As most of y’all know by now, Laurens County was slammed by Helene in the wee hours of Sept. 27. LWR suffered no damage to the flights, although a couple of small trees were uprooted and the yard remains littered with branches (why duplicate labor? Once the trees are removed, there’ll just be more debris to clean up, so wait and do it all at once.). However, 12 days without power pretty much wiped out our supply of frozen rodents; we lost around $1500 worth of mice, despite keeping fresh ice in the freezer daily, thanks to a neighbor with a commercial-grade icemaker and a generator.
Despite the chaos, the week after after Helene wrought unholy havoc, I was able to release the second-year red tail and the two barred owls. There are no videos or post-release photos, because during that time battery life had to be conserved carefully; power bricks for recharging phones still need recharging themselves once they’re depleted, and…well…no power, remember?
The juvie red tail refuses to be released—he won’t even leave the glove. This doesn’t bode well for his future. Unfortunately, red tails are common enough that they’re nearly impossible to place as ed birds.
The juvie red tail refuses to be released—he won’t even leave the glove. This doesn’t bode well for his future. Unfortunately, red tails are common enough that they’re nearly impossible to place as ed birds.
The red shoulder with the pelvic fracture required euthanasia. Normally pelvic fractures should heal well enough for the bird to stand within 30 days, and then a couple of weeks in a flight pen would have it good for release. Today was Day 30, and he showed absolutely no improvement—was still unable to stand at all. And yes, it sucked, because his finder was willing and eager to return him to his territory, where his mate was.
Due to the lack of power post-Helene, LWR didn’t take in birds for those 12 days. Surprisingly, we only had a couple of calls…or maybe not so surprisingly, as most people (me included, to be honest) were worried about getting themselves sorted and dealing with the damage to their homes and land.
However, a couple of days before our power was restored, my German shepherd flushed an injured barred owl from the brush near the main flight. He had apparently been in the tree there and finally fell out, as I heard a thump and she ran into the brush and herded him out where I could see him and pick him up. Poor fellow may have been hidden in that tree since Helene. He has some soft tissue damage to his left wing and cannot extend it fully. As y’all know, soft tissue damage is iffy; it may or may not heal for flight. We’ll give him some time to see which way this “if” will go.
Due to the lack of power post-Helene, LWR didn’t take in birds for those 12 days. Surprisingly, we only had a couple of calls…or maybe not so surprisingly, as most people (me included, to be honest) were worried about getting themselves sorted and dealing with the damage to their homes and land.
However, a couple of days before our power was restored, my German shepherd flushed an injured barred owl from the brush near the main flight. He had apparently been in the tree there and finally fell out, as I heard a thump and she ran into the brush and herded him out where I could see him and pick him up. Poor fellow may have been hidden in that tree since Helene. He has some soft tissue damage to his left wing and cannot extend it fully. As y’all know, soft tissue damage is iffy; it may or may not heal for flight. We’ll give him some time to see which way this “if” will go.
And I’m here to tell y’all, even 17 days post-Helene, I think I can speak for most of Laurens County when I say we’re all still exhausted and shell-shocked. It’s been an endless parade of calling tree services for estimates on removal of downed trees (8 in my yard and 2 at the rehab house), filing claims with insurance companies (2 outbuildings in my yard trashed), and constantly reminding ourselves that as bad as it is here, areas to our south, to our northeast, and in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee were hit much, much harder than we were.
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