Sadly, this one was hit by an 18-wheeler and was dead when the DNR wildlife tech arrived at the site of the accident. Still—two eagle calls within two weeks of each other is unprecedented in LWR history.

The screech recovering from the wing fracture is about ready to have that wing re-examined to see if it’s healed enough to move him to the mini-pen; if so, the brancher great horned will need to go into the main raptor flight.

A second screech came in yesterday and will need x-rays to determine the extent of damage to his right wing. It appears that something bit a chunk out of his wrist, and while there is bone damage, I would prefer getting x-rays to confirm before making any decisions on the bird’s fate.

An adult great horned owl was pulled from a barbed wire fence midweek; sadly his injuries were too severe. His left wing was trashed, with flesh and tendons ripped away from the bone. This wasn’t a fixable injury, so he was humanely euthanized.

And the brancher great horned was a constant source of amusement all last week; she’s quite a photogenic little gal.

Yup, today’s the official start of spring, so let’s hope we have no more late freezes as things begin to bud back out after that last one.

Starting with last Sunday’s bald eagle I mentioned was en route for Monday, the bird arrived Monday morning and went straight to Smalley’s for x-rays and a general exam by vet Peggy Hobby.

It was at the clinic that I had time to snap a few photos of him, and enlist vet tech Christy Harrell’s aid in getting a couple more when my hands were full of eagle.

He guarded his left wing and the feathers on that wing were noticeably shorter than on the right, and his tail feathers were ragged, indicating he’d been down a while. He was also very emaciated, with a thin keel and weighing just 5lb 7oz. Although weak, he was alert and aggressive. The x-rays showed no fractures and when we allowed him to flap his wings in the x-ray room, he refused to fully extend that left wing, so Peggy and I figured he had soft tissue damage.

I alerted Auburn that he would be en route as soon as volunteer transporter Joy Daniels got off work; in the meantime I fed him a couple of small meals. He eagerly consumed both meals and would have eaten more, but overfeeding an emaciated bird can kill it. Small meals every few hours are better.

Of course, the state and feds were also notified that the eagle had come in, was seen by a vet and was en route to Auburn.
 
We also had a release last week, although it took all week for the weather to finally cooperate for that release. The screech who’d come in with mild head trauma regained his freedom yesterday. It took him several seconds to realize the box was open and come soaring out; he was too busy giving me stink-eye.

An adult sharpie came in from an out-of-county vet clinic with a small wrist fracture, per that vet’s x-rays. The bird was well-fleshed, alert, aggressive...and dead the next morning. Based on the black tarry poop in his box, he most likely had internal injuries.

The screech recovering from the wing fracture and blood in his eye continues to do well. The eye is almost totally clear now.

And the brancher great horned is in the mini-pen, where she continues to bow up and issue hissing, beak-snapping threats at me when I walk in to feed her. No worries about this singleton being imprinted or habituated!

Ain’t she a beauty, though?!

Y’all ain’t gon’ believe this. As I had just started writing this update, DNR called; they were about to pick up another bald eagle and were checking to make sure I had room. Per DNR, it appears to be a juvie; its wing appears to be broken. It should arrive in the morning. I’ve already alerted the head of Georgia DNR’s eagle program and vet Peggy Hobby at Smalley’s and have transport arranged, and we’re aiming at streamlining the process tomorrow and getting the bird en route to Auburn ASAP. Other FWS and DNR officials will be notified once the bird’s actually here and has been examined/x-rayed. So y’all have that to look forward to for next week’s update. Two eagles three months in...gonna be an interesting year...

The great horned is nearly ready for the flight pen; most likely she’ll go outside mid-week, when our late cold snap is done. At least it was just a cold snap, not a blizzard like we had in 1993 that left us with snow on the ground and no power the entire weekend. Although some in the community did lose power this weekend, ours only flickered incessantly.

The screech with the wing fracture is doing well. His eye continues to clear up nicely. Let’s hope the calluses on those bones don’t fuse together as they heal.

And a second screech came in mid-week after being sideswiped by a car. Aside from a minor concussion he’s fine and will go in the mini-pen mid-week, again once the weather moderates. Once I’m sure there’s no soft tissue damage, he’ll be good for release.

The barred that came in with the massive head trauma went into the mini-pen early last week and was so antsy I offered a soft release within a couple of days, so no photos or videos of his release. I just left the pen door open slightly before dusk and he was gone half an hour later.

