Mixed bag

Last week was the usual mixture of good and bad outcomes; seldom does a rehabber have a week where all the outcomes are good. It can happen, just not often.

Let’s start with the red phase screech who, after comparing size to the little gray phase, is certainly female—it’s often hard to tell with screeches because they’re so tiny anyway, but having a male and female side by side usually clearly shows a size discrepancy. So...now we know she’s female!

And her news from the vet is promising. Although it had been less than a month since she’d come in with the radius and ulna of her right wing broken, I wanted x-rays again to see how the healing process was going. If the calluses that were forming were fusing together, we’d need to start making plans to place her as an ed bird, as she’d be incapable of flight.

The x-rays showed clear and SEPARATE calluses forming! Vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital and I were beyond pleased at what we saw on the screen. If this progress continues, this lady should be releasable—which would be excellent because she’s probably the fiercest little screech I’ve ever seen. I’m tellin’ ya, if she was as big as she thinks she is, I’d be dead several times over by now! Her genes need to be out there in the screech gene pool, that’s for sure.

Intake x-ray

X-ray 3-29-22

The news wasn’t as good for the gray phase male screech; before his vet visit he’d managed to pluck out all his primaries on his injured left wing, as well as rip off the scabbed flap of skin they were attached to, revealing a traumatic amputation in the wild at his wrist. We went ahead and got x-rays for our records, but there was actually no need, as it was clear from a physical exam that the bird’s “hand” was gone.

Federal law allows for wing amputations at the wrist, so legally we were covered, but of course, he’d be nonreleasable, so I contacted DNR to see whether I could apply to keep him as a foster or if he needed to be placed as an ed bird. I was given latitude to use my best judgment and, although I had potential placement as an ed bird, that person and I decided he might be best as a foster due to his high stress level. He tended to keel over like a fainting goat whenever I peeked into his box to make sure he’d eaten the previous night’s food or took him out for his meds to prevent infection in that stump.

Sadly, his stress levels were through the roof and he continued to feather pluck and keel over; there were several times I thought he was dead, and by mid-week he was. The stress of captivity and constant handling for medication was just more than his already overloaded system could handle. I’ve never had a screech react so negatively—and ultimately fatally—to captivity or medication, poor baby.

In happier news, the great horned is ready for the main raptor flight this week. We have another week of mixed rain and sun predicted, so how quickly she’s moved will depend on the weather. I love those little feather tufts that will comprise her “horns” when they’re fully grown in!

The two photos above and the two below were taken 5 days apart. Look at the feather growth in 5 days!

And late last week the Sheriff’s Office in a neighboring county called with an adult male barred owl that had flown into a driver’s open window, ending up seated next to them in the front seat. A deputy brought him to me and, after an exam and 24 hours’ observation to make sure there was no head trauma, he was released.

I love a good release!