No July 4 blog didn’t mean no work!

It was a fairly quiet but not necessarily great two weeks—what, you thought no July 4 update meant LWR took a break? We don’t get breaks, except occasionally from posting blog updates!

Let’s start with the upbeat, shall we? After TS Elsa moved through the Laurens County area, DNR delivered this adorable pre-brancher Mississippi kite, aka MIKI (the standard abbreviation, which also makes a great nickname for the species), found in a parking lot near a small pecan grove. He was hungry, stressed and vocal on arrival but is well-fed, calm and mostly quiet now.

The crow and blue jay were released and quickly merged into the wild populations of both species that are abundant around LWR.

The screeches are ready to go in the mini-pen as soon as the vultures are released, which should be early this week—between Elsa’s wind and some rain and a week of normal seasonal thunderstorms, their release has been delayed. They’ll most likely hang around for a few months, if past experience is any indicator.

And the screeches...well...they’re screeches. Below you can see their melodramatic reactions to having their boxes cleaned and freshened.

But of course, it’s never all happy news in wildlife rehab...

This gorgeous male indigo bunting was a cat-attack victim. He came in beak-breathing and rigid already and died within minutes of intake. Say it with me, boys and girls: KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS.

When a Middle Georgia landfill called and said they had a red tail with a broken wing, I figured it was probably a mild fracture—something we could work with. When they delivered the bird, however, his right wing from the wrist down was lying beside him in the box. He’d hit a power line and it amputated the “hand” and cauterized the wound at the same time.

Federal law allows for wing amputation at the wrist, and he was a well-fleshed first-year bird who willingly ate a mouse for me (because I can’t stand the thought of a bird dying hungry), so I began mulling over the complicated process of applying for an education permit as I continued his exam. BUT...he also wasn’t standing. Could have been stress or trauma, but when I picked him up, it was immediately obvious his right hip was shattered, too, and there was no neural response in the fight leg or foot. That couldn’t be fixed. So although it hurt like hell to do it, I euthanized him.

The very next day, a mature red tail with an open wing fracture came in and also required euthanasia, as did as a pre-fledgling mourning dove whose wing was broken right in the wrist joint after a fall  from the nest during a storm.

And let me tell you right now that anyone who says euthanasia gets easier over the years is a bald-faced liar or has no heart. If anything, it gets harder. But all too often, a release from suffering is the only release we can offer these birds...