Yeah, this is a “just the facts” update—sorry ‘bout that. Gotta get all my ducks in a row for the insanity that ensues with a pending bald eagle intake...

Although spring doesn’t officially arrive till March 20, it’s already looking pretty springlike around here: bluets, henbit, Carolina jessamine and blackberries blooming (among numerous others; these are some of my favorites), dawn chorus loud enough for the first time since fall to actually wake me up before my alarm goes off, and three times last week I heard a migrating whippoorwill calling away, twice right outside my window—or so it sounded. No chuck-will’s-widows yet, though.

But the pace is still late-winter slow at LWR. I’m actually wondering if part of the slowness may be related to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), which is now apparently an issue in Georgia. Per information sheets recently provided by the Georgia DNR, HPAI is highly transmissible from bird to bird, both wild and domestic, and in some domestic species such as chickens, it can wipe out an entire flock. It’s become a disease of concern among raptors, as well. For those who may not be aware of the disease, here are some of the pertinent points from the DNR info sheet:

• Some wild birds infected with HPAI may not appear sick.
• HPAI occurs naturally in migratory waterfowl, wild aquatic birds (gulls, shorebirds), raptors, and scavengers; however, all bird species should be considered susceptible.
• Clinical signs can vary widely. Some birds may show no symptoms, while others may exhibit signs such as sneezing, coughing, watery eyes, nasal discharge, twisted neck, swollen sinuses, along with decreased feed and water intake, dehydration, depression, huddling, diarrhea, lethargy and death. However, many diseases can cause these same symptoms, therefore HPAI cannot be diagnosed based just on clinical signs.
• HPAI viruses are highly contagious and usually cause severe illness in chickens and turkeys; few birds within an infected flock will survive. It is therefore critical to avoid exposure to domestic birds.
• AI viruses are shed in the feces and respiratory secretions of birds. The fecal-oral and respiratory transmission routes can rapidly spread the virus throughout a poultry flock.
• Clothes, shoes, shared equipment and vehicles can pick up the virus from the environment, therefore these are also transmission routes.

In other words, this should prove to be an...interesting year...I’ve already verified with Auburn that they will still accept raptors from Georgia should they need their specialized care, but that could change if the outbreak gets too widespread and severe.

On to more pleasant topics: The great horned almost-brancher will be moved to a larger box early this week to allow for a low perch; she’s acting like she’s ready to see what those clodhopper feet are capable of.

The screech’s radius and ulna are both broken, which isn’t promising, but they’re not badly displaced so vet Peggy Hobby and I are hoping maybe the wing will heal for flight. As long as the calluses don’t grow together as they form, the bird should be flight-capable, but that’s always a risk. (The email function on the x-ray machine at Smalley’s wasn’t working and for some reason the files didn’t transfer to the flash drive I keep on hand for situations like that, so I have no x-rays to show today.) His eye continues to look better as the blood is reabsorbed.

The barred owl that came in late last Sunday had some major head trauma going on; it took him three days to decide to eat, and it’s only been the past couple of days that he’s started getting active in his box. We’ll see how he does in the mini-pen this week.

And that’s about it for this week. Don’t get all paranoid about HPAI; just be aware it’s out there and know that we avian rehabbers will be instituting precautions to keep the birds in our care safe.

The great horned is *thisclose* to being a brancher—nicely feathered wings and tail and feathers beginning to replace down everywhere else, giving her a bit of a scruffy look at the moment. And she doesn’t really want me feeding her now: She’ll take two or three mice and then wait for me to just drop the rest in her box so she can eat them at her leisure later. And oh, the cussin’ she does when I move her into a small holding box to change the paper in her larger box...

I did manage a few better shots of her clodhopper feet last week.

The only new intake last week came in yesterday,  an adult red-phase screech whose right wing doesn’t feel broken but he’s guarding it and it droops a little—obviously, we’ll need X-rays to see if the wing is broken or if he may have a coracoid fracture or possibly soft tissue damage. His right eye is also filled with blood but the pupil looks good and seems responsive; the blood should reabsorb over the next couple of weeks. His attitude is classic pissy screech and his appetite is good.

And I’m awaiting the arrival of a barred owl who’s in pretty bad shape—was seen by the roadside being stalked by a vulture and is reportedly quite lethargic.  More on him next Sunday.

Can you believe February is nearly over? It’s been a slowish month but I’m not complaining; the pace will pick up when baby season lurches into high gear.

There were no new intakes last week, so the nestling great horned owl is currently the only bird at LWR.

