Nah, it’s not with Doublemint gum, for those old enough to remember that commercial. Nope, LWR received a second young black vulture last week...and let the games begin!
This poor fellow was hidden in a brush pile that was demolished, and the workers saw him scurrying off and called DNR. The game warden who brought him to LWR was as surprised as I was about his odd nest site, as usually we see vultures nesting in old buildings and deer stands. However, there was no sign of an adult vulture and his hiding place no longer existed, so he’s now a guest at LWR.
Vultures are smart, as y’all well know. The afternoon of his arrival and the next 24 hours, I got the standard head lowered, growly-hissy “I hate you” treatment.
This poor fellow was hidden in a brush pile that was demolished, and the workers saw him scurrying off and called DNR. The game warden who brought him to LWR was as surprised as I was about his odd nest site, as usually we see vultures nesting in old buildings and deer stands. However, there was no sign of an adult vulture and his hiding place no longer existed, so he’s now a guest at LWR.
Vultures are smart, as y’all well know. The afternoon of his arrival and the next 24 hours, I got the standard head lowered, growly-hissy “I hate you” treatment.
Day 2, app. 48 hours after intake: “Maybe you’re not awful but I’m still not sure.”
Morning of Day 3: “Hey, feeder person, whatcha got for us this mornin’?”
After some initial uncertainty, the older vulture has decided he rather likes having a buddy.
Gotta love vultures!
The great horned owl is eating well, alert, and his eye wasn’t damaged, after all. His balance is still off, though. He can lunge at the top of his box but when he falls back to the bottom, it’s kinda messy. And he just flops to one side or the other when he sits—something is off with his equilibrium. So we’re just giving him time to see if it corrects, as both ears are clear: no parasites to cause this weird lack of balance.
The great horned owl is eating well, alert, and his eye wasn’t damaged, after all. His balance is still off, though. He can lunge at the top of his box but when he falls back to the bottom, it’s kinda messy. And he just flops to one side or the other when he sits—something is off with his equilibrium. So we’re just giving him time to see if it corrects, as both ears are clear: no parasites to cause this weird lack of balance.
The sharpie will probably not go back in for follow-up x-rays, as after two solid weeks of hearing his nonstop repetitive thudding all day, yesterday I’d had enough and after checking his wing carefully for stability, I moved him into the main flight. He’s flying low but he is flying...honestly, I think I overfed him and he’s too dang fat to fly properly right now! But he’s trying. And in his stress from captivity, he managed to pluck out all his tail feathers. Hey, at least it wasn’t his flight feathers, right? Accipiters are high-stress birds...both personality-wise and for their rehabbers, as they’re known to do stupid and often fatal things while in rehab. The goal now is to get him back to flight weight, get him flight-conditioned, and get him out—before he can do anything stupid or fatal.
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