Mystery birds and a new fundraiser

As many of you know, for the past several years LWR has initiated an online fundraiser around this time of year. Well, yep, we’re doing it again this year. Our funds have dwindled and what we have remaining is earmarked for the flight pens that last winter’s weather kept us from getting constructed.  We aim at getting started on them late this fall, but if we have to dip into those funds to provide food for the remainder of this year’s guests, it will seriously hinder the construction of the new flights.  Your donations now will allow us to have sufficient foodstuffs for the remainder of this year without having to deplete the flight pen fund, so please help if you’re able—and if you can’t donate, share the FundRazr link with your friends who might be able to help!

The blue jay we’ve been struggling with for the past couple of weeks continues to have issues. While he’s adapted to the displaced back toe, likely the result of a nest injury, he now has swelling in both elbows and cannot fly. I’m beginning to suspect his issues are congenital and that there’s nothing we can do. He’s a happy little goofball at the moment, though, and he’s also providing companionship for a fledgling blue jay who arrived last week.

This little guy, who has the chubbiest cheeks I’ve ever seen on a blue jay, was in imminent danger of being a dog-attack victim. He’s not thrilled with his new digs but will soon be in the flight pen, where we hope he’ll be much happier as he learns to fly and find his own food.

The barred owl with the bruised and swollen eye was released last week and was promptly dive-bombed by angry songbirds. All I could see was flashes of gray, but I think they were nuthatches. You can see the poor owl getting repeatedly strafed and whacked in the second video below; the first shows him soaring into the woods. The third is what I could hear as he moved deeper into the woods: angry songbirds everywhere he went!

LWR also received another young barnie. This one has an interesting and somewhat frustrating tale…A young man saw him hit by a truck; he called his local game warden and was told to put the owl in the woods and “let nature take its course.” The young man did so, and three days later the barnie was on his parents’ front porch on a wreath on the porch floor—very odd behavior for a barnie. At this point the mother called LWR and brought the barnie to me.

I initially thought he had a broken knee, as one knee felt slightly “off” compared to the other; however, x-rays showed no fractures. Oddly enough, however, this barnie never made a sound—and you know from last week’s videos of the barnie triplets just how loud these rascals usually are. He grabbed my thumb with his talons during his vet exam and barely drew blood. While vet Jim Hobby was palpating both the barnie’s legs, I let the owl gnaw on my hand—no blood drawn at all, just dimpled skin…

So…here’s my proposed scenario: the young man didn’t see the barnie HIT by a truck; he saw him THROWN from a truck. Some idiots had tried to raise a barnie and when the novelty wore off, they tossed the bird like he was trash. I’m still VERY unhappy with the game warden (NOT one of MY game wardens; this was out of their region) who callously told the boy to abandon the bird in the woods, but luckily, the barnie was, in fact, not injured and made his way back to the most familiar structure he saw—the original rescuer’s front porch. Truly wild barnies just don’t do that, people…

I’ve run this scenario by Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends, who agrees that this is very likely what happened.  And folks wonder why rehabbers cuss like drunken sailors and dislike people…

A huge thank you to the young man and his mother who cared enough to seek help for the bird, who will be headed to Bubba & Friends early this week to join the barnies Steve already has.

The screech owl continues to grow, and his attitude continues to outpace his physical size. Last night when I was changing his paper, he threw a tantrum at being handled. Of course, it was too cute not to capture for posterity…

And now, saving the most fun for last, LWR had not one but THREE mystery birds come in last week!

This guy was brought in by his rescuer’s cat…and you know the standard lecture on that: cats belong INDOORS! The skin above his cloaca (butthole) was torn, giving new, very literal meaning to the phrase “ripping him a new one.” He also has a coracoid fracture, which isn’t something that can be splinted but normally it heals with no loss of flight skills. At the moment, his right wing still droops a bit but he is attempting to use it, which is a good sign.

When he came in, I initially thought he was a cowbird fledgling. But the beak didn’t look quite right, and he had a yellowish tinge to the edges of his feathers…and his voice didn’t sound cowbirdish…hmmm…So I did a little digging and I think he may be either a scarlet or summer tanager fledgling. I’m leaning toward scarlet tanager, but we’ll have to wait and see.

When a logger found these two nestlings after cutting down a tree, he took them to his girlfriend, who called me. She said he swore he didn’t see a nest, and I suspect it was because—if I’m right on species—these birds are cavity nesters. 

One of the hatchlings had a pretty nasty bruise near his preen gland (the gland at the base of a bird’s body, just above the tail, that produces oils during preening that waterproof the feathers), but aside from that, I could find no injuries, so I thought it would just be a matter of feeding them and waiting for them to feather out so I could ID their species. Unfortunately, the little guy with the big bruise died during the night. Apparently there was more to the injury than the eye could detect.

The other little guy, aside from being rather shy, is doing well and has feathered out nicely. HOWever…not all young birds look like their adult counterparts. So…again, after some digging, I believe this little sweetheart’s a tufted titmouse.

If anyone wants to take a guess as to the species of either of these two birds, feel free—I won’t swear my tentative IDs are correct. In fact, let’s tie this in with the fundraiser—the first 5 people who donate at least $25 and correctly identify one of these birds will receive a full-color 8x10 of that bird!