As of today, we’re still sitting at $2640 of $5500 raised, with 15 new intakes this week. People don’t seem to grasp that caring for these birds is expensive. Why don’t I pitch in myself, you ask? Oh, I do. I don’t take vacations, as that would be spending money that could be used for rehab supplies. If I’m lucky, I might manage one or two weekends a year that I can get the hell outta Dodge for two or three days. This year that won’t happen, as all my “outta Dodge” pennies have gone into funding LWR. So you see, I’m not asking you to make any sacrifices I haven’t already made. I’ve also applied for a small local grant that instructs applicants to call if funding is an emergency. I called after submitting the application. I got stonewalled. Sadly, I can’t go pull money off trees to feed these birds. I wish I could. And I promise you, even if I had a street corner to stand on, at my age, clients would be rather sparse, so that’s out as a fundraising method, too…
The pileated was released last week, finally. See that tree in the middle of the photo? Yeah, he’s on the other side of it. Little snot made sure he stayed out of camera range till I swore profusely and gave up.
Unfortunately, the red tail wasn’t as lucky. When I moved her to a smaller box for the trip to Smalley’s for follow-up x-rays, she managed to twist her wing so as to create an open fracture. I found this out when I unboxed her in the x-ray room and saw fresh blood under her wing…and then the jagged edge of a freshly exposed bone. We x-rayed anyway, to see what had happened. The slightly displaced fracture of May had become a massively displaced fracture last week—no healing at all had taken place. We had to euthanize her.
Original x-ray, May 26
Follow-up x-ray, June 19
Another barn swallow came in, this one kept for 10 days by her finders. She was pretty much ready to go, so after a couple of days in the songbird flight, I released her into a flock last week. She still visits me for handouts periodically.
The robin and the mocker stubbornly refuse to leave; I may have to evict them, the freeloading rascals. The hummer died unexpectedly Saturday evening. I’d just topped her off with a hand-feeding—she was mostly self-feeding but I “topped off” hourly to be sure she was getting enough. She ate for me and seemed fine. Five minutes later I turned back to her cage and she was on her back. As she sometimes fell and got her feet caught in her wings trying to right herself, I went over to help her get untangled, and she was dead. My best guess is sheer stress.
I also had two mockers come in, a fledgling who’d had string hung around his leg, resulting in severe nerve damage, and a nestling covered with mites, which it took several hours to rid him of. The fledgling required euthanasia; he was unable to perch and dragged his injured leg behind him. The nestling died overnight, I suspect from blood loss from the mites.
The flickers are in the songbird flight—well, two of them, anyway. The third chose today to leave through the “escape hatch.” Were you watching what he did, robin, mocker and remaining flickers???
I also had two mockers come in, a fledgling who’d had string hung around his leg, resulting in severe nerve damage, and a nestling covered with mites, which it took several hours to rid him of. The fledgling required euthanasia; he was unable to perch and dragged his injured leg behind him. The nestling died overnight, I suspect from blood loss from the mites.
The flickers are in the songbird flight—well, two of them, anyway. The third chose today to leave through the “escape hatch.” Were you watching what he did, robin, mocker and remaining flickers???
This juvenile Cooper’s hawk was observed sitting in a driveway, seemingly oblivious to the traffic on the nearby road. He had no obvious fractures and only a swollen eye, plus he had a full crop, so my assumption was that he was full and sluggish and got whacked—a concussion that shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Unfortunately, he had massive internal injuries and bled out overnight.
Three additional woodpeckers came in, this time red-headed woodpeckers. They were stressed beyond belief on intake and still tend to hunker down even when begging for food. If my nest had been destroyed and I’d been fed a crap diet for nearly 24 hours, I guess I’d be a bit stressed, too.
Both a nestling mourning dove and a nestling Eurasian collared dove arrived at LWR last week, as well, and are happily nested together. That’s one of the things I love about doves; they’re so gentle. The Eurasian collared is the larger, grayer bird; the mourning dove is the smaller, browner one.
The wood ducklings are getting closer to release; we’re finally starting to see real feather growth on those wings. Good thing, too; they’re getting a bit cramped indoors now.
The broadwing passed his live prey test with flying colors and is ready for release early in the week; the screech is next in line for the raptor flight. I can only imagine how happy he’ll be to have all that space to fly around in.
When a volunteer transporter called to say she was picking up a “baby bald eagle,” we both chuckled; experience has taught us that it’s never an eagle. Sometimes it’s not even a raptor. Sure enough, she called back shortly, laughing, and said it was either a kite or a broadwing. Given the time of year, my money was on kite and when she arrived with the little fellow, he was indeed a nestling Mississippi kite with a pretty nasty-looking wing injury.
When a volunteer transporter called to say she was picking up a “baby bald eagle,” we both chuckled; experience has taught us that it’s never an eagle. Sometimes it’s not even a raptor. Sure enough, she called back shortly, laughing, and said it was either a kite or a broadwing. Given the time of year, my money was on kite and when she arrived with the little fellow, he was indeed a nestling Mississippi kite with a pretty nasty-looking wing injury.
His wing was raw, bruised, swollen and missing a lot of feathers. The swelling made it impossible to tell if anything was broken, so obviously a trip to Smalley’s was in order the next day. While his little wing looked pretty awful, it had only a minor metacarpal fracture—a small “hand” fracture, as it were. This should heal just fine, and the swelling and bruising have diminished even since these photos were taken.
The barn owl who came in Saturday may not be as lucky. His leg is broken badly; the open wound on the leg looks too perfectly round to be from a “natural” break, so I’m afraid lead may show on his x-ray, slated for Monday if possible.
And today, while I was trying to work on this update, four new birds came in.
This little pre-fledgling Carolina wren had three siblings who didn’t survive the night to make it to LWR. Their parents were killed by a shop fan; the nest had been built somewhere in the fan and by the time anyone noticed the dead adults, the babies were in pretty bad shape. Sadly, this little one only survived two hours after arrival at LWR.
This little pre-fledgling Carolina wren had three siblings who didn’t survive the night to make it to LWR. Their parents were killed by a shop fan; the nest had been built somewhere in the fan and by the time anyone noticed the dead adults, the babies were in pretty bad shape. Sadly, this little one only survived two hours after arrival at LWR.
Another mocker arrived, with a leg fracture right in the joint and no neural response at all below the joint. He was euthanized.
This brown thrasher also arrived today. They’re the sweetest birds…
This brown thrasher also arrived today. They’re the sweetest birds…
And while this nestling is in the flycatcher family, I’m not sure which species yet. He ate well up till lights out but never opened his eyes at all; the finder saw her dog near him and wasn’t sure if the dog had attacked him or not. I couldn’t find any injuries but internal injuries often don’t show till it’s too late, so…we’ll see. I adore flycatchers and am curious to see which he is, so fingers firmly crossed that he makes it.
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