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Incoming, outgoing, and failure to launch

5/24/2015

9 Comments

 
It was a somewhat slower week, with fewer intakes than releases and lots of stubborn release-ready babies who refuse to leave the LWR B&B.

Loons are only in Georgia during the migrations to and from their breeding grounds in Parts North, but hardly a year passes that we don’t see one or more grounded loons at LWR.

Because of their body design—breast-heavy, with legs located at the extreme rear of the body—loons are effectively helpless on land. Unfortunately, they are well-known for landing on wet pavement and such, thinking it’s water, and then, because they need a long water “runway” to take off, they’re grounded and people who find them assume their legs and/or wings are broken.

That was the case for this gorgeous loon, who was also thoroughly traumatized by the time he reached LWR: his rescuers placed him in an open box in the sun on their driveway, and the person who transported him simply dumped him unrestrained in the back of an open truck bed and drove 50 miles with the poor bird literally flapping in the breeze.
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For the record, folks, wildlife—no matter the species—needs to be RESTRAINED/CONFINED in a box INSIDE your vehicle for transport to any rehabber. You’d think this was simple common sense, but apparently it’s not. So now you know.

The vulture who came in last week with the arrow through his wing and body was released and promptly disappeared; below are some shots of him while he was still in the flight. He hauled butt too fast for any release shots. Somebody was apparently not too pleased with his accommodations at LWR. Guess he won’t be leaving us any 5-star reviews…
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The brancher GHO with the eye injury is back in the raptor flight, after being brought back inside because he refused to eat in the flight. He would eat in a box inside but not on a perch outside. Go figure. We’ll see how he does this week…

The flying squirrel was finally deemed ready for a very soft release, meaning she could come and go as she pleased from her caging, until she decided not to come back at all. The photo below was taken shortly before her release.
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The green heron chick, unfortunately, didn’t survive.  Given his young age and 48 hours on what should have been a 12-24 hour emergency diet, I’m actually not surprised. He couldn’t manage solids at all and could barely keep a slurry of pulverized fish down, although for one day I really thought he might have a slim chance.
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The mockers, cat-attacked mourning dove from several weeks ago and killdeer are still in the flight pen, along with a house finch and a slew of Carolina wrens who refuse to leave. How many wrens? Not really sure. I leave the escape hatch open and the number drops temporarily, and then when I get ready to close the hatch I do a head count to see who soft-released themselves, and they’re mostly back in. Two have pretty firmly declared their independence; four are in and out.
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The pileated woodpecker is still mooching; he’s now known as “Lord God Bird”—as in, “Lord God, bird, are you even ATTEMPTING to feed yourself? Lord God, bird, do you just LURK in the trees and wait for me to go to the songbird flight?”
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In all seriousness, he’s taking less and less with each handout and screaming into the yard from farther and farther away, so he IS fending for himself quite well!

This darling little Eastern phoebe was rescued from the imminent clutches of several of NINE outdoor cats; luckily the rescuer saw the neighbor’s cats after her and got to her first. Phoebes are in the flycatcher family, as that flat beak would suggest, and I’ve yet to have a flycatcher of any species who wasn’t an absolute sweetheart. 
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When the caller Saturday morning said he had a fully feathered baby bird with short tail feathers on the ground and he could hear the parents fussing above him, I explained it was a fledgling who was out of the nest but still not flying well and still dependent on the parents for food. I suggested the fledgling be left alone, but the caller insisted that the bird was in danger from the neighborhood’s free-roaming dogs and cats.

When the person met me with the bird, he had lugged along three of his own small dogs, whose yapping I’m sure was all sorts of upsetting to the poor bird, who had been unceremoniously crammed into a dog carrier full of dog-hair-covered blankets. No, birds don’t have a well-developed sense of smell, but those blankets probably had dog saliva as well as hair on them, in addition to chemical residue from whatever flea treatment the person had the little ankle-biters on.

