Last week was…interesting, to say the least. I’m not even sure where to begin…
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Let’s start with the comedy: two downy black vultures were rescued from an imminent dog attack midweek, so their new home is LWR. It’s been a looooong time since LWR has seen any baby vultures. I’d forgotten what utter clowns they can be—and these two are most definitely adorable little stinkers, in the most literal sense of the word “stink”!

​Also, on Friday DNR delivered a banded osprey. When I traced the band number, the bird turned out to be 20 years old, originally banded in New Jersey in 1999! He was emaciated and lethargic on intake, and had a wound on his left wrist that both the DNR wildlife tech and I thought looked suspicious. Add to that the fact that the people who reported the bird to DNR as downed in a field seemed very cagey, and the stage was set for possible illegal activity. 

Unfortunately, the poor old man succumbed to illness, injury, or just old age—or maybe a combo of the three—overnight. I’m still planning to get x-rays of the carcass Monday before turning the bird back over to DNR Tuesday, as they want to send it to UGA for a necropsy. We’re all, like the Elephant’s Child, ‘satiably curious about what actually led to this bird’s death after he’d survived 20 years.
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He’d be both the tragedy and mystery in the headline…

The young great horned is in the raptor flight. Owls have to be the most frustrating birds in the world when the young ones are first placed in the flights. It’s like in their dim little minds, they think, Oh, this isn’t my box; I can’t eat here, and they basically go on a hunger strike for several days. Our young female Einstein (HEAVY sarcasm there; owls are many things but bright ain’t one of ‘em) is still refusing to touch her mice…

Several birds are due for follow-up x-rays next week: Screech 1, the barred and the adult great horned. The plan at the moment is to take them in Monday when we x-ray the osprey carcass.
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And that about does it for this week—like you needed anything else after seeing those baby black vultures, right?!

If you’ll recall, the stated goal in last Sunday’s update was to switch out the first-year red tail and the brancher great horned owl this past week. Yeah, well…both are still where they were last week.  Stuff happens.

The great horned, aside from trashing her box every single night, is doing well where she is for the moment, and I wanted to give the red tail one more week because honestly, it’s not looking good for him. I suspect we’re dealing with soft-tissue damage that’s not going to heal, as he’s not attempting to fly at all, instead running away from me and then toward his food as I leave the raptor flight. I’ll probably call it, reluctantly, on him this week…
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Miss Pissy, however, should do beautifully once she’s in the raptor flight. She’s lost absolutely zero of her wild edge, hissing and snapping and lunging up at me even as I drop her food in her box.  I love it! (Yeah, raptor rehabbers are weird that way; we LIKE to see our birds full of piss and vinegar.)

​The screeches continue to mend. Screech 2, with no fractures but probably a bruised wing, should be okay to flight test this week. Screech 1, recovering from the wing fracture, will need a follow-up vet visit soon for more x-rays to see how his wing looks. They’re probably the most uncooperative screeches I’ve had in a while when it comes to photos. It’s pretty obvious they’d prefer to be elsewhere, too!

Both the adult great horned and the barred are nearly due for follow-up x-rays, too, so we’ll hope their fractures have healed well. The barred, if you’ll recall, is the long shot; his chances weren’t great from the outset but we wanted to give him a chance.

Finally, I’m not licensed for rabies vector species (RVS) and seldom take them in, as it means transferring them to a rehabber who is RVS-licensed. I usually just refer people directly to her. However, last Monday, I received two bat calls, one from the public and one from one of my local game wardens. Because I have a major soft spot for bats and because I knew I’d easily be able to transfer them to the RVS-licensed rehabber a few counties away, I agreed to take both. While both were supposedly en route I made arrangements to transfer the next day. The game warden showed up a few hours later, but the public caller never brought his and never responded to my follow-up calls. Given that the bat had been found grounded and apparently had a broken wing, I’m guessing that one didn’t survive to even reach LWR.
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The one the game warden brought had been found in a neighboring county and somehow ended up at a gas station in Laurens County. He could never get a straight story on exactly how that happened, and at that point the main thing was to get the bat away from the people who had it. On intake at LWR, the poor fellow, a little brown bat, looked rough but seemed active if badly dehydrated, which remained a problem; I simply could not keep him hydrated. But he remained active, so I was hopeful he’d be okay for the night and ready for transfer the next morning.

Sadly, when I checked on him the next morning, he was hanging from his makeshift roost, dead, as if he’d died in his sleep. (Yes, that’s soft screen mesh and masking tape to hold it on the box. Hey, sometimes ya gotta improvise.)

