The week started out on the wrong note when a lady called with over a dozen duck eggs and a tale of interrupted illegal activity to explain her possession of them: her son had witnessed two girls raiding the nests at a local pond, scaring the brooding females off, tossing some of the eggs in the pond, and bagging others and placing them in their car. The young man had the presence of mind to get photos of the girls and their license plate, which he turned over to the game warden, who suggested they call me to see if anything could be done for the rescued eggs—seems the girls noticed they were being watched and dumped the bagged eggs under a tree.
I told the young man’s mother to bring me the eggs they’d salvaged and I’d see what I could do. Unfortunately, between the disturbance the previous day and being off heat for transport to her home, over an hour away, and the transport to LWR, also over an hour’s trip, the eggs had been off heat for too long. Of the 14 she brought, 5 were immediately discarded after candling as being infertile. The remaining 9 eggs, all of which candling showed had early-stage embryos, one by one went bad over the course of the week, reeking of death.
The game warden informed me today that the two girls were juveniles who were running around unsupervised at this public pond. He put the fear of God into their mother but neither of us is hopeful that these girls will amount to anything. Harsh assessment? Yeah, and sadly, probably correct, given the pathetic lack of parental guidance they’re obviously getting.
Apparently the floodgates have opened for yellow-bellied sapsuckers at LWR; after 20 years with nary a one, we had the one who was released last week, and TWO came in this week. The first was cat-attacked and on his way out on arrival. He was listless, beak-breathing and totally limp when handled, despite showing no external injuries. I took a short video, below, for graphic evidence of the damage free-roaming outdoor cats wreak on wildlife, and then euthanized the poor bird. (I have NO clue why YouTube decided to upload a horizontally-shot video both vertically and upside down...)
I told the young man’s mother to bring me the eggs they’d salvaged and I’d see what I could do. Unfortunately, between the disturbance the previous day and being off heat for transport to her home, over an hour away, and the transport to LWR, also over an hour’s trip, the eggs had been off heat for too long. Of the 14 she brought, 5 were immediately discarded after candling as being infertile. The remaining 9 eggs, all of which candling showed had early-stage embryos, one by one went bad over the course of the week, reeking of death.
The game warden informed me today that the two girls were juveniles who were running around unsupervised at this public pond. He put the fear of God into their mother but neither of us is hopeful that these girls will amount to anything. Harsh assessment? Yeah, and sadly, probably correct, given the pathetic lack of parental guidance they’re obviously getting.
Apparently the floodgates have opened for yellow-bellied sapsuckers at LWR; after 20 years with nary a one, we had the one who was released last week, and TWO came in this week. The first was cat-attacked and on his way out on arrival. He was listless, beak-breathing and totally limp when handled, despite showing no external injuries. I took a short video, below, for graphic evidence of the damage free-roaming outdoor cats wreak on wildlife, and then euthanized the poor bird. (I have NO clue why YouTube decided to upload a horizontally-shot video both vertically and upside down...)
Just last night, another sapsucker came in, unable to stand or sit upright and beak-breathing, but generally alert. His rescuer found him behind her car earlier in the day. He couldn’t flex his right foot but was able to use the left and to peck and bite at my fingers. I sat him in a donut so he was upright, which would ease his struggle to breathe, and made him as comfortable as possible for the night. While he survived the night, the poor fellow gave up the struggle shortly after sunrise this morning. His right-side paralysis seemed to’ve spread to his entire body shortly before he died, which makes me think he whacked his rescuer’s parked car head-on in an attempt to escape a predator, and the resultant spinal/neural damage did him in. (Again, no clue on the crazy YouTube orientation of the first video below, which was shot in EXACTLY the same orientation as the second...)
The flyers are pretty much remaining out of sight these days; I did manage one cute shot of one of them peeking out just before lights out the other night.
The barnies are enjoying their last few weeks at the LWR B&B.
The titmouse is getting more…ummm…vocal and physical in his opposition to being handled during paper changes. I’m hoping this means a hormonal surge preceding a molt so those missing flight feathers can grow back in ASAP! Normally I snap photos of him after a paper change; this week I thought you’d like to see what one tiny titmouse can do to his cage over the course of a single day.
The sharpie is, surprisingly, remaining fairly calm as we wait for that broken “hand” to heal. He also readily accepted small mice as a food source. Their normal diet is songbirds, so I was a bit worried about that.
And just a reminder: if you haven’t participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count yet this weekend, you have today and tomorrow to get busy—and, in Georgia, at least, today is a gorgeous pre-spring day and tomorrow is supposed to be the same.
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