Given the outlandish size of the bird’s feet, even for a great horned, I’m leaning toward this being a female. I mean, she’s got gunboats for feet. But I haven’t yet managed a good, clear shot of those clodhoppers.

She’s eating well and full of attitude, all bad. She’s even started some limited self-feeding, although she still hasn’t quite figured out how the feet play into eating. I’m not surprised; she probably scares herself every time she lifts a foot and then takes a gander at that huge thing right at her face...

Anyway, you get an update full of photos of Miss Attitude!

And I’m a bit late in reminding y’all, but the Great Backyard Bird Count started Friday, Feb. 18, and runs through tomorrow, Feb. 21. Details can be found on the GBBC website: https://www.birdcount.org/participate/?utm_campaign=GBBC%202022&utm_source=email&utm_content=email2

Last week was eventful, with the first baby of the season coming in early in the week and a slew of releases throughout the week.

The first baby of 2022 is a nestling great horned owl who was nearly attacked by a dog. He has no injuries, either from his fall or the dog. But he DOES have an appetite, and an attitude...

For those who may not remember, great horneds have eggs in the nest in December-January and babies by January-February. So they’re normally the first baby raptors we see, although barn owls sometimes beat them to the punch, as barnies have no set breeding season, breeding whenever the food supply is plentiful enough.

All three remaining barred owls were released; I only managed video of one release.

Both red tails were released; I managed good video of one release and a couple of passable post-release photos of the other red tail.

So now the raptor flights are temporarily unoccupied, which I hope will give me time to get some routine maintenance done before they’re needed again. Knock on wood...

While I realize increased numbers of bald eagles in rehab means their numbers are truly on the rebound, which is excellent, I also kinda miss the days when LWR might see an eagle every 7 years or so, instead of every few months...Our first for the year arrived yesterday. And because I’m still recovering from an upper respiratory virus making its merry way through my neck of the woods, I’m pretty basically copying and pasting the email I sent to DNR and FWS regarding the eagle intake yesterday—every bit of saved effort is good when it feels like you’re hacking up a lung every time you cough...

At app. 2:30pm Feb. 5, 2022, I received a call from DNR Region 3 about a downed bald eagle; the eagle was actually in Reg. 4 but the call center misdirected the call, so kudos to Reg. 3 for being proactive in seeking help for an out-of-region bird. The bird was just over the Dodge/Telfair line right off Hwy 117 and was reported to be reluctant to fly and mostly sitting with its head tucked.

I talked to the finders, who were unable to transport the bird, so at app. 2:34pm I called DNR Game Tech Chris Mimbs, who agreed to pick up the bird on his day off. He arrived with the eagle around 5pm, and it was obviously neurologic and randomly “honking” when it tried to breathe.  Chris said the finders had seen an eagle and several vultures eating from a gut pile earlier in the week where the landowner had apparently killed some wild hogs; he and I figured then it had lead poisoning.

I called Auburn for their advice as to transport or treatment, given that it was a weekend and I was unlikely to be able to reach either of the vets who work with me on wildlife. The Raptor Clinic recommended making sure the bird was stable and getting both rads and a lead test before transport, as high enough lead levels were grounds for euthanasia rather than treatment and there would be no point in transporting a bird to them just for euthanasia.

I then left a message with the vet that I considered most likely to return a weekend call and called Bob Sargent, head of GA DNR’s Eagles Program, to alert him to the eagle intake. In my message to him, I indicated the bird seemed more stable than on intake, but shortly afterward the bird suffered a massive seizure.
At 7:30pm he was resting quietly but was unable to lift his head and his eyes looked glazed; I didn’t expect him to make it through the night. I placed the bird in a donut to ease his breathing and informed DNR and FWS I’d update them Sunday and, of course, keep the carcass on ice until DNR could retrieve it should he die overnight...which, sadly, I felt would be the case.

Sometime between midnight and 8:30 this morning, the eagle died. Given the level of rigor mortis, I’d guess it was around 3-4am—it’s almost a dark joke among rehabbers that deaths nearly always seem to occur around 3 or 4 in the morning.  Both agencies were notified and the carcass is on ice awaiting retrieval by DNR, probably tomorrow morning.

Because Weebly still refuses to correct its issues with directly linking to YouTube videos, the best I can do is provide you the links; click on them to see the videos of the eagle's neurologic symptoms on intake and his later seizure: https://youtu.be/WbBn7Qol1oU and https://youtu.be/vovO-fU5uqU

In other news, two additional barreds came in the last full week of January—a full 60% of LWR’s intakes for January were barreds. One of these was totally blind in one eye, in addition to having a shoulder fracture; he was euthanized.

