Releases! Finally!

After several weeks of weather delays, the sharpie and screech were finally released late last week, and I’m not sure who was happier—them or me.

Of course, not every release goes quite as planned. The sharpie flew off the glove to the closest tall(ish) object, which happened to be my head… *sigh*…Put the camera away and re-glove the hand that had been holding the camera so the sharpie can be extricated from my hat while leaving my scalp and hands/arms intact…and the doofus then flies away. So there’s no release video for him.

The screech was so eager to leave I was unable to get the camera focused before he took off for freedom, so his release video is rather blurry.

The barred owl who was supposed to go in for x-rays last Monday didn’t survive through Sunday night. Given that he was found by the roadside, most likely had a hip fracture, and was breathing heavily on intake, a logical assumption is that there were also internal injuries.

Meanwhile, the two releases meant that the two red tails could be moved outside. The first-year bird went into the mini-pen after his wing was unwrapped.  He’d begun a molt while inside, so he’s got some feathers coming in on the left wing. The more worrisome situation is the wing still droops. We’ll have to give him time and see how this develops.

The mature red tail—who, if y’all recall, had likely been a victim of “spray-and-pray” over a dove field—also seems to be struggling with a droopy at-rest wing and not flying well in the main flight. Again, time will tell. As always, when there’s a chance of recovering full flight ability, we want to allow the birds that chance.  A phrase we often use in wildlife rehab is “you can always euthanize later, but once it’s done it’s permanent.”

And Operation Eagle Flight remains “grounded” while we sit in hurry-up-and-wait mode awaiting a quote from the contractors. Maybe next week; we’ll see…