LWR has a new website address!

Domain name registries and site hosting companies don’t always play well together, so when this website was first created, I’d purchased the domain name I wanted from a different registry that wouldn’t let me transfer to my web host. So…long story short, I had to stick that pesky “inc” at the end of the address to get on with building the site. NOW, however, the original domain name I wanted is free for THIS hosting company/registry partnership to snag, so…the new address is www.laurenswildliferescue.org . Please change all your bookmarks and alert anyone you’ve shared the old address with.

Now, on to the critters. Let’s lead with a release. The Mississippi kite with undetermined issues resolved said issues with a little TLC from LWR. Okay, actually, all I did was provide a safe haven and a nutritious diet while he did all the hard work. Anyway, he’s free, free as a bird! (Sorry, couldn’t resist…)

The cardinal with the eye issues also developed neurological issues and required euthanasia. The sneeze-calling little possum failed to thrive and I was on my way to have her euthanized when she died. Despite our best efforts, the snapping turtle didn’t make it, either. The shell wasn’t cracked too badly for repair, so the lawn mower might have ruptured internal organs. It’s so hard to tell what’s going on internally with a turtle…And rounding out the death list from last week’s critters, the runt Carolina wren put up a good fight but just wasn’t strong enough to survive.

The finches, on the other hand, grew like little feathered weeds.

May 3, 2013

May 5, 2013

Three of the four are in the flight pen.

The fourth, the runt, is behind developmentally but is making progress and should join his sibs soon.

The surviving Carolina wren should be in the flight pen but refuses to accept this, so he’s inside with the runt finch.

The mocker is reluctant to leave the flight pen, so he’s being pestered to death by those chatty little finches. The mourning dove still shows no signs of flight ability, so his time is growing short.

The three possums are growing at an insane rate and might even be releasable in another couple of weeks if they keep up this growth pace. Still camera-shy, though…

This hummingbird was found on the pavement in a neighboring town. The person who called about the bird was at work and did the best he could to provide food for the hummer until he could get her to me, but hummers don’t grasp the concept of taking sugar water from a paper cup. By the time I got her, she’d started shutting down and was refusing to even attempt to eat on her own. I thought I had her stabilized by lights-out, but when I removed the cover from her pen the next morning, she had died. (Any sustained light at night, like a night-light or appliance lights, will cause a hummer to wake up and starve to death during the night, hence the need to cover their pens.)

While I see quite a few wood ducks, I’ve never had a mallard in rehab. Weird, I know, but true. Until this week, that is. A caller from a nearby town called to say he’d rescued a juvenile male mallard that was being chased by two Canada geese on a major thoroughfare in the town. His wing appeared to be broken.

The next morning, I took him to Smalley’s Animal Hospital, where vet Jim Hobby confirmed, after x-rays, that the wing was broken right in the wrist joint. This is not a fixable break and in most other birds would require euthanasia. However, this mallard actually appears to have been a commercial bird (state and federal laws permit raising mallards commercially), raised in close contact with people, as he has very little fear of humans, so he’ll  thrive on a well-monitored pond. We’re giving him time for the break to stabilize, and then he’ll go to a safe pond to live the life of Riley as a free bird with a lifetime food subsidy.

One of the primary things I wish well-meaning but untrained people would get through their skulls is NOT to feed orphaned babies ANYTHING until they contact a rehabber. Yes, in the case of baby birds, frequent feedings are a necessity, hence the need to contact a licensed avian rehabber ASAP. This hatchling mockingbird was found beside its dead sibling with no nest in site. The finder called LWR almost immediately but had already given the hatchling water. Baby birds and water don’t mix; there’s too much risk of aspiration. I was hopeful that maybe we’d avoided that but started antibiotics, to be safe. He did well his first day, gaping like a pro. His second morning, however, he was lethargic and had a distinctly gray tint—never a good sign in baby birds. Since I had to make a vet visit with another critter, I decided this little one would need euthanasia while there. He checked out on his own before the menagerie ever made it to the exam room.

Grackles aren’t especially attractive birds, aside from those striking yellow eyes. And they have lousy temperaments. Still, for some reason, I really like the ill-tempered cusses. This grackle was found in someone’s back yard with a broken leg. While he hasn’t been x-rayed yet, the break is right in the knee and will not be fixable. I’ve seen too many of these types of fractures before and know what they look and feel like. Because this week witnessed a spate of euthanasias by my vets, I’m giving them a break before taking this bird in.

I really, really like chuck-will’s-widows, nocturnal insectivores with tiny beaks that open to great, gaping maws to scoop insects from the air  while in flight. They’re shy but not at all hesitant to put on a big show of aggression when they feel threatened. This poor bird’s left wing was pretty much  sheared off; it was hanging on by a tendon or two. He still managed to remain  alert and put up a brave front, but there was nothing we could do for him. In the video clips below, vet Jim Hobby examines the chuck-will’s-widow.

Finally, what is my cardinal rule with fledglings? Repeat after  me: Don’t kidnap fledglings; unless
their lives are in imminent danger, let their parents finish raising them!
 
Why do I mention that rule? Well, aside from the obvious—that it  bears repeating ad infinitum, ad nauseum this time of year—because there are  times I make a judgment call and break that rule myself.

 Most of you know I have Eastern bluebird nesting boxes on my  property. I monitor these boxes obsessively. I know when nests are started,  when each egg is laid, when they hatch, and when the babies fledge. 

Yesterday we had four nestlings become four fledglings. Near dark  the parent bluebirds were raising a worse than usual post-fledging ruckus, so of  course I investigated. Near my flight pen, clinging to a blade of grass, was a gorgeous little fledgling. I had just killed a 3-foot rat snake outside my  flight pen and an app. 18 inch one in the flight pen (you can’t snake-proof a  flight pen, no matter how hard you try, unless you can hire someone to monitor  it 24/7). We have barred owls, GHOs, bobcats, foxes, coyotes and Lord knows what  other nocturnal predators.

I first moved the fledgling to a safer location, within sight of his frantic parents. He promptly flitted right back down to ground level. Hell would freeze over before I was leaving a defenseless fledgling on the ground at night under the aforementioned circumstances.  Little Boy Blue spent the night safely inside. 

This morning while I was in the flight pen I heard his parents and sibs off in the distance, so I hoped I could reunite him with his family if they’d come back within earshot of my unwilling guest. I have on occasion (two
other times in the past 10 years or so) done this and in one instance I was able to reunite the fledgling, a red-bellied woodpecker, with his parents. So far, however, this gorgeous little man’s family hasn’t been back close enough for me to put him back out to call for them. I hear them faintly, way off in the distance, but I don’t see them—and I won’t risk losing a bluebird to wandering dogs, hawks, or other diurnal predators, either. So…we’ll keep trying and see if we can stage a reunion. The woodpecker took three days before we managed to get
him back with his family, but what a reunion that was to witness! Hopefully we’ll be able to do the same for this little bluebird. Fingers crossed…