“I get by with a little help from my friends…”

A huge and heartfelt thank you to all who donated to keep LWR in operation. Your generosity raised $2678 in less than a week, and on behalf of all the critters who will benefit from your largesse, again, thank you!

It’s been a busy week, between critter care and editing. I’m operating at the moment on exactly ZERO hours’ sleep in…41 hours as I ready this for the website. I highly DO NOT recommend you try this at home, boys and girls; the resultant bags under my eyes would count as extra luggage with most major airlines!

No new birds in the flight pen yet. I have several who are flight pen ready, but as most of you along the eastern seaboard know, we’re having an oppressive heat wave, and I won’t put anything in a pen in this heat. When they can fly freely outside, it’s one thing; being penned up, even in the shade, is another entirely.

The brown thrasher, two more mockers, and a cowbird will head for the flight pen as soon as the heat wave dissipates a bit. Below are photos of the thrasher and the cowbird.

Cowbirds are kinda cute little babies, but as adults they honestly annoy me. They’re freeloaders, laying their eggs in other birds’ nests, where the intruder hatchling will sometimes push the “real” babies out of the nest as he grows—or the “real” babies will starve to death as the parents put all their effort into feeding that one always-gaping beak.

How dumb could a bird be not to recognize its own babies, you ask? Consider that the female has brooded that egg and hatched that baby—in her eyes, it IS her own baby. Also, speaking from my own experience working with birds, once you get into the “stuff gaping beaks” mode, it’s a knee-jerk reaction to feed anything that screams for food. I was once pumping gas and heard a fledgling mocker begging in the bushes to the side of the gas station…I had left the pump and was halfway across the parking lot before I realized a) it wasn’t one of my rehabs and b) I didn’t have the songbird formula and feeding syringes in my hand!

Two of the four barn swallows didn’t make it. The runt came as no surprise; he died shortly after the last update. Honestly, his developmentally challenged sib’s death wasn’t much of a surprise, either.  He just wasn’t growing and filling out; his feathers weren’t coming in right; he was sluggish… He put up a good fight, and I really thought we’d turned the corner and he was gonna make it, albeit as a possibly nonreleasable bird, which would have presented logistical problems since barn swallows migrate to Central and South America for the winter. The other two gorgeous little darlings should be ready for the flight pen no later than the end of the week, temperatures allowing.  Barn swallows are such little sweethearts…

This adult grackle was found in someone’s carport, missing all but one tail feather. My assumption was probable cat attack, although the only sign of injury was the missing tail feathers. Still, cat saliva is toxic to birds, so I started him on antibiotics just in case. I think grackles, with their striking yellow eyes in that iridescent purple-black face, are gorgeous, even if they do sound somewhat like a strangled frog.  Unfortunately, this guy didn’t make it.

Adult cardinals are aggressive little snots, so when this bird came in with a mild concussion, I was happy to observe him overnight and release him. To be honest, when the call came in, I started wracking my brain to try and guess what I was picking up—the caller described the bird as “kinda blackish with a red head.” All I could come up with was a red headed woodpecker, so I was really halfway expecting a woodpecker…instead, it was this pretty fellow. The way I’m holding him is called the bander’s hold: it restrains the bird while not interfering with his breathing.

And speaking of mistaken identities, this call is too good not to share: the caller said she had a possum in her yard and wanted to know if I’d come trap it. I explained that I don’t do nuisance animal removal; I care for orphaned, injured and ill wildlife. And then, because I really do think possums are neat, I went into my whole spiel about how beneficial they are, eating snakes (they’re impervious to the venom of a rattlesnake), slugs, roaches and other nasty creepy-crawlies; their body temperature is too low to harbor most diseases, including rabies, etc., etc.

I’d not finished good before she asked, “But don’t they carry rabies?”

*sigh* I repeat that they don’t…Hang on; we’re getting to the good part now… “Exactly what does a possum look like? Do they have hair?”

I bite my tongue REAL hard and  explain that they have fur but not on their very long tails and that their faces are very long and narrow. “No, this one’s got hair.”

*sigh* “Okay, does he have a black mask on his face and a ringed tail?”

“Yeah,  that’s him!”

“Ma’am, that’s a raccoon…They do carry diseases they can pass to you and your pets, including rabies; you might want to call a nuisance animal trapper if taking up the cat food at night for a few weeks doesn’t work.”

“Well, I live in XXXX, who would I call?”

“I have no clue; I don’t live in XXXX…Try the phone book to see who’s listed…”

Honestly, people, I *cannot* make up stuff this good…

Many of my recent releases are still coming down for supplemental feedings; the blue jay cracked me up this afternoon, swooping down and begging for food…with a HUGE grasshopper in his beak! He gulped it down and hunched his shoulders to flutter his wings like a baby for food from me. All the literature says blue jays are slow to independence…that’s just a polite way of saying they’re shameless but irresistible  beggars! Here are a few shots of some of my moochers.

Great crested flycatcher

Red bellied woodpecker

L-R, great crested flycatcher, blue jay, mocker, brown thrasher

This gorgeous juvenile female red tailed hawk was found in the middle of a park road. The finder had been watching the nestlings jump-flapping for several days, and apparently she jumped when she should have flapped or vice versa. At any rate, when he saw a crowd of people, he went over to investigate and found them standing around staring at her. He took his jacket and scooped her up, taking her to safety before calling me. She was severely dehydrated and shell-shocked the first night, unable to stand.

The next day she was slightly more alert and eating on her own, but still weak.

The third day she stood, and the fourth day I have no shots of, as while I was getting her ready for transfer she clambered out of her box and let me know she was feeling much better, thanks! Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends raptor rehab has her now, and thanks once again to volunteers Laurie Jackson and Amy Rogers for “ponying” this girl to him.

And finally, this is apparently shaping up to be the year of the hummer. I briefly added a third hummer to the mix; unfortunately, he didn’t make it through his first 24 hours. He was found near a business, so we’re guessing he whacked the plate-glass window hard enough to cause internal injuries.

Hummer 1, with the broken wing, is scooting along nicely but we’ll probably have to make a call on him soon; he keeps grabbing that dangling wing in repeated attempts to use it as a perch, and he’s got the leading edge of it irritated. This is going to be an ongoing issue for him, and it will soon enough  become a quality of life issue. I’m giving him as long as possible, though.

Hummer 2, the little pre-fledgling, fledged for me this week and is thoroughly charming me as she flutters down to demand her syringe feeding. She flies like a pro now but until she can eat from a feeder on her own, she’s not releasable. We’re working on that, but in the meantime, I cannot seem to stop taking pictures of her, so…enjoy all these shots of this gorgeous little girl!