Intakes, construction and a rant

Last week was quite busy at LWR, with an influx of songbirds, only one new raptor, and a building project begun.

The “star” of the week was an adorable Mississippi kite, aka MIKI (abbreviation used by ornithologists), who was taken away from a dog. The rescuer had no idea where the nest was located, so wee MIKI will now grow up at LWR. It’s MIKI nesting time, so others will be likely arriving over the rest of the month. In the meantime, ya gotta admit, there’s very little cuter than a baby raptor!

A mockingbird fledgling was also dumped at LWR after the finder kept it for 4 days and decided feeding a baby bird was too much trouble. At least they had the common sense to feed it insects and not give it water… No photos; I just realized I didn’t take any of the mocker, and the lights are off on the babies for the night.
​
A dog-attacked robin fledgling arrived breathing heavily, with a badly mauled wing, a ruptured air sac, blood on his belly and a watery, swollen eye. He didn’t survive the night.

​A juvenile male cardinal who likely struck a window looks to have a coracoid fracture; his wing droops slightly at the shoulder, which is typical of such a fracture. He’s too active for a still photo; here’s a short video.

​Friday afternoon four nestling Carolina wrens were found in a car about to be crushed. A last-minute check by an employee for anything that needed to be removed prior to crushing the car resulted in these babies being brought  to LWR Saturday morning. So far, so good, although the runt may be iffy. We’ll see…

And when her neighbor’s lawn care service blew down a nest of baby birds and planned to leave them to die, a young woman in the metro Atlanta area scooped them up, called all the listed rehabbers for the metro area, and ended up bringing the poor babies some 150 miles one way to LWR Saturday. They appear to be barn swallows, although again, the runt is struggling.

​Rounding out Saturday, a fledgling blue jay was rescued from an imminent dog attack and is now at LWR.  

​Rain chances of over 50% most of last week nixed the planned screech release, so that’s now slated for this week, as rain chances are in the more acceptable 10-20% range. They’re both antsy, so the sooner we can release, the better.

​That will free up the raptor flight for the red shoulder trio, and the red tails will go in LWR’s newest structure, a mini-flight that will serve as a holding pen of sorts for birds who need more room to stretch their wings when the raptor flight is full. Volunteer AJ Rogers realized this was a need for LWR and drew up the plans, purchased the materials and did the bulk of the work on this 4x8 foot mini-flight. I assisted where I could, but the bulk of the work on this is AJ’s. We should finish it up tomorrow, or that’s the plan at the moment, anyway.

The Cooper’s hawk dropped dead. I mean, literally. Coops are prone to—I dunno how to describe it—apoplectic seizures or something when stressed, and after this poor gal slid down a tree on her release attempt the previous week, she was majorly stressed. She literally keeled over face-first, feet still clutching the perch.

The wood ducks are growing steadily; the older is getting some nice color on his wings—and the color does make me think he’s really a male. I meant to video them swimming every day last week and got sidetracked every day, so…next week!
​
The juvie black vultures are still bringing friends into the yard; this week started with a youngish turkey vulture and ended with an adult black vulture. Of course, they also had to supervise the mini-flight construction and assist with water for the wood ducks, who will soon be too big for their little swimming tub that makes capturing them to remove them from the water so much easier…

And finally, the promised—or threatened, take yer pick—rant, beginning with the reason for it…

Today a call came in from a neighboring county. Some person had an egret—they thought. They’d had it since Friday and had taken it to their vet, who’d given it an antibiotic injection and then broke the law by returning it to the individual (vets in GA are allowed to treat wildlife but are supposed to confiscate it if brought in by the public, and call a rehabber to take it). Said individual had been feeding the poor bird tilapia and SARDINES. The tilapia’s fine; the sardines will end up killing the bird from the sheer salt content. I explained all this to the individual, who then asked, “Are you qualified to treat birds?”

I paused a looong moment while I bit my tongue, since the person had apparently not listened to my voicemail message—in which just about every other word is ‘birds’—despite leaving me a message. Then I replied, “I have state and federal permits for bird rehab.”

I don’t have the egret as of tonight and will be reporting this person tomorrow, giving them the benefit of the doubt until then. But I don’t expect to see the bird.
​
Meanwhile, this is what I wanted SO badly to tell this person but didn’t because I knew they’d hang up mid-rant:
​
Here are my qualifications for “treating” birds:

• I have state and federal songbird and raptor rehab permits.
• I have 20 years of hands-on experience, 15 of it under my own permits.
• I had to pass a state exam and serve apprenticeships with licensed songbird and raptor rehabbers in order to meet the federal requirements for a permit.
• My facilities are regularly inspected by GA DNR. Both DNR game wardens and FWS agents have the legal right to inspect my premises at any reasonable hour, with no advance notice, and because I have nothing to hide, representatives of both agencies know they’re welcome at any time.
• I have the trust and respect of the game wardens and FWS agents throughout the state that I’ve had dealings with.
• I have vets with wildlife training and experience who volunteer their services to ensure the wildlife under my care receives the very best care possible.
• I have a worldwide network of colleagues I can call upon for advice, assistance or just to vent.
• I continue yearly to add to my knowledge of best practices, through study, rehabber groups, etc., so that the services I provide to the wildlife under my care reflect the current best practices in the field.

 
And you, caller who feeds sardines to a wild bird—what are YOUR qualifications to even breathe the same air as my precious birds?