Let me issue a caveat here: while less than one half of one percent of the bat population is likely to have rabies, they ARE still considered rabies vectors and CAN contract the disease and spread it to you if they bite you—or at the very least, cost you a goodly sum in post-exposure vaccine expenses.

Often, grounded bats are already sick or dying, although sometimes a female still allowing her near-grown pups to cling to her will end up grounded from the sheer weight of her babies. If you see a grounded bat, DO NOT handle it without gloves—and I don’t mean thin exam gloves either; you need thick enough gloves to protect you from a potential bite. Bat teeth are so needle sharp that you might not even realize you’ve been bitten, so take the proper precautions.

As you should do with all wildlife needing assistance, place the bat in a secure cardboard box lined with a soft, clean cloth, then immediately call a rehabber to seek help. Do not offer it food or water, as this places your hands in close proximity to those tiny, sharp teeth. Let the properly trained individuals handle this.

Why am I harping on what should be common-sense measures? Because people often don’t exhibit common sense when it comes to wildlife, and if a bat should bite you because of your improper handling of it, your pocketbook may take a hit but the bat will lose its life, as it will need to be euthanized and its head sent in for testing for rabies.
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Don’t be the doofus who causes any wildlife to lose its life needlessly because of your improper handling of it. Take the proper precautions when handling any wildlife, and CALL A REHABBER for advice on how to capture, box and transport the wildlife to said rehabber or one of his/her colleagues.

Between the advent of spring and the full moon last week, it was just a crazy time—no further babies yet, but lots of injured adults.
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First, let’s update the conditions of the two birds awaiting x-rays as of last Sunday: the cardinal and the screech.
The cardie’s humerus was trashed, not the shoulder as I’d suspected. Despite his alertness and aggressiveness, there was no way for the bird to recover from that sort of fracture, so he was euthanized.

​The second screech was luckier: her x-rays were clear. She does favor her left wing a bit, but nothing is broken. We probably have a little soft tissue damage going on there, so she’ll stay confined for a while to give it time to heal.

As for the young great horned,  she’s ready for the raptor flight and will probably go out there this week. The adult great horned, the barred and the first screech, all recovering from wing fractures, continue to do well.

Early in the week, two more cardies came in, a male and a female. The male died overnight; the female was releasable after 24 hours’ observation. I tried for a video of her release but she shot out of the box before I could focus the camera and then disappeared into the trees, so…
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This gorgeous first-year red tail came in from a neighboring county, crammed into a box way too small, as you can see from the intake photos. His x-rays showed no fractures but he refuses to fully extend his  left wing. He’s in the raptor flight at the moment but will be brought back inside this week for the young great horned to stretch her wings instead.

​Early morning exercisers at the local hospital found a dead duck and an injured one at the pond. The injured duck, a female mallard, had a badly displaced fracture and was euthanized.

​A third screech came in from a vet clinic in a neighboring county. Both her wings had small fractures that were already showing early callusing, and she had an extremely cloudy right eye. Vet Peggy Hobby and I agreed the wings should heal with no problem, and we’d treat the eye and see how it looked as the wings healed. She was alert, aggressive, eating well…and dead the day after her vet visit. Not a clue why, as all the outward indicators were that she should’ve healed for probable release.

​And, of course, what week would be complete without another barred owl? If there are intakes any given week, you can almost bet one will be a barred. Unfortunately, this poor fellow’s wing was beyond repair; no x-ray was needed to see this was not something we could fix. He was euthanized and the photo below taken after euthanasia—you can clearly see the left wing is facing the complete opposite direction from the uninjured right wing.

LWR’s first baby for 2019 is a late nestling/early brancher great horned owl. She’s more a late nester than early brancher, as she’s not too interested in trying to perch at the moment. But she’s definitely female. This gal’s already, at approximately half-grown, as large as the full-grown adult male great horned who came in earlier in the week—got feet like gunboats, she does!
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The tree her nest was in was cut down by loggers. They said they normally try to look for nests but saw nothing until this gal bounced on the ground as the tree came down. Given that she did fall from the tree, I took her in for X-rays, as well, and hers were clear—no fractures. 

In the second video above, she was highly peeved that I was handling her to change the paper in her box—oh, the indignity!
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The adult male great horned who came in a couple of days before she did has a right wing fracture, right in the joint. It’s “hidden” in the joint so well that an initial intake exam left me convinced he was merely stunned, but when I tested him in the raptor flight, he couldn’t gain altitude. I suspected then we might have a coracoid fracture, as one of the signs is inability to gain altitude. His x-rays at Smalley’s, however, showed a broken elbow with early signs of callusing. The joint may freeze as it heals, but vet Peggy Hobby and I agreed it was worth giving the bird time to heal and see how it plays out. You can compare the circled areas on the right and left wing X-rays below to see the difference in the uninjured and fractured joints.

