The first rule of wildlife rehab is never complain about a slow week! Breaks are always nice, especially this time of year, with baby season behind us and annual reports looming. Having a chance to sit back and catch your breath, figuratively speaking, is always welcome—and it’s been a long time since I’ve actually had a really slow “slow” season.
The red shoulder from last week did turn out to have a wing fracture; it’s close to the wrist and we haven’t gotten x-rays yet—that will be this week. Raptors especially have very strong muscles that can hide a fracture because they support the bones so well initially—and in his case, there was no swelling at the outset, so those strong muscles masked the break quite effectively. The good news is that he’s holding the wing perfectly level, so I’m cautiously optimistic that x-rays will show a fixable fracture.
The red shoulder from last week did turn out to have a wing fracture; it’s close to the wrist and we haven’t gotten x-rays yet—that will be this week. Raptors especially have very strong muscles that can hide a fracture because they support the bones so well initially—and in his case, there was no swelling at the outset, so those strong muscles masked the break quite effectively. The good news is that he’s holding the wing perfectly level, so I’m cautiously optimistic that x-rays will show a fixable fracture.
The news is very good indeed for the red tail who finally got his turn in the raptor flight. He’s able to traverse the entire length of the pen airborne, so his stay at LWR is about to end. We have rain predicted here the next few days, but by midweek things are looking good for a release. He’s quite ready to go—whatever end of the raptor flight I’m in, he makes sure he’s at the opposite end!
And that, folks, is it for this week, so you can get back to watching those feel-good Christmas movies or posting cute Christmas memes on Facebook…or whatever…
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