Y’all, I’m tryin’ really hard not to complain about the rain. Really hard. But Lordamercy, my raptor flight has huge puddles in it; the songbird flight repair is on hold indefinitely, with more rain on the way most of next week, and there haven’t been three consecutive rain-free days since sometime back in late January.
The good news, as far as the songbird flight goes, is once we got the debris out of the way, the damage isn’t as bad as it initially looked. Volunteer transporter AJ Rogers, who also constructed the mini-pen last summer, estimates about a day’s work to have it usable again.
The red tail is looking great and inhaling food. She’s what colleague Steve Hicks calls a light eater: as long as it’s light outside, she’s eating! She was thinnish when she came in; the more she eats, the better. And proper nutrition will aid in better healing of that wing fracture.
The good news, as far as the songbird flight goes, is once we got the debris out of the way, the damage isn’t as bad as it initially looked. Volunteer transporter AJ Rogers, who also constructed the mini-pen last summer, estimates about a day’s work to have it usable again.
The red tail is looking great and inhaling food. She’s what colleague Steve Hicks calls a light eater: as long as it’s light outside, she’s eating! She was thinnish when she came in; the more she eats, the better. And proper nutrition will aid in better healing of that wing fracture.
Whaddya mean the camera's not edible?
The barred owl, bless his heart, is in the raptor flight. He does have a covered blind at the back, out of the wind and rain, but apparently he was enjoying the wet the day I snapped this photo during a lull in the downpour.
The screech is opening his injured eye now, and it’s looking better. I suspect we may have a luxated lens, but there was no way to be sure with the blood that filled his eye most of last week. Now that we can see what’s going on a bit better, he’ll probably make a trip to Smalley’s this week for a more thorough eye exam.
A young adult turkey vulture was found near the road midweek, apparently unable to fly. His intake exam revealed an old, healed fracture but he was able to fully extend his wing. Given the prevalence of deer carcasses up and down my rural road, I opted to soft-release him.
And yesterday a first-year Cooper’s hawk came in with apparent head trauma. Nothing’s broken and he was quite vocal on intake but it was pretty obvious from his head tremors he needs a few days to get his horizontal and vertical hold adjusted. (For those who wonder how to differentiate between Coops and sharpies, Coops generally have a pronounced “ridge” of feathers at the backs of their heads; sharpies have rounded heads. It’s not foolproof but it’s pretty accurate.)
Hopefully some of y’all are having decent weather for the Great Backyard Bird Count, which ends tomorrow. I haven’t participated this year, thanks to the rain. Yeah, I know birds are out in the rain. They have feather insulation. I just get damp, cold and irritable!
We’re still awaiting federal approval for Sisyphus’ transfer. It may take some time, so we’re in “hurry up and wait” mode. And the flyers are still awaiting warmer, drier weather for release. But they do love those dandelion greens!
We’re still awaiting federal approval for Sisyphus’ transfer. It may take some time, so we’re in “hurry up and wait” mode. And the flyers are still awaiting warmer, drier weather for release. But they do love those dandelion greens!
Number 3 was still hiding at the back of the nest box.
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