl they’d had since Saturday.  Said person works as an educator, claims to have an “exhibition” permit, and admitted to “unofficial” rehab. Would you like me to translate all that into what a rehabber hears in these words? This individual thinks because they are in education and have an exhibition permit FOR ONE ANIMAL, that gives them free rein to rehab illegally, although what little conscience they have left does remind them that “unofficial” and illegal are synonymous here—if you don’t have state and (for birds) federal permits, YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW by possessing wildlife, even if you claim it’s for rehab.

This ain’t rocket science, folks. If you want to rehab, study for the exam. Take the exam. Pass the exam. Pass the site inspection. Get your hands-on experience for birds by apprenticing under someone with current state and federal permits. That’s it in a nutshell. It can all be done in under a year if you’re motivated enough, and if you truly “love animals” enough to want the best possible training to care for them properly.

I submit to you that anyone who “loves animals” will swallow their pride and DO THE RIGHT THING for that animal by seeking properly permitted individuals to assess, treat and—if need be—rehab the animal. Anything else is just ego looking to be stroked by having all their friends coo over how “wonderful” they are when they post “cute” pictures all over social media of them and their illegally held wildlife.

The barred owl that led to this rant had a broken right leg, right at the hip. This is not a fixable fracture, so the bird required euthanasia. For TWO DAYS it sat in an unlined box, sprawled on that injured side with no cushioning, no support. TWO DAYS of pain that could’ve been ended much sooner had this person not decided their “unofficial” rehab gave them the skills (which they obviously DO NOT POSSESS in reality) to attempt treatment.
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And then they have the gall to imply “we’re all in this together because we love animals”? Oh, don’t even go there with me. Just don’t. 

And while I’m ranting, lemme tell y’all about this gem of a call: woman calls, leaves a message that her children have found a bird in the yard and she’s willing to bring it. Now, keep in mind my outgoing voicemail message CLEARLY states this may entail a one-way trip of up to two hours and if the caller isn’t willing to do this, to hang up now. I call back; woman says bird is on its side with some kind of “pink bubble gum” looking stuff coming out. My immediate thought is more than likely a cat-attacked bird whose internal organs are ripped out. I text her the address; five minutes later she calls back and says she thought I was closer (from her location, it’s about a 25-minute drive, people…) and could just I tell her how to care for the bird? After a moment of shocked silence, I explained that she’d just said it was injured so no, I could NOT tell her how to care for a bird with injuries I’d not even seen, and further, it was a violation of the terms of my permits to give that sort of care advice to the public. And she hung up on me.

Way to go, woman—what a sterling example to set for your children: Mama’s too damn sorry to drive for 25 minutes to get help for an injured bird; so we’ll sit here and watch it die instead, probably whining the whole time about how “mean” that rehabber was—and I’m willing to bet she posted all over social media about what a “good” person SHE was for trying to “help” this bird. Yeah, right…
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Two Carolina wrens survived the deaths of one of their parents and two sibs; the finder said the parent was dead outside the nest and two babies were dead inside the nest. Thus far, these two are doing well, given the stress they’ve experienced.

​When this mockingbird nestling was found in a driveway with no nest in sight, the finder attempted to move the baby to a safer location in hopes the parents would hear its cries. When that didn’t work, she brought him to LWR, where he struggled to overcome one setback after another. He put up a good fight but ultimately lost his battle, poor baby.

​And four more Carolina wrens came in after the finder noticed that the parents hadn’t been to the nest for over 12 hours and the babies were getting increasingly vocal as their hunger levels ratcheted upward. She did an excellent job of following my care instructions until I was done at the doctor’s office with my back so she could get them to LWR. They were close enough in age to be placed with the other two, so now there are six little gaping beaks at every feeding.

​Last weekend, colleague Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends had a young Mississippi kite come in, slightly older than the MIKI currently at LWR. This MIKI was rail thin and on shaky ground, so Steve called to see if I’d place him with my MIKI once he had him stabilized enough to be transferred. Since LWR is about 100 miles south of Bubba & Friends, that’s 100 miles the bird won’t have to travel when migration starts, and my MIKI needed a buddy, so…he arrived Thursday and promptly settled right in.

