Owls’r’still us

Hope y’all all had a good Thanksgiving! It was a blessedly quiet day for LWR; as a rule, rehabbers tend to get a fair number of holiday calls, but we always welcome those quiet holidays that are the exception to the rule.

The red phase screech’s molt continues apace, and he’s really starting to look good now. Our temps moderated to more seasonal last week, so he was able to go back outside into the mini-pen and, of course, screeches are SUCH grateful and gracious little raptors...

I do love screech attitude! They’re so fierce for their size, it’s impossible not to adore ‘em.

Look at those tail feathers, though, and all the feathers coming in on his head/face. I’m thrilled that a good diet and safe environment have made a difference for him this quickly; I honestly didn’t expect the molt until next year.

The gray phase isn’t stepping on that nerve-/soft tissue-damaged wing as much but he’s also totally not using it, which doesn’t look promising for a release. For once I did manage to snap a quick shot with his eyes open, though; the past few weeks, he’s slitted ‘em up so he looked like he had no eyes. So now y’all have photographic proof that he does indeed have two very pretty, functional eyes!

The barred owl with the blood-filled eye and wonky-looking beak is doing well. He’s very alert and inhales everything offered, so his appetite and beak are both functioning normally, even if the beak does look weird. As you can see, the eye still has a fair amount of blood in it, but that should continue to clear up. In just a week, it already looks much better than it did on intake. Next step for him is the main flight to make sure we have no soft tissue damage that would preclude flight.

And that’s it for this week, so get back to your Thanksgiving leftovers or your pre-Cyber Monday online shopping—and remember that you can designate LWR as your preferred Amazon Smile charity!