Spring’s bustin’ out all over

Although spring doesn’t officially arrive till March 20, it’s already looking pretty springlike around here: bluets, henbit, Carolina jessamine and blackberries blooming (among numerous others; these are some of my favorites), dawn chorus loud enough for the first time since fall to actually wake me up before my alarm goes off, and three times last week I heard a migrating whippoorwill calling away, twice right outside my window—or so it sounded. No chuck-will’s-widows yet, though.

But the pace is still late-winter slow at LWR. I’m actually wondering if part of the slowness may be related to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), which is now apparently an issue in Georgia. Per information sheets recently provided by the Georgia DNR, HPAI is highly transmissible from bird to bird, both wild and domestic, and in some domestic species such as chickens, it can wipe out an entire flock. It’s become a disease of concern among raptors, as well. For those who may not be aware of the disease, here are some of the pertinent points from the DNR info sheet:

• Some wild birds infected with HPAI may not appear sick.
• HPAI occurs naturally in migratory waterfowl, wild aquatic birds (gulls, shorebirds), raptors, and scavengers; however, all bird species should be considered susceptible.
• Clinical signs can vary widely. Some birds may show no symptoms, while others may exhibit signs such as sneezing, coughing, watery eyes, nasal discharge, twisted neck, swollen sinuses, along with decreased feed and water intake, dehydration, depression, huddling, diarrhea, lethargy and death. However, many diseases can cause these same symptoms, therefore HPAI cannot be diagnosed based just on clinical signs.
• HPAI viruses are highly contagious and usually cause severe illness in chickens and turkeys; few birds within an infected flock will survive. It is therefore critical to avoid exposure to domestic birds.
• AI viruses are shed in the feces and respiratory secretions of birds. The fecal-oral and respiratory transmission routes can rapidly spread the virus throughout a poultry flock.
• Clothes, shoes, shared equipment and vehicles can pick up the virus from the environment, therefore these are also transmission routes.

In other words, this should prove to be an...interesting year...I’ve already verified with Auburn that they will still accept raptors from Georgia should they need their specialized care, but that could change if the outbreak gets too widespread and severe.

On to more pleasant topics: The great horned almost-brancher will be moved to a larger box early this week to allow for a low perch; she’s acting like she’s ready to see what those clodhopper feet are capable of.

The screech’s radius and ulna are both broken, which isn’t promising, but they’re not badly displaced so vet Peggy Hobby and I are hoping maybe the wing will heal for flight. As long as the calluses don’t grow together as they form, the bird should be flight-capable, but that’s always a risk. (The email function on the x-ray machine at Smalley’s wasn’t working and for some reason the files didn’t transfer to the flash drive I keep on hand for situations like that, so I have no x-rays to show today.) His eye continues to look better as the blood is reabsorbed.

The barred owl that came in late last Sunday had some major head trauma going on; it took him three days to decide to eat, and it’s only been the past couple of days that he’s started getting active in his box. We’ll see how he does in the mini-pen this week.

And that’s about it for this week. Don’t get all paranoid about HPAI; just be aware it’s out there and know that we avian rehabbers will be instituting precautions to keep the birds in our care safe.