Oh Lordy, where to begin? Busy week!

There was a fair share of beauty and ugliness last week; let’s start with something utterly gorgeous, shall we?

I’ve seen photos of painted buntings and considered them stunning birds, but since I seldom even see a blue bunting in the wild, I figured photos were as close as I’d ever get. WRONG.
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Monday, when I took the brancher barred in for x-rays—and MUCH more on that in a sec—a lady who’d called earlier about a painted bunting that got hung somehow in her bird feeder brought it by Smalley’s so we could go ahead and, well, kill two birds with one stone, as it were, by x-raying both birds while I was there.

​His x-rays showed no fractures but he couldn’t gain altitude, usually a sign of a coracoid fracture which, as y’all know by now, doesn’t always show on x-rays.

​So this little work of art is spending a couple of weeks at the LWR B&B while we give him time to heal.

Now to the brancher barred…If y’all recall, he came in as ostensibly dog-attacked, and his wounds appeared consistent with a dog attack. So what we expected to see on x-rays was one or more wing fractures and definitely a femur or hip fracture. What we did NOT expect was to find him riddled with pellets.

Yeah. Some jackass shot a defenseless baby owl.

Let that sink in for a moment.
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A young owl, unable to even fly at this stage of his life, just venturing out of the nest onto nearby branches, only a threat to maybe frogs and lizards, and some fool shot him for their sick jollies.

Oh, y’all don’t wanna know the things I said. Obviously, this was reported to both DNR and FWS, and as I told them, there’s a special place in hell for the jackass who shot this poor baby, and I’d like to send him/her there myself. At the least, I hope they nail the cretin’s hide to the barn door, very publicly.

Due to the amount of lead in his young body, as well as the injuries, he was euthanized.

The very next day a second barred came in, slightly older and seemingly in fairly good shape. No injuries, alert, hungry and willingly eating…within two hours of intake he was dead. Not a clue…
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In more uplifting news, the singleton house finch and all six nuthatches were released, as was the possum.

​The bluebird and house finch quartets and the brown thrasher are in the mini-pen, which I’m using for songbirds as much as possible at the moment—the proper songbird flight still needs repair and the volunteer who’d planned to help has a torn rotator cuff. Been there and know how excruciating that is…It’s not ideal but it is a viable solution to a problem, so…

​Both red tails are in the raptor flight. The female is almost release-ready; she’s doing great. The male…well, that soft tissue damage looks to be permanent. The wing droops badly and he can’t fly.

​The wood ducklings continue growing apace and remain typical paranoid wood ducks.

The doves are nearly ready for the flight pen, but as they’re older birds and don’t trust humans at all, I won’t put them in with the fledglings. They’ll have to wait a bit. No photos, as they go ballistic when I walk near them, even to feed and freshen water.

Midweek, folks cutting down a snag in imminent danger of falling on their house inadvertently destroyed a screech owl nest. They were quite upset, as they’d checked and thought the snag was safe to fell and when it landed, three precious screeches bounced out.
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They’re about two weeks old at this point; on intake their eyes had just started opening, which usually occurs around seven days or so. And no, they’re not auditioning for Wicked; because their little eyes are so light sensitive, I use red or green night vision lights so I can see in the dark to feed them. I prefer green, as my human eyes see it better than the red. 

They’re eating well and the runt, who had every chance in the wild of eventually becoming his sibs’ supper, is making up for lost time as far as food goes.

Two additional house finches came in yesterday and are struggling after over 24 hours with no food. I didn’t expect them to survive last night, honestly, and they’re still very iffy. One is already looking to be checking out; the other most likely won’t be far behind.
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This little Carolina wren fledgling came in today after being cat-attacked. She’s on antibiotics, of course, and aside from stress and confusion, she’s doing well thus far. Caros are stressy little birds, though, so I won’t breathe easy till she’s actually released.

​And in a tale of doing everything right and still ending up with birds in rehab, a couple had been excitedly watching the first robins they’d had nest in their yard when the wife walked out to find two of the babies on the ground. The nest was too high to reach, so her husband rigged a basket and winched it up close to the nest, but the parents freaked out and refused to feed the basket babies or the one left in the nest. Basket babies ended up at LWR.

The next day the wife called and said the nest was tipped on its side and she was worried the remaining baby would fall out. He did. Again, they tried the winched basket. No go again from the parents, and robin #3 was a bit of a rebel and kept hopping out of the basket. After finding him back on the ground near dark, the wife brought him inside for the night and to LWR the next day.
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So now all three sibs are reunited and are the sweetest little birds. As is the case with most members of the thrush family—and robins are the largest thrushes—they have the most winsome personalities.

​I give the couple full credit for attempting to rig a substitute nest, and honestly, most of the time this strategy works beautifully. They tried to do the right thing to keep the babies with their parents but were also intelligent enough to realize when it wasn’t working the babies needed help. Their quick action ensured these sweethearts will have a chance.

​And finally, the “soft” fundraiser remains stalled at $550. Remember, donations are through PayPal (links on every page of the website), and we have just $450 to go to meet the $1000 goal!