Owls’r’us, part the second

It was another “owly” week at LWR, with two more barred owls coming in.

The more recent of the two barred intakes has some serious head trauma but no fractures. His right eye is still too filled with blood to see if there’s any permanent damage; it will take a while for that to reabsorb so we can see what the eye actually looks like. His beak is slightly off-kilter, as well, which will also need further assessment.

The earlier barred had an open wing fracture, which, as you know by now, is fatal. He was humanely euthanized.

After colleague Steve Hicks made the wise observation that as cold as it was here, it was even colder two hours north, where Bubba & Friends is located, our backup plan was to send the bird to Auburn but, in a disturbing sign that HPAI (the avian flu I keep mentioning) is more prevalent than is publicly acknowledged, Auburn’s Raptor Center is closed to intakes. Sadly, the osprey died a couple of days later; they’re reluctant eaters in rehab, and I suspect the stress of force-feeding, coupled with the cold, was more than he could tolerate.

The gray phase screech still favors that left wing but has at least stopped stepping all over it—recall that x-rays showed no fractures, so the wing issues are likely a result of tendon/ligament/nerve damage.

As for the red phase who was illegally held for 3 months, I’m so proud of his progress! Not only did he finally start molting, as I mentioned last week, he also absolutely lunged at the camera when I took the photos below, hissing and clicking his beak. YES! He’s acting like a real little screech now!

Next week the weather looks like it’ll warm up enough for him to go back into the mini-pen; until the gray phase starts using that left wing, though, he’s stuck inside, bless his pissy little heart.

Hope everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving!