More o’the same

It was another slowish week, with just one intake, a first-year red tail.

The red tail was found in a neighboring county and taken to a falconer there, who called LWR to make sure we had room and were taking birds, since many facilities still aren’t due to HPAI, the avian flu.

This fellow has an old almost-open fracture under his left wing. It’s healed already aside from some outer scabbing, but I still wanted x-rays to see just how bad the break had been and how “wrongly” it had healed. Unfortunately, my car has been in the shop for repair, so his vet visit will come next week after I get the car back. The flip side of that is that it’s fortunate that it’s an old injury and didn’t require immediate vet attention.

The Coop’s flight hasn’t improved at all, so it looks as if we’ll need to make a decision on his fate this week. As harsh as it may sound, from a purely pragmatic point of view, he’s consuming resources needed for other birds; from a humane viewpoint, he’s not likely to ever be happy as an ed bird. Coops are psychotic and despite this fellow’s laid-back (for a Coop) personality, it would likely be a struggle to glove-train him and the stress of public programs on a high-strung bird would likely kill him.

The screech continues to bide his time till spring, when he can be released. His appetite is good; his flight is good—he just needs to remain at LWR for another couple of months so when he’s released he’s not struggling to find shelter in cold and inclement weather.