October off to deadly start

In keeping, I suppose, with the Halloweenish focus of the month on death, blood and gore, LWR experienced a bit of each last week. It’s that time of year. Our intakes drop with the end of baby season, but much of what we do see will be injured, usually badly and all too often fatally.
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The male hummer died during the night last week, leaving what I’d assumed was a female on her own. However, as you can see in the last pic below, SHE actually looks to be a HE—see that little spot of red? It just became noticeable last week.

​And as I suspected, the barred owl’s injuries were indeed fatal. However, it wasn’t the wrist that was broken. The elbow was badly dislocated, with the bones almost breaking through the skin, and this caused the wrist bones to fall out of alignment, as well. 

​This great blue heron came in with a leg fracture, open but a clean break. He was alert and the wound was fresh and still bleeding, so I really thought we might have a chance at fixing this guy. Since he came in after hours for Smalley’s Animal Hospital, I made him comfortable for the night and planned to take him in the next morning to see what we could do. Unfortunately, he succumbed to either shock or internal injuries—or maybe both—during the night.

​The screeches are still awaiting a live prey test and the onset of decent weather. It’s been rainy here all week, and as for the live prey, no one sells live mice locally so I have to rely on what I catch in the “humane” traps (seems to be a misnomer in my case, as I use ‘em to live-prey test raptors!)…and so far, nothing…

Yeah, I probably overdid the screech pix this week, but they’re so damn cute…and after a bloody, deadly week, we all deserve a healthy dose of cute.
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Hopefully this week will be less deadly…and if the rehab gods see fit, this rehabber wouldn’t mind a flying squirrel or three—it’s that time of year for them, as well!