The other is still recovering from head trauma and is spotty with his eating, so he’s still inside until I’m convinced he can hold his own with the barreds in the mini-pen.

The trio in the mini-pen reduced itself to a duo when one of the UGA barreds self-released Friday evening. I would’ve preferred to give them all additional time in the main raptor flight after releasing the red tails, but all releases and movements were put on hold while I was sick. Again, click on the link to see the self-released barred owl: https://youtu.be/At0jLbwDdkg

The red tails remain antsy; hopefully this week I’ll be able to get them released. They’re so ready to go; I hate their release was delayed but about the only time I was vertical last week was to feed birds, then I’d crawl back to bed, move the electric blanket dial from “high” to “electrocute” and try not to hack up a lung...

It was an interesting week, bookended with two dud “threats” of snow. Understand, here in Middle Georgia, we seldom see snow—even traces. So some of us (guilty as charged) kinda like the notion of a light dusting of snow every now and then.

LWR had only two new intakes last week, both barred owls, both transfers from UGA’s Wildlife Clinic, who need flight conditioning after recovering from coracoid fractures.  They’re in the mini-pen at the moment.

The barred who’s been at LWR a while, recovering from a foot fracture, is in the mini-pen as well. Obviously, his boot is off and we’re waiting to see if he regains full use of that foot.

The Coop I’d hoped to get into the mini-pen and released before he did something typically Coop-stupid managed his first day in the mini-pen to do just that. I’m still not sure what he did or how, but he managed to injure himself badly enough that he required euthanasia. And yes, it sucked; he was doing so well up to that point...

The red tails are both getting antsy now; the goal is to get them released this week and move the barreds into the main raptor flight so they have more room.

And that pretty much sums it up for last week—just a typical slowish winter week.

Or perhaps “the best-laid plans o’ mice and men...” The good weather predicted for last week didn’t really materialize—remained too windy and with heavy rains predicted for the end of the week, everybody stayed where they were (and brother, did it rain...). So no releases, no moves into flights...just a holding pattern. And this week’s not looking much better, weatherwise.

Actually, the hen-eating first-year red tail is providing competition and encouragement to the first-year re-learning to fly after recovering from the elbow fracture. Last week I walked into the raptor flight to find the “older” bird (the one who’s been here the longest, in this case) on the high perch for the first time since he was moved outside—and he flew across the flight pen to land on the low perch. So looks like “hen-eater” is gonna have his release delayed while he serves as motivation for “elbow” to continue to test his limits.  They’re both eating well and competitive for food, although obviously “hen-eater” is more mobile—and a heckuva lotta fun to watch snag his food. I tried all week to get video of him catching tossed mice in mid-air; the short clip here is the best I could manage: https://youtu.be/dISRQYo90Y8. It’s not the sharpest focus but look at that bird’s mobility! (And sorry I can't post the video directly this week; Weebly's being stupid and refusing to let me upload YouTube videos.)

The barred owl who came in with the foot fracture should be in the mini-pen at this point, but I also need it for the Coop from last week’s update. Given the Coop’s high-strung nature, he’ll probably get first dibs just because I want him flight-ready and outta here before he has time to do anything stupidly “Coopy.”

And the deadly beginning to this year continues, with yet another barred owl coming in Tuesday with both wings broken, one an open fracture, and a first-year sharpie (sharp-shinned hawk) coming in last night with a bad open fracture. And of course, the sharpie managed to nail me as I was examining him. I eased my grip ever so slightly, and he jerked one deadly little foot loose and buried his hallux (back toe) talon right in the webbing between my fingers and the other talons across the top knuckle. While I was dripping blood everywhere, the finder kept asking if there was anything he could do. I had him reach up and flip off the headlamp I was wearing (the bird came in after dark); it took a few minutes but the darkness led the bird to relax his grip enough I could pry him off my hand. Normally a footed hand swells a bit and is really stiff and sore the next day; this one didn’t swell and isn’t stiff or especially sore...which I’m certainly not complaining about! I hated even more than usual to have to euthanize him, given his spunk and the fact that he was only a first-year bird, but his wing wasn’t fixable.

Let’s hope the remainder of this month and year is a little less deadly for wildlife; I’m thoroughly tired of getting in unsavable birds, and we’re just two weeks into 2022...