Happy New Year!

Hope y’all all had a very Merry Christmas and a good start to this brand-spankin’ new year. (I know, two days in, it’s hard to say, right?)

LWR stayed busy, with three releases between Christmas and New Year’s.

The barred owl who’d been here since late November was good to go and quite antsy during his weather-induced stay inside—see the photo below of what a bored barred will do to a box!

A second barred came in late last week and proved his flightworthiness immediately, so he was also released.

A game warden from the Peach County area brought a young Cooper’s hawk who’d been captured after flying inside a warehouse in pursuit of food. He was hyper, alert, and aggressive, with no injuries, so given Coops’ spazzy natures, I told the game warden to follow me down the lane by the house, and we watched as the Coop flew off. Not a great video—it focused on the bird perfectly until he flew off, then...meh...

A third screech came in Christmas Day after being pulled from a car grille. He was unresponsive and lethargic on intake, with a fracture near his left wrist. The goal was to get X-rays Tuesday when the clinic reopened after Christmas, but the lethargy was apparently from internal injuries rather than head trauma; he died overnight.

Both the gray phase and red phase screeches are in the mini-pen now; the gray phase is still making no effort to use that wing, and his temperament is just not suited for ed bird or foster bird status, so after another week or so just to be sure, I’ll be calling it on him, reluctantly.

The red phase is good to go after his late molt but again, with no established cavity to roost in during the winter, he needs to overwinter at LWR and be released once the weather warms up this spring. Although if temps remain moderate and we have another rain-free stretch come up, he might just gain his freedom early...we shall see...

The Coop who came in close to starvation is in the main flight and shows indications of some sort of soft tissue damage—he had no fractures on intake but favors his left wing in his attempts to fly. He’s staying aloft longer and maintaining flight for greater distances, though, so perhaps time and conditioning will allow for his release. Fingers crossed.