It was a fairly quiet week rehab-wise, which I’m not complaining about. A series of back-to-back editing deadlines means I’ve had one full night’s sleep since last Sunday; a heavy intake load would’ve put me over the edge!
The folks whose neighborhood the barred owl came from picked him up Monday evening to release back in his home territory. The screeches were released the following night. I did snap final photos of them before leaving the mini-pen door open, which they wasted no time taking advantage of.
The folks whose neighborhood the barred owl came from picked him up Monday evening to release back in his home territory. The screeches were released the following night. I did snap final photos of them before leaving the mini-pen door open, which they wasted no time taking advantage of.
Of course, the fundraiser is ongoing for the remainder of the month—or till we meet the goal, whichever comes first. At the moment we’re nearly halfway there, with $1225 of $3000 raised. While baby season is grinding to a halt, now’s the time of year we start getting in injured adults and starving juveniles in larger numbers, so LWR still needs that “mouse money” to keep the freezer full!
With both flights empty, the red tail and MIKIs headed outdoors, the MIKIs to the raptor flight and the stargazing red tail to the mini-pen.
The MIKIs are flying well although you’d never know it from any of the photos I attempted last week; this was the best of the lot. Another week or so and they should be good to go.
The MIKIs are flying well although you’d never know it from any of the photos I attempted last week; this was the best of the lot. Another week or so and they should be good to go.
The stargazing red tail had me about ready to throw up my hands and call it. His severe stargazing only seemed to worsen once he was in the mini-pen, his balance is obviously off, and I’ve had to put near-ground-level perches in for him, as he can’t reach the lowest existing perch in there, which is only about two feet off the ground. Add to that the fact that for three days he couldn’t seem to coordinate himself to eat but wouldn’t accept hand-feeding from me, and...well, it wasn’t lookin’ good. I was bracing myself for a hard decision.
But yesterday he finally started eating and this morning when I went to feed him he was perched on the side of the water dish and his stargazing was less pronounced, winning him a reprieve. He’s got a loooong way to go before we can talk about release but at least that option’s back on the table now.
An adult MIKI was found by the roadside by someone on their way to work at the Base, and when she brought it to LWR, the poor thing’s left leg was literally hanging by a tendon—and the right leg was broken too. Most likely he hit someone’s side-view mirror in hot pursuit of a dragonfly. There was nothing to be done but humanely end his suffering.
The nestling mourning dove is now a fledgling mourning dove—stubbornly refuses to self-feed but is otherwise a veritable blur of motion—see for yourselves:
The vultures are now soaring with several older black vultures and at least one turkey vulture. They’re still showing up for handouts but seeing them circling overhead, slowing, and diving down to land right in front of me and start growling and bowing for food is a real treat. *sniff* “My babies is all growed up.” And such gorgeous babies they are, too!
And now I have to feed everybody, get one more short editing job knocked out, and then hopefully crash early for a full night’s sleep. There’s a reason sleep deprivation is considered torture...
RSS Feed
