LWR’s “collection” is complete

That’s a “collection” of owl species known to breed in Georgia: barred, screech, great horned, and barn. According to DNR other species—long-eared, short-eared, burrowing and saw-whet— have been documented in the state but no known nests have been located.

Last week the final owl for LWR’s “collection” came in, a brancher barnie. The finder knew where the nest was but couldn’t reach it, as it was app. 75 feet up in a tree, where she said they’d nested on her property for years. As long as this young one is fed and left alone, it’s fine. Spend too much time admiring its beauty, however, and it begins classic barnie hissing—a warning best to be heeded if one doesn’t want the full-blown, eardrum-shattering barnie scream to follow. And rest assured, we WILL get that screaming this week when he’s moved into a new box…

The eagle continues to do well and is perching higher now, so that’s good news. His follow-up x-rays at Smalley’s were clear, and he has no abnormal parasite loads. He has two new perches arranged at opposite ends of the main flight, and the plan is to encourage him to fly from one to the other for limited flight conditioning. Thus far DNR and FWS seem pleased with his progress—they get weekly updates.

The nestling red tail slightly more than tripled her body weight in her first 14 days at LWR: from 350g on intake May 10 to 1060g on May 24. She’s feathering out nicely and is figuring out what those gunboats she calls feet are for, which is hysterical to watch. She outgrew her small mirror and yet another box and has larger digs and a new, larger mirror. Currently her wings are only good for maintaining balance as she clomps around her box, but it won’t be long before she figures out what they’re for, too!

The great horned still needs to be outside but is on hold till the eagle is sorted.

If the barred twins continue to progress at their current rate, however, they might be releasable soon, and then he can at least go in the mini-pen.

The screeches continue to be melodramatic. The barbed wire screech is still reluctant to use his wing for anything aside from the classic Dracula move, seen below.

The screech awaiting FWS approval for transfer to Blue Ridge Raptors now prefers to glare and beak-click.

Two additional intakes last week didn’t survive. A nestling barred owl was left on the ground for three days before the finders called a neighbor, who retrieved the bird and brought it to LWR. The poor baby was emaciated, dehydrated and suffering from flystrike—when flies lay eggs on living creatures, eggs that hatch into maggots that begin to feed on the live animal. The rescuing neighbor had tried to clean a few off, but when the poor baby arrived at LWR, the eggs and maggots were covering the chest and belly, wings—well, basically everywhere. The little one noticeably weakened as I was cleaning the eggs and maggots off and was reluctant to eat. It died within an hour of intake.

The second intake that didn’t make it was an adult great horned, found at the entrance to a subdivision. Both wings had open fractures, so the suffering bird was humanely euthanized. The photos of his injuries were taken after euthanasia, as ending his suffering was the priority on intake.