Apparently the wildlife gods decided to give LWR an early Labor Day break, as we had no new intakes last week—a rare occurrence indeed! Oh, there were calls, but none resulted in intakes. HOWever…I already know that there are three birds headed this way as soon as transportation can be arranged, and there may be one other; we’re not sure on it yet.
In the meantime, here’s a short update on the ongoing LWR guests.
The mourning doves are almost totally self-feeding now, so they should be headed for the flight pen this week. They’ve been engaging in an awful lot of wing flapping over the past week. Tried for video of that but they always stopped at the sight of the camera.
In the meantime, here’s a short update on the ongoing LWR guests.
The mourning doves are almost totally self-feeding now, so they should be headed for the flight pen this week. They’ve been engaging in an awful lot of wing flapping over the past week. Tried for video of that but they always stopped at the sight of the camera.
The screech is a couple of weeks away from release and is looking ever so much better now that all those molted head feathers have been replaced with shiny new ones!
While it’s not the clearest shot in the world, this photo of the house finch is at least better than last week’s “tail feathers barely in the frame” shot. She’s good to go but stubbornly refuses to do so, taking advantage of the gravy train for as long as possible.
The brown thrasher’s flight feathers are slowly showing growth, but looking at him, I’m worried he may simply be too fat to fly. Honestly! Thrashers are usually fairly slim birds; this guy ain’t slim by any stretch of the imagination, so he may need to be put on a diet so he can actually use those wings when they’ve fully come back in!
Oddly enough, the female bluebird’s flight feathers are showing uneven growth, with one wing fully replaced and the other slower to regrow. This means, bless her sweet little heart, that she’s still grounded. Hopefully another week or so and she’ll be flitting around the flight like the male.
Speaking of the male, now that he’s got wings again, as it were, he’s everywhere in the flight but still gets winded easily—gotta build up his endurance a bit before he’s good for release. I’m actually thinking I’ll hold him until the female’s good to go so they can be released together. They’re not from the same clutch, so they might remain paired until breeding season next spring—who knows?
Like I said, short update for an eerily quiet week. I expect more intakes next week as people continue cleaning up from the winds and rain from the remnants of Hermine that swept through Georgia Friday, but since it’s not baby season—for birds, anyway; it is for squirrels—it won’t result in a flood of unnested baby birds at least. More likely a few migrating adults--now let’s hope I didn’t just invite Murphy to the party!
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