​The red tail whose release was delayed by inclement weather finally got his chance at freedom and wasted no time taking advantage of it.

​The same day the adult male great horned came in, an adult male barred also came in as a window-strike victim. He’d just been stunned and had no fractures—again, he was flight tested after overnight observation, and then released. He didn’t hang around long enough for post-release photos.

As an aside here, first, don’t worry, the house he flew over is empty. I generally don’t release near populated areas if it’s avoidable. Second, ideally, adult birds should be released back into their established territory, but when birds come in from “somewhere on the interstate” or other…ummm…less than locatable territories, rehabbers do the next best thing and find a suitable location for release.

And in a massive KEEP YOUR CATS INDOORS rant, this adult male cardinal was “presented” to an outdoor cat’s owners by the cat. He has no tail feathers, the few feathers left on his wings are broken, his right shoulder is a bloody mess, and there's probably a shoulder fracture under that bloody mess. Believe it or not, he’s alert, active and eating, so he’ll head to Smalley’s tomorrow for X-rays to see just how bad the damage to his shoulder is. Fortunately, it’s early yet in the season, so it’s not likely he has a mate on eggs or babies in the nest. ​All this could have been avoided if the cat had been INDOORS.

​The long-shot barred and screech continue to heal; fingers crossed they’ll both be releasable. I still have serious doubts about the barred, but we’ll see.

​And just this morning, a caller reported that he’d had an owl fly into his open passenger-side truck window as he was driving last night—how weird is that? He said he heard a strange noise and thought something had come loose on his truck, but when he got home and picked up his coat, there was an owl on it. He put the bird in a box for the night and attempted release this morning, but it was no go, so he called LWR. We now have a second red-phase screech who appears to be a smallish female and who may have a wing fracture. She will also need X-rays tomorrow.

As you’ll recall, the young male red tail was placed in the raptor flight last week, whereupon we had several unseasonably cold days and nights, followed by a rain threat that, as of this moment, appears to’ve fizzled. All this means the poor fellow’s release has been delayed. He needed the extra time, anyway, as he was initially a bit reluctant to fly. This isn’t an issue anymore; he’s flying beautifully and eating well. So…weather cooperating, we’re aiming at a release tomorrow!
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The screech continues to eat well as his wing fracture heals (we hope; remember, it’s right in the joint), and he’s still the reigning king of stinkeye.

The barred owl is still awaiting further callusing on his wing fractures (again, we hope) and will need follow-up x-rays in a few weeks.
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And the only intake for the week was a gorgeous first-year female red tail with a nasty wing fracture and a fractured or dislocated hip. She came in crawling with maggots, so before I could take her to the vet for x-rays to see what we had to work with, I had to “de-maggot” her. This took the better part of the day of intake, so the goal was to take her to Smalley’s the following day, but she died overnight. I wasn’t overly surprised, honestly. She was fairly well-fleshed but waaay too docile to’ve been a healthy bird.

​Baby bird season will kick in within the next few weeks, so we’re trying to get organized for that. The mesh in the songbird flight needed replacing; we’re half-done and hope to finish within the next couple of days. My niece has been helping with that, thank goodness; it’s a four-handed job. I’ve got to load up on paper towels and Kleenex, as well, and get the rehab room cleaned out and organized so everything’s in place when those first wee ones come in. If they’ll juuuust hold off another couple of weeks…

It was, overall, a pretty darn good week for wildlife at LWR. After several less-than-stellar weeks, a week with no euthanasias and only one DOA was a nice reprieve.

First, the minor miracle: if you’ll recall, since mid-January the long-shot barred owl has been patiently (more or less) on cage rest, waiting to see if that badly displaced wing fracture would heal. He was one of three birds to visit Smalley’s this week for x-rays, and while there’s still some healing to do, vet Peggy Hobby and I were both pleasantly surprised at his follow-up x-ray. A callus is forming nicely, and it looks as if the muscles succeeded in pulling the bones back pretty close together. There’s another fracture near the wrist that isn’t as healed and probably won’t heal as well, but given the results of the humerus fracture, Peggy and I agreed a few more weeks wouldn’t hurt. He may still not heal for flight, but it’s worth the extra time to see what happens. As Peggy said, “Isn’t the body amazing?!”
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Below are the barred’s x-rays from January and from March 1. 