Another what-should-be-common-sense helpful hint: NO PET CRATES to transport wildlife unless they’ve never been used for household pets/stray domestic animals. A cardboard box that has never held chemicals (in other words, don’t place a bird in a box that formerly held cans of bug spray, for example) will suffice nicely. Moving boxes are cheap, come in a variety of sizes, and are available pretty much everywhere. I recommend everybody keep several sizes on hand at home and one or two in their vehicle trunks. You never know when they might come in handy!
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Of course, when possible, it’s good to mix compatible birds in a rehab setting, to mimic the interactions they’re likely to have with various species in the wild. In other words, as I like to say, wildlife rehab makes for strange bedfellows.

The phoebe and jay were placed together, as I’ve had great success housing smaller birds with young jays in the past, and within 10 minutes, they were nestled cozily together…
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Both these darlings will be ready for the songbird flight by mid-week or so; at the current non-self-release rate of the birds already in the flight, we may have to “encourage” some of the totally self-feeding rascals to fly the coop after the early-week rain threat is over. It would appear the LWR songbird flight is a “real hap’nin’ place”…Perhaps we should invest in a red velvet rope at the door, and hire a bouncer…
9 Comments
dmortii
5/24/2015 08:26:52 am

Busy week. Amazing what you do🐣

Reply
Laurens Wildlife Rescue
5/24/2015 09:31:51 am

Thanks dm!

Reply
Anne Golden
5/24/2015 12:15:13 pm

I love the little phoebe and jay together. But so sorry about the green heron. They're lovely birds. Funny little Lord God bird!

Reply
Laurens Wildlife Rescue
5/24/2015 12:23:52 pm

Aren't the phoebe and jay the cutest little odd couple, though, Anne?! I hate losing the heron but suspected that would be the case when he came weak and lethargic...Yeah, that pileated is about as rotten as they come!

Reply
Pipette
5/24/2015 02:14:29 pm

I suggest you use lower thread-count sheets in your B&B and maybe some of these critters will move along sooner, LOL!

Serious question, though, that I've wondered about for awhile: How do you clean bird poop off the perches, etc. in the flight pens? (Or don't you have to bother doing it?) Genuinely curious!

Reply
Laurens Wildlife Rescue
5/24/2015 02:37:50 pm

Hey Pipette, that might help--or lower the quality and quantity of the buffet!

During the season, I pretty much let whatever rain we have wash off as much poop as possible; once baby season ends I hose down the entire flight with a mild, bird-safe soap like Dawn or, if it's really nasty and goopy, a cleaner designed specifically for bird cages called Poop-Off. Gotta love the name!

Reply
Pipette
5/24/2015 04:08:04 pm

"Poop-Off" - now THAT is a brilliant name! Truth in advertising, and so much more, LOL.

Ann Feldman
5/24/2015 04:54:46 pm

Who would want to leave? (Except maybe the vulture). The squirrel is trying out for the Metropolitan Opera? I had a dustup with a moron in the park, whose 12-ish daughter was trying to grab an "injured" Robin. It was a fledgling and I told the surrounding group that he should be left alone, and that the folks with the two little dogs should move them away. The jerk/father gave me an argument, about letting his daughter "play" with the bird. I told him it was a felony to interfere with any bird except for House Sparrows, Pigeons or Starlings. (?) I don't know how you deal with this on a daily basis. The wrens are beyond adorable.

Reply
Laurens Wildlife Rescue
5/24/2015 05:08:00 pm

Hey Ann, given the vulture's previous interaction with humans (the arrow through its body), you can't really blame him for wanting to skedaddle ASAP.

LOL, the flyer does look rather operatic, doesn't she?

You did the right thing in confronting the morons and preventing needless stress for the robin--well done! It is indeed a violation of federal law to interfere with any bird protected under the MBTA--which is, as you stated, any bird other than pigeons, house sparrows and starlings. Felony or misdemeanor would depend on the nature of the interference and the court the offender appeared in, honestly.

I deal with this sort of nonsense on a daily basis by being snarky about it with my friends and family and by cutting the offenders no slack.

Carolina wrens are utterly adorable; you're right. They're stressy little things but so, so sweet!

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