Of birds and funds and things…

Let’s start with the unpleasant reality: wildlife rehab is expensive and people are all too willing to bring birds to LWR but seldom as willing to donate toward their care. Between wildlife rehab and editing, my days are too full to engage in traditional fundraisers, where you have a supper or a sale or some other sort of concrete activity. That’s why I choose online fundraising—I can manage it in the breaks between feeding birds and editing!

And speaking of fundraising, it’s going well; in one week, we’ve raised $839, but donations have slowed. The running total on FundRazr shows less than this, because some donations have come in outside FundRazr.  Early on, out-of-state donations were a clear leader, but Georgia residents met the challenge, and at this point, out-of-state donations only narrowly top in-state ones, so c’mon, Georgia folks! 

One of the blue jays was released last week; because he was a fledgling when he came in, he didn’t spare a backward glance as he left the flight pen.  I called it on the other jay—the one with swollen joints. Whatever congenital issues he had going on, they impaired his ability to fly and were beginning to negatively affect his quality of life.

More unpleasant reality: we lost the titmouse. He had some neurological issues, bless his sweet little heart, but I thought we had worked through most of them and he might have a chance at release. He’d even begun attempting to eat sunflower hearts on his own. However, late yesterday, he began to crash, and nothing I did pulled him back from the brink this time.

However…the cat-attacked tanager with the coracoid fracture is doing great! Her wing still droops noticeably but it’s not hindering her attempts at flight. Thus far, she’s doing what every fledgling first does: short flits and gliding to the ground or a low perch.

When LWR received a call about a nest of four baby birds, I guessed it was one of two species: Carolina wrens or house finches. When they arrived, complete with nest, I wasn’t surprised to discover that they were, in fact, Caros.

I don’t know their back story; the young woman who brought them said she found the nest on the ground. They’ve grown like little feathered weeds in just a few days! 

You may wonder why we remove birds from nests when they come in with their original nest. Simple: the nests often contain mites and other nasty creepy-crawlies we’d just as soon not have in our houses or on the birds. Also, it’s much easier to keep birds clean in a rehab setting using tissue-lined “nests”.

The screech owl continues to grow…and glower…He’s getting quite good at menacing glares and occasionally does a really good stink-eye. Haven’t caught that with the camera yet, though.

I knew the second I heard this guy, before even opening the box, that we had a mocker on our hands.

The family that brought him was a bit disappointed, I think, that I wouldn’t allow them to see “all the other birds” I currently had. Folks, by the terms of my state and federal permits, I cannot allow the public access to the birds slated for release. Rehabbers don’t run petting zoos; we go to great lengths to keep the wildlife under our care WILD. Otherwise, its chances of release and survival in the wild are nonexistent—and that would defeat the very purpose of what we do.

Robins are cheerful birds, the largest member of the thrush family (which also includes bluebirds). Since I adore thrushes as a whole, I’m always delighted to have a member of that family to work with. This guy hasn’t disappointed: he’s sweet, he has a virtually insatiable appetite, and he gets along well with his pen-mates. He was found on the ground near his dead siblings after a storm.

Who are his pen-mates?

The cat-attacked tanager, who adores bathing. I mean, adores it. Last thing last night, she was in the water, splashing away. First thing this morning—before even eating—she was back in the water!

And this adorable guy rounds out the trio. It’s a bit early for goldfinches, but looky what we have—a goldfinch! His finder did everything by-the-book perfect. She saw him on the ground, placed him in a margarine tub and tacked it to a nearby tree, and waited for a while. No parents. Then she called LWR, left a brief, to-the-point message, and got him to me within an hour of her call.

And currently this unlikely trio share an inside pen. They’re pretty close to flight pen-ready, but at the moment I’m somewhat disinclined to use the flight. I walked up on a four-foot long timber (canebrake) rattler two days ago—less than two feet from him, in fact—and he was only a yard or so away from my flight pen, so…yeah…I’m a little paranoid about the birds or me being in that vicinity right now. (My nephew dispatched the snake with his pistol; while I’m a firm believer in the power of my long-handled pruning shears, there are times when discretion is definitely the better part of valor!)

So these three may stay inside just a wee bit longer than necessary…

And finally, this week’s piece de resistance: an impossibly adorable heron chick! Currently opinions are equally split as to specific species: either a green heron or a yellow-crested night heron. I’m leaning toward yellow-crested night heron.

And his tale is almost an entire update of itself!

His finder also did all the right things: placed the bird in a box near the tree he thought the nest was in and waited. When several hours passed and ants began to move in, he took further action, calling a group of volunteer transporters who are trying to network statewide. It took the finder keeping the bird overnight, but a volunteer did step forward to get the chick to LWR. He was a hungry and very vocal little rascal upon pickup.

I’d planned to combine a food run for him with his pickup, so I ran just a few miles up the road to a newly-opened fish market, sure that they’d have culls and scraps that I could get—or plenty of fish to choose from, at the very least. Wrong! There were almost no fish on display, and the person running the place spoke very little English and I couldn’t get him to understand what I needed, even after I took him to the car and showed him the bird I needed the fish for.

Meanwhile, I have songbirds at home who are about to miss a feeding, because this should’ve been a quick bird pickup and run for food…

So…off to the local Kroger, where I make a mad dash between leisurely shoppers as I beeline to the Meat & Fish counter. Great! They had what I needed, but not enough…I asked the lovely lady running the counter, Teneshia,  if she had more in stock and quickly explained what I needed it for.

“Oh, the poor baby! You hang on; I’ll get you some more right now!”  As she started back, I hesitantly asked if I could also get a pair of food-handling gloves so I could feed him ASAP.  “Of course! Here ya go!” She handed me several pair of gloves.

In less than 5 minutes she had more fish prepared for me to feed the heron chick.  Kroger has a gem in Teneshia!

Pay for the fish, race out to the car, which I’d left locked and running (just doing my part to contribute to global warming…), open the back door, glove up, rip into a package of fish and begin tearing off chunks to feed this now-screaming heron chick.

It dawned on me later what a sight that must’ve been: sun’s broiling; car’s running; AC’s blasting; I’m standing at the driver-side back door, head in the car, butt in the air, tearing off bite-size chunks of raw fish while hungry screams emanate from inside the car…

But hey, within minutes, hungry screams became contented peeps. (And yes, as I hauled butt home to feed the now-screaming songbirds, I took time to call Kroger and sing Teneshia’s praises to the manager!)

And that brings us back full-circle to the funding issue: this adorable little heron eats. A lot. He’ll be at the LWR bed and breakfast for several months, eating even more as he grows. He’s a prime example of why we do these fundraisers. If you’ve been holding off for a more concrete, specific reason to donate, here’s your reason: to help keep this guy fed and healthy until he’s old enough for release!