One in, one out

Only one intake last week, balanced with one release—which was a nice break after the previous week’s great horned influx.

The intake was an adult red shoulder with a wing fracture. He was brought to a falconer, who took him to his vet for x-rays and then alerted LWR, sending the x-rays with the bird. The wing has a fair chance of healing for flight, but he needs to eat consistently, at the moment, his eating habits are all over the place—ravenous one day and then not touching food for two days...we’ll see...

The barred owl who’d been at LWR the longest was released. Again, the camera was perfectly focused on the bird and then decided to go all abstract mid-release.

The second, more recent, barred is now in the main flight; he has some soft tissue damage but his flight has improved over the past week. As with the just-released barred, he just needs time. In the photo below, you get a side view of the tail-end of a threat display. His wing isn't drooping; it had been spread out to make him look bigger and intimidate his perceived enemy--in this case, me.

The sharpie has graduated to a perch in his box now that I’m (relatively) sure he’s not gonna do anything stupid to screw up his healing wing.

And the great horneds continue to grow apace. This photo was while their main box was being cleaned. They were NOT happy campers—oh, the hissing and beak-clicking that ensued! They’re about a week away from going into the mini-pen.

There will be no update next Sunday, April 9; I’ll be spending Easter Sunday with my family.