Raining great horneds!

The brancher great horneds flooded in last week, along with a couple more barreds. It was an...interesting week, to say the least.

The singleton great horned was joined by THREE “sibs” in one afternoon. Two of the three came from Henry County; the third came from Bibb. Attempts were made on the third to convince the property owners to allow renesting using a laundry basket tied to a tree, but according to the Animal Control officer who picked up the bird, they refused. So all three ended up at LWR to make a quartet. They’re a bit too young for harmony, so a career on the road as a gospel group is off the table...They’re quite a photogenic group, though.

A fourth great horned brancher came in Friday from Jefferson County, with a broken wing. The x-rays showed what would have been grounds for immediate euthanasia in an adult bird, but vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital and I decided to consult with Carolina Raptor Center to see if their avian vets thought it was fixable, given the bird’s young age. Sadly, they reported that the proximity of the fracture to the joint and the shortness of the bone ends precluded pinning it surgically and recommended we go ahead and euthanize. And if you think euthanizing an adult bird sucks, let me be the first to tell you euthanizing a baby sucks even worse.

The concussed great horned from a couple of weeks ago was released. The goal with adults is always to release them back in their home territory but so many of the adults LWR receives are found “on I-16” or “somewhere on 441” or the like that it’s frequently difficult or impossible to do so. In this case the finders knew he’d come from their property and were delighted to pick him up and release him. As the video they graciously shared shows, it was a beautiful release!

The sharpie x-rays showed a fractured ulna and “hand.” Peggy and I agreed that since neither fracture was displaced, he should have a good chance at healing for flight. The ulna fracture IS pretty close to the joint, but not so close it should freeze the joint.  Thus far, he’s a fairly calm patient—unusual in accipiters, but I’m certainly not complaining!

The concussed barred owl who favored his left wing still favors it a bit but is hopping from perch to perch in the mini-pen. He’s headed to the main flight this week.

Thursday afternoon an adult barred owl came in, emaciated and lethargic. There were no apparent injuries, and given his behavior and the risk of avian flu, I quarantined the bird. He remained lethargic and refused food, which isn’t unusual for the first 48 hours or so after a head injury, but when he started having small seizures, one after another, I opted for euthanasia.  I don’t suspect avian flu, as infected birds don’t usually last 48 hours; it looked more like he’d gotten into some sort of poison.

And Thursday morning a young man called with a barred owl he’d found by the roadside on the way to high school. He skipped his morning classes to bring the bird to LWR—after alerting his teachers of his activity. I commend this young man for his actions; he gives me hope for the future. His bird was also concussed with no other signs of injury and will go into the mini-pen once the current occupant moves to the main flight. And the young man has already been back in touch to check on the bird and ask if he can release it back where he found it when it’s ready to go. We’re a week or so away from that, but again, that would be the ideal scenario!