While the rehab gods took pity and lowered intakes this week, the pace at LWR remained frenetic, with releases, fruit-basket turnovers and the usual baby season mayhem.
First, the big news: the barred owl sextet was released and did great—so great, in fact, that I managed only a couple of short videos and just one photo. They scattered like the wind!
First, the big news: the barred owl sextet was released and did great—so great, in fact, that I managed only a couple of short videos and just one photo. They scattered like the wind!
And if you’re still curious as to what those last two intakes were last Sunday, we had an adult barred owl and a pre-fledgling brown thrasher come in. The barred owl had a very nasty eye injury—the conjunctiva covering the eye was ripped badly and there was really no way to repair that. He required euthanasia.
The Sunday thrasher joined the other one, and they’ve both since gone to the songbird flight, along with the Carolina wren—sadly, the sole survivor of the original quintet—where they’re happily mauling crickets.
With the raptor flight barred owl-free, the GHOs moved in. They’re happier with room to fly, and as soon as they pass the live prey test, they should be good to go…
…so the red shoulders can move in. These two are definitely flight pen-ready.
These two, however need a little more time—although by the time the GHOs vacate, they’ll probably be ready, as well.
They were joined this week by a third red shoulder, also an older nestling. He was found in the middle of the road and after the initial shock wore off, he turned into an eating machine just like his older foster sibs. I don’t dare put him in the same box with the older two; they’re too aggressive!
The red-bellied woodpeckers and the obstinate cardinal have been released; after a couple of days the red bellies stopped showing up more than once or twice a day for handouts, but the cardie is a regular still.
I’ve not managed to find time to get the goslings to their release site but they’re still happy in the pen. The red tail is eating well and still just as laid-back as when she came in. The “broadwing” turned out to be the darkest red shoulder I’ve ever seen—when he started feeling his oats he started letting out red shoulder screams right and left. He should be releasable once he’s had another few days of good eats to put some more weight on. The adult screech with the luxated lens is now finding his own food, instead of having it handed to him. This bodes well for his eventual release. The barred owl I was afraid was blind is also finding his own food now, so he may eventually be releasable, as well.
This Carolina wren fledgling was attacked by a cat and brought to LWR fairly quickly afterwards. She was in good shape and very alert, or so it seemed. I started her on meds, and was pretty sure she’d be headed for the songbird flight once she was off meds. She was dead the next morning.
This Carolina wren fledgling was attacked by a cat and brought to LWR fairly quickly afterwards. She was in good shape and very alert, or so it seemed. I started her on meds, and was pretty sure she’d be headed for the songbird flight once she was off meds. She was dead the next morning.
An early morning call about a cat-attacked bird led me to believe the bird was on the way immediately, as I stressed the need for speed with cat attack victims—they need antibiotics ASAP, as cat saliva carries bacteria toxic to wildlife. Instead, the finder spent the day looking for “someone closer,” despite the fact that LWR was only a 20-minute drive away. When the adult female cardinal finally arrived late that afternoon, I was hopeful the finder hadn’t wasted too much precious time and started meds immediately. Unfortunately, it was too late; the poor bird died overnight.
These Carolina wren hatchlings were found in the saddlebag of a repossessed motorcycle. One died before arrival at LWR but the surviving four seemed in good shape…until they all started dying, one by one, within hours of each other. Currently we’re down to just the one survivor, who’s not looking promising.
This morning yet another hit-by-car barred owl came in, with his left eye swollen shut. It’s cloudy but looks like it should clear up. We’ll see.
The screeches are doing well, aside from some worrisome foot/leg issues that have cropped up with the younger one. He’ll be headed to Smalley’s for x-rays ASAP to see if we can figure out what’s going on.
The pileated has discovered that drumming on his crate is a lot more fun than demolishing logs, so I give the crate another week before it’s totally trashed. I keep somewhat older, tatty crates for cases like this, so the really good ones don’t get ruined by over-enthusiastic adult woodpeckers!
The killdeer are growing like weeds and impossible to photograph now, as they’re never still long enough. I did manage a couple of videos of them right after paper changes, though. Cute little rascals, huh?!
And to give you a rough idea of how the year is going thus far, LWR is at 161 intakes for the year as of today; 73 of those were last month. While that may be small potatoes for a large, fully staffed center, keep in mind that LWR is a one-person operation serving basically the entire southern half of Georgia.
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