​Unfortunately, the great horned owl who came in severely emaciated and lethargic wasn’t as lucky. He never opened his eyes after intake and struggled to swallow. He died overnight.

​This late second-year red tail was found on the interstate. Although he didn’t appear to have any injuries aside from a concussion, I wanted X-rays to confirm that. I was pretty sure when he busted out of his box twice the afternoon before his vet visit, but still…X-rays are always best. The X-rays were clear but I’m guessing he has a slightly strained muscle on his right wing; it looked as if he’d picked at it after intake. After the small hot spot he’d created was treated, he went into the raptor flight, where he thus far seems to prefer the ground, although I know he can fly. I startled him when checking to see if he’d eaten his mice, and he flew beautifully. He’s not above a nice threat display, though.

​And rounding out the week, we have a gorgeous little male red-phase screech owl. He was found in the road in a neighboring county. It’s sometimes hard to tell male from female screeches if they’re not side by side for size comparison, but this wee man is small enough that I’m positive he’s male. He was really concussed and shocky on intake and it was obvious his right wing was fractured at the elbow—it felt like right in the joint. X-rays confirmed this, and while the joint may freeze when it heals, Peggy and I decided it was worth giving him time to see. Meanwhile, he’s starting to act more like a screech, giving me his best stinkeye just 48 hours after intake…Gotta love that screech attitude!

It was another not-great week for wildlife, salvaged by the sight of a flock of migrating robins in the trees on a gray, overcast mid-week afternoon.

First, the long-shot barred didn’t get re-x-rayed last week; the day I took him to Smalley’s, late in the week, the machine started malfunctioning when we had him on the table for x-rays. Our physical exam didn’t give us much hope; it appeared the bones had not been drawn back together by the muscle, as we’d hoped. But we’re holding off on any final action until we can actually see what everything looks like.
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On Friday yet another barred owl came in, this one with a wing that didn’t require x-rays for me to know it was a fatal fracture. His left shoulder and humerus were shattered—and yes, he’d been found in the middle of the road, so he’d probably been hit by a car. The photo below was taken post-euthanasia, to show you the extent of the damage to his wing​—you can see it’s facing backward. 

​And Saturday, a gorgeous red tail came in, severely emaciated and too weak to hold his head up. His finder had first seen him three days previously but by the time he made it to LWR, it was too late. I saw no signs of frounce and nothing was broken, so more than likely he had capillaria and it had advanced to the point that nothing could be done. For those who need a refresher, capillaria are worms that raptors pick up from eating infected rodents, and they fill the bird’s crop, effectively starving it to death while it feels full. I managed to get one small liquid feeding into the poor fellow, but it was too little, too late. He died within an hour of intake.

​In a sign that spring is just around the corner—okay, if you’re in Georgia, spring is popping back and forth around that corner like a jack-in-the-box—about midweek I walked outside to a tumult in the scrub oak at the corner of my parents’ yard. I could hear the ruckus clearly in my yard, and I knew the sound: a flock of robins had descended into the upper branches of the trees and were chattering away. By the time I got the camera and got up there, they’d settled down and were fairly quiet, but just LOOK at the sheer numbers in that tree! (It was, as I mentioned at the outset, a very overcast day, so there’s very little color to be seen; sorry ‘bout that.)

Sometimes you just have one of “those” weeks…

The red tail suddenly stopped eating—totally—and didn’t even fight when I went in to catch him for euthanasia.  Not normal at all for a bird who’d fought beak and talon on intake and had been insanely food aggressive. He’d basically just given up…

The long-shot barred didn’t make it to the vet this week; we’ll aim at next week. I’m trying to remain optimistic about his chances, but honestly, as badly displaced as those bones were, it’s hard to maintain any real hope of proper healing for flight.

Midweek an adult sandhill crane came in. He came from about 90 minutes away; Laurens County isn’t in the sandhill flyway. He was blown into a power line by an early-week storm; the eyewitness said he hit the wire and “exploded; there were feathers everywhere.”  A game warden near the site of the accident captured him and took him to a volunteer transporter who lives near him, who met me at Smalley’s with the quite angry bird. X-rays showed no wing fractures but he did favor his left leg. The capturing game warden said he was running and had to be chased down, though. He also seemed to have some slight difficulty breathing, which the game warden also noticed when he captured him, but he was alert, aggressive and eating well—at least at first. Within two days, he was beak-breathing with his neck stretched out full length, lethargic and not eating, and when I lifted the unresisting bird up to euthanize him, blood seeped from his beak. I strongly suspect there was some sort of blood clot that broke loose in his lungs.

