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Minor miracles, humane ends and business as usual

9/20/2015

6 Comments

 
Let’s lead with some good news for a change: the red shoulder whose future was highly questionable in last week’s update started eating again, and with great gusto! Better still, she’s standing evenly on both feet and jumping up to snatch her food with a foot! Next step is to try her out in the songbird flight—not ideal, but she can’t go in the raptor flight with the screeches. If all goes well, she’ll be released sometime this week. (And yes, that’s a mouse tail sticking out of her beak in the photo below.)
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The hummers are still buzzing about but neither looks likely to make migration at this rate. To be honest, the female’s wing is more than likely gonna preclude sustained flight, period, and the male still simply cannot attain any real lift. In other words, neither appears to be releasable, but I’m going to give them a bit longer, just in case.

They were less cooperative on the photo front this week—I only take photos when I’m about to change their paper, so pardon the messy paper under them…Birds poop, and even tiny birds like hummers can make quite a mess!
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This purple finch had an advanced case of mycoplasmic conjunctivitis, aka mycoplasma or “finch eye”—so called because it’s very common in finches. Unfortunately, it’s also highly contagious to other birds. If you see finches in particular flying uncertainly and unusually low to the ground, or if they’re on the ground and make little or no effort to escape when you approach, look for finch eye. (They could also just be injured, so don’t rule out that possibility—but finch eye is something to always look for.)

While finch eye can be treated, the high incidence of recurrence and the disease’s high rate of contagion lead many rehabbers, me among them, to euthanize infected intakes. Better to put down that one bird than end up with dozens of infected birds.

The finch was brought to me while I was at Smalley’s Animal Hospital, where vet Peggy Hobby agreed with my assessment and euthanized the poor fellow for me.
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The screeches continue to be delightfully screechy. Of all the nocturnal raptors, screeches are probably my favorite, which I’m sure isn’t the least bit obvious…

We’re gonna attempt a live prey test this week, and if they can catch their own food, they’re good to go.
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And we had a surprise visitor at LWR this week: a first-year Cooper’s hawk, female by the size of her feet. She lurked about the yard for several days but never caught anything that I could see—and usually when a hawk nabs a bird, there will be an explosion of feathers left behind. Because I knew the bird was likely starving to be hanging around and making little attempt to hide, I attempted to net her so I could confine her for a week or so, get some weight on her and make sure she could hunt properly. Of course, since she could fly, this was a no-go. I then placed some small mice out where she could see them, but they didn’t appeal to her. No sign of her in two days, so I’m hoping she’s okay.

This is the time of year we see so many first-year birds who come in starving to death. Their parents have cut off the gravy train; their hunting skills aren’t sufficiently developed; they keep getting driven out of territories already claimed by older birds...I can’t help wishing this bird had eaten the offered mice or that I’d been able to capture her and ensure she had sufficient hunting skills before placing her back in the wild.

And yes, I’m aware we can’t save ‘em all and that nature is cruelly efficient in weeding out those raptors lacking survival skills. But I also know that sometimes all a young raptor needs is a few extra days or weeks of help to ensure they have the skills to survive. And when a young raptor shows up in my yard and I suspect it needs help, because I have the skill, permits and means to assist it, I’ll do whatever I can for that bird. In the case of most of my readers who lack the training, supplies and required permits, if you suspect a raptor needs assistance, don’t hesitate to call your local rehabber ASAP. Sometimes even one day can mean the difference between life and death for that bird.
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6 Comments
Anne Golden
9/20/2015 03:46:04 pm

Yes, that Cooper's looks quite thin. Why do the two screeches look so different from each other?

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Laurens Wildlife Rescue
9/20/2015 05:36:02 pm

Hey Anne, Coops are by nature streamlined, but this gal definitely looked a bit skinny, yep.

The screeches look different because the male is a gray-phase (yes, I know he's brown but they call it gray-phase--go figure) who came in as a juvie and has never decided to trust me. He barely tolerates my presence, hence the long, skinny body posture and the "stink-eye" glare. The female is a red-phase (in her case, deep chestnut but can be purely orange) who came in as an eyes-closed hatchling and therefore trusts me because I've raised her. Her body posture is more relaxed and her eyes stay wide because she accepts that I'm helping her.

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Ann Feldman
9/20/2015 06:21:15 pm

Yaaay for the raptors and RIP for the poor little finch. You hit a nerve with the "starving" comment. This morning I saw a juvie RT, likely one of the 3 from Brooklyn Botanic, circling madly around Grand Army Plaza near Prospect Park, chasing pigeons. He's hunting but his technique stinks. He doesn't yet realize that he needs to sit still and wait till they are on the ground feeding...not try to catch them on the fly. My neighbor reports he has seen 3 RTs hanging out on our building, so lets hope it's the two parents and this kid, and maybe they can teach him a few tricks before Fall sets in.

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Laurens Wildlife Rescue
9/20/2015 06:38:00 pm

I know, Ann, it's always hard to watch them struggling or even starving, especially in my case because I can do something about it if I can just get my hands on 'em...We'll keep our fingers crossed for your juvie RT and my juvie Coop.

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Leslie
9/21/2015 09:28:16 pm

I have this exact scenario happening in my back yard right now too. Three juvie Coops...all madly hunting my songbirds. Two of the three seem to be pretty good at it much to my dismay and delight. I've tossed thawed mice onto the roof of my storage building (which has a black roof) in the hopes of helping them make it. Winter is a tough time for even the best of hunters...and winter is right around the corner.

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Laurens Wildlife Rescue
9/21/2015 10:00:27 pm

This poor gal never managed to catch anything that I could tell, but she was fixated on the Japanese quail in my old flight pen--gave that loudmouth a complex; he's not uttered a sound in a week now! I also did the mice routine with this juvie Coop but she was havin' none of it, so...Haven't seen her in several days now. I just hope nothing happened to her. I know I have some GHOs in the branch across the road...

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