​Late Friday a young red shoulder came in from Animal Control in a neighboring county. The volunteer transporters who brought him said the AC claimed he had a broken leg. An intake exam revealed no fractures anywhere, just a rail-thin bird with the beginnings of frounce. I started treatment immediately and by Saturday morning he was improved enough to inhale a small mouse. 

​The red shoulder releases were delayed by my back issues, so the red tails are also still in the mini-pen. The brown thrasher went into the songbird flight long enough for me to be sure he was flying well and eating enough to be okay on his own and was subsequently released—no photos, since I open the “escape hatch” so songbirds can self-release as they feel confident enough to leave, and I wasn’t up to the quick movements required to get photos in the songbird flight.

​The wood ducklings continue to thrive. The oldest, who was an “only” for so long, is maturing rapidly and doesn’t have long before he’s ready for release. 

​The vultures visited twice this week, once as a team and once individually, so that was a pleasant surprise. I miss those rascals!

​And that brings us full-circle to the question that began this week’s update: Who rehabs the rehabber? The answer is no-damn-body. We don’t have days off, sick leave, “mental health” days and all that stuff for sissies. We work through illness, pain, exhaustion, death in the family—whatever—because the vast majority of us are home-based and have no staff…and are uncomfortable for numerous reasons about having people we don’t know well spend 12 or more hours in our homes caring for “our” critters, so we tough it out, suck it up and continue to ruin our health. This is why so few people last more than three or four years in wildlife rehab: their mental, physical and often financial health is in tatters by that point. I’d go so far as to say that only those of us who’re already pretty severely warped from the outset survive more than five years as rehabbers. (And yes, I’m still having back spasms; yes, I’ve seen a doctor; yes, I’m on meds; no, they’re not proving particularly effective, aside from making me pissier than usual; and yes, last week was hellish as a result, and this week’s not lookin’ too promisin’.)

Only four new intakes this week—never a complaint when things are on the slow side, as this late in baby season, any small lull is a godsend.

Monday a fledgling brown thrasher came in; Wednesday a mockingbird nestling came in; Thursday a pre-fledgling barn swallow; Friday a juvenile cardinal.
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The thrasher is doing well and headed for the songbird flight shortly. 

The mockingbird died overnight, to my surprise—he was alert, vocal, eating well…and died in his sleep during the night.
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The barn swallow wandered into a commercial garage and seemed unable to fly. After observation of his behavior, I believe he fledged too early, as he seems quite content to just sit in the nest—not something a fledgling will normally do.

Friday’s juvie cardie was a window strike victim who made it through her first night when her finder placed her in a box in a quiet, dark room overnight—perfect for window strike victims, to give them time to get their bearings again. When she couldn’t fly and still acted wonky the next morning,  she came to LWR, where I suspected severe head trauma and some neurological issues. She died that night.
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The mini-flight is completed and has its first occupants, the two juvenile red tails, who are quite happy to be outside.

​The screech twins have been released, but I have no videos or photos; I simply opened the raptor flight door near dusk one evening and gave them the option of freedom. They were out of there before dark. The next morning, I placed the red shoulder trio in the raptor flight.

They’ll be ready for release within another week or so, freeing the raptor flight for the red tails and the mini-flight for the MIKI.
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The wood ducklings have graduated to the actual tub for their swims and are having a blast.

Two of the Carolina wrens survived and are ready for the songbird flight. I tried all week for photos of them but not one of them turned out worth using. Maybe once they’re in the songbird flight…
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The MIKI is growing like a weed—just look at the feather development in the past week! To give you an idea of just how much keratin they preen off their feathers daily, the photo of what looks to be a pile of salt and pepper is actually half a day’s worth of keratin preened from his feathers and in the bottom of his nest when I changed his paper.

​And, of course, the juvie black vultures supervised the final stages of construction on the mini-flight. I told AJ I didn’t know how we would’ve managed without their expert supervision. Enjoy these photos of the silly rascals; as soon as their expertise was no longer needed, they stopped coming around. I’ve seen them twice since then, and one of those times they were with three other vultures, who flew away as “my” two flew down to me. “They’s all growed up now!”

​This week’s update is short—pulled a muscle in my lower back somehow and sitting at the computer for too long causes it to spasm. It was late this afternoon before I could tolerate sitting here at all, so…enjoy this little bit while I grab the bottle of ibuprofen!