Comings and goings and pleasant surprises

First, a fond fare-thee-well to the three GHOs: they were transferred to Bubba & Friends late last week. Below are a photo and short video clip of the clueless clan in their box for transport. Steve Hicks reports they’re doing well and have, after some initial hesitation, decided a fourth GHO he has is “good people”. Let the GHO fun and games begin…but not here! (Sorry, Steve...)

Last week this lovely male Eastern bluebird was a late-evening window-strike victim, as best his rescuer could tell. Following standard protocol, she kept him inside in a box overnight and attempted to release him the next morning. He could fly but was unable to perch, so she scooped him up and brought him to LWR. His left leg seemed weak, so I was worried that he might have a pelvic fracture. With some meds and a little R&R, however, he’d regained full use of his leg within a couple of days and was talking to me in that sweet, quiet little bluebird voice, letting me know he was ready to go.

His rescuer picked him back up and released him in her yard—his territory—where she reported he flew straight to the bluebird box she has up (and which she’d checked for eggs already, finding none). Sounds like he has a mate waiting out there somewhere and there’ll be eggs in that box soon enough!

This young Eastern cottontail was not as fortunate. He was taken from a dog and had no obvious injuries but couldn’t move his back legs and had no feeling in them. Rabbits have the unique ability to snap their own spines when in the clutches of a predator, which is probably what this young fellow did. There was nothing to be done for him but end his suffering humanely.

When a young woman was helping a relative move, she picked up a potted plant and loaded it onto her truck late in the evening. The next morning, she heard noise and found this nest of house finches under the foliage. House finches, in addition to having sweet voices, are sweet little birds. These little darlings have grown like weeds in the six days they’ve been at LWR and are starting to flutter their wings like crazy in their nest.

Day of intake, 4-14

3 days ago, 4-17

Yesterday, 4-19

This little hatchling came in yesterday. He was found on the pavement in the rain and is a very recent hatch—he still has his egg tooth—see the little whitish dot on the tip of his beak?—and yesterday he still had a swollen “hatch belly”. His rescuer kept him warm but he was without food for at least six hours. He gaped first thing this morning but I’ve had to force-feed since then. We’ll just take it a day at a time with the little guy, hope he makes it,  and wait and see what species he turns out to be.

The tiny white "dot" on the tip of his beak is his egg tooth.

And…saving the big news for last: the Eastern bluebird eggs that I removed from the abandoned nest showed a network of blood vessels within four days of retrieval and as of yesterday, I could see the embryos moving slightly!

Here are photos from day 4:

And from yesterday, day 8:

Note the lessened opacity of the eggs as the embryos develop. Bluebird eggs have an incubation range of 11-19 days, and based on these eggs’ development at 8 days, I’m gonna guess we’re looking at somewhere near the outside range before they hatch—IF they hatch. As exciting as it is that they’re growing and developing, fully developed babies sometimes just don’t hatch, and “hand-hatched” babies don’t always thrive or survive. So yes, be excited with me, but temper that excitement with the knowledge that this still might not end well. We might have hatchlings by next week’s update, or we could still be waiting anxiously and hoping we have hatchlings!