​And yesterday another game warden from out of county brought a small adult male barred owl with an open left wing fracture. He also was humanely euthanized. The photos below were taken post-euthanasia.

All in all, not a good week…

Hope some of you are participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count, which ends tomorrow, so there’s still time to take part.

In my family we’ve always said spring doesn’t actually arrive till after Easter, which is VERY late this year, so no matter what the thermometer tells you right now, there’s more cold weather in store. Hopefully we won’t have any late freezes after songbirds have eggs and/or babies in the nest.

This was a fairly slow week, with only one intake. The long-shot barred will go back in for x-rays in the next couple of weeks, and the red tail still refuses to fly—he keeps that wing tucked tightly to his body, which makes me think it’s soft tissue damage rather than nerve damage, like a tendon that healed too tightly and now he can’t extend the wing. I was hopeful being in the raptor flight would encourage him to stretch the wing and thereby flex the tendon but he may require fairly intensive PT to see if there’s a chance of his regaining flight capability. We’ll see…
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The sole new intake was a feisty black vulture whose wing fracture had healed in the wild. Black vultures are smaller than turkey vultures, and their sense of smell isn’t as well-developed—you can see that by their smaller nares, or nostrils. So they usually follow turkey vultures and are aggressive enough that they can often run off the larger vultures to feed. Smart rascals, huh? I keep tellin’ y’all vultures are highly intelligent!

Given his very apparent good health—he was rambunctious and well-fleshed, and his feathers were glossy—and the fact that there was new feather growth on the wing, I opted to see what he’d do in the old deer pen. I’d initially planned to just hard-release him, but should he have proven unable to fly, lemme tell ya right now, vultures can run REALLY fast…and I wasn’t about to try and chase him down. So I opted for the old deer pen instead. I’ve used it before to test vultures when the raptor flight was occupied, the theory being that if they can fly out of the deer pen, they’re good to go. It took him less than five minutes to take his leave—I walked into the house for the camera and he was gone when I went back out. I have no doubt he’ll be just fine.
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And just a reminder—next weekend, Feb. 15-18, is the Great Backyard Bird Count.  You don’t need any special equipment or to be in a group or a specific location—even a city park will do. You don’t even have to list all the birds you see or hear, if you don’t recognize the species.  As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s the easiest bird count out there to participate in, and it’s fun, besides. I encourage y’all to give it a try.

 ​Yay! The Coop was released Saturday! And yes, it’s normal to be happy about a release, but with Coops it’s more like ecstatic. Why? Coops are accipiters, the high-strung, predictably unpredictable nutcases of the raptor world. My greatest fear while he was in the flight pen last week was that he’d fly into the wall and break his fool neck—yeah, Coops are known for brilliant stunts like that. I literally tiptoed up to the raptor flight each morning and held my breath until I heard movement inside. So I’m pretty sure I was happier than he was at his release, although he was pretty darn happy himself. Photos below are in the raptor flight.

​There are no post-release photos, as he took off low and gained altitude as he turned into the trees and disappeared—if you look closely at the video, right after he turns, you can see him lift on the right of the screen, and then he’s gone.

The long-shot barred owl continues to eat well and, if he’s very, very lucky, he’ll heal for flight. Given the displacement of those bones, which you saw in the x-rays a couple of weeks ago, it’s really iffy. No photos of him this week—I mean, he’s sitting in a crate with a perch. How many photos of that can ya take?
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The red tail is in the raptor flight now. The right wing isn’t drooping like it was but he doesn’t want to fully extend it and he’s only doing short hops and low, short flights. It’s got to be nerve or tendon damage, as his x-rays were clear. We’ll see; I’m hoping being in the raptor flight will encourage him to start using that wing properly.

​And the sole new intake, the first for February, was a barred owl found by the roadside in a neighboring county. His left wing had an open fracture that was still bleeding when he arrived at LWR several hours after he was spotted and caught.   As a refresher, federal regs do not allow for wing amputation above the wrist and only then if the bird will be placed as an ed bird, as he’d be nonreleasable. Barred owls are probably the most common owl in Georgia—they’re certainly the ones LWR receives in greatest numbers—so educational facilities throughout the state have all the barreds they need. He was humanely euthanized and the photos below taken post-euthanasia.

​Just a reminder—the Great Backyard Bird Count is Feb. 15-18 this year. You can visit http://gbbc.birdcount.org/ for more details. I encourage y’all to give it a try; it’s one of the easiest bird counts to participate in because of its flexibility—you can count every day, one day, one hour—whatever fits your schedule. Can’t get much easier than that, right?