The inn is filling up

Y’all. Really. Apparently saying there’d been a false start to baby season was all it took to open the floodgates. (Thanks a lot, Murphy; now go screw up someone else’s life for a while.) Last week was insane: 16 intakes—almost half the intakes thus far for the month—and it’s not May yet! If they keep comin’ in like this, I’m gonna have birds stacked like cordwood.

Sooo…where to begin? How to approach the insanity that was last week?

Let’s go chronologically.

Sunday’s cat-caught Carolina wren didn’t survive the night; as you know by now, they’re stressy little birds, and even though there were no obvious wounds and he’d been started on antibiotics, it was just more stress than his little system could handle.
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Monday an adult red-phase screech came in—long story short, the finder’d had the bird for SIX days, feeding her NOTHING but putting her outside DURING THE DAY and bringing her in at night, when she could have hunted. She was in baaaad shape when she arrived—on the verge of starvation; huge tick on the corner of one eyelid; refused to open her eyes or even raise her head…Quite frankly, I didn’t expect her to survive the night, especially since she was so weak and lethargic she had to be force-fed.

​Fast forward to yesterday, and just look at this gal now! I’m so proud of her!

Tuesday an adult male brown-headed cowbird came in, the victim of a mocker attack. Mockers are aggressive little snots on their best days; they’re downright vicious when defending a nest, and I’m betting the cowbird’s mate was attempting to lay an egg in the mockers’ nest. As a reminder, cowbirds don’t build nests, incubate their eggs or raise their own young—they lay one egg each in several nests and allow the poor birds whose nests they egg-dump in to raise the young cowbirds, often at the expense of the nest owners’ rightful babies. I call ‘em the welfare birds…

At any rate, while there were no external injuries, apparently they’d done some internal damage, as he struggled to breathe and didn’t survive the night.
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Also on Tuesday, two hatchling screeches came in after the snag (dead tree) their nest was in was cut down. They were only days old at intake—still had their egg teeth. Both fit in the palm of my hand together, not singly. As their little eyes are VERY light sensitive and they must remain in dark/dimly lit areas for the first few weeks of their lives, all the photos of them are without flash, so they’re a bit fuzzy…kinda like the babies themselves!

Here they are on intake, April 23:

​And two days later, April 25:

​Aaand two days after that, April 27:

They’re eating well, and as you can see, their egg teeth have fallen off now, one’s eyes are open and the other’s are starting to open—and I’m already starting to see hints of feather growth beneath that down!
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And also on Tuesday—nine of last week’s intakes were on Tuesday—a cattle egret with a broken wing arrived. Sadly, it was an open fracture, so euthanasia was the kindest option.

​The egret arrived in a “group transport” as a volunteer transporter made two stops on her way to LWR. Her second stop was our next intake, a nestling barred owl. The mammal rehabber he’d been taken to initially thought he had a stick jammed in his eyelid, possibly from his fall from the nest; my intake exam led me to believe it was a scab. But when cleaning and swabbing left it just as hard as before, I decided x-rays were in order. After looking at the x-ray, vet Peggy Hobby of Smalley’s Animal Hospital took a closer look at the eye and realized what had happened is the actual eyelid was damaged and what we were seeing and feeling was the dead tissue where it had hardened after the blood supply had been cut off. It won’t affect his vision or chances for release, though.

​And the last four intakes for Tuesday were Carolina wrens, also with a backstory. In this instance the woman who found them called LWR, saying they were house finches, and then said she’d found someone to bring them, someone who claimed to “work with” me. What she’d done was take them to a pet store, where the clerk—who did NOT know me nor work with me—decided he’d take the birds home to raise himself. Y’all know what a mistake that was…when I found out, I called the game warden for that area, and I also called the pet store to inform them that DNR was now involved. Shortly afterward the chastened clerk delivered the birds to LWR. And they were, of course, the stress-death champions of the songbird world, Carolina wrens…

Surprisingly, three of the four are doing well; the fourth died this morning.

Wednesday, nothing came in, which was fine by me after nine intakes on Tuesday.
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Thursday morning, a fledgling phoebe with a nasty open leg fracture came in. It’s hard enough sometimes to euthanize adult birds; the babies REALLY hurt, so even though I knew what needed to be done, I wanted a second opinion. I texted a photo of the leg to Peggy, who agreed it wasn’t fixable. Phoebes are sweet little birds, and I was reduced to tears over this one, but he was euthanized. The photos of his leg were taken post-euthanasia.

​Thursday evening, an adult belted kingfisher with a wing fracture came in; x-rays Friday showed it was right in the shoulder, but it wasn’t badly displaced. Joint fractures usually freeze the joint when they heal, but Peggy and I agreed it was worth giving the bird some time to see how things played out.

​Thursday night, a cat-caught nestling brown thrasher came in. His rescuer heard him on her porch after dark and when she opened the door to see where the chirping was coming from, her cat rolled the bird. Since she was standing right there, the rescuer was able to shoo the cat away before he inflicted any wounds. Still, cat saliva is toxic to wildlife AND she didn’t know where his nest was, so he arrived late Thursday night and is on antibiotics and doing well. Except when I have to move him to change his “nest” paper, at which point he shrieks like I'm killing him...

​Nothing came in Friday, either, but there were two intakes for Saturday.  Midday, a nestling great horned owl came in. His rescuer saw two stray dogs corner him and intervened before he could be hurt. He’s not a happy camper but should be fine.

​And late yesterday, this little probable chipping sparrow came in after being found on the ground. He’s still on heat, of course, and it’s too soon to say for certain, but his chances seem good.

In “older” guests at LWR, the great horned in the raptor flight is really skillful at flying and perching; now she needs to pass her live prey test.  The first and second red-phase screeches need to be in the raptor flight to see if those healed wing fractures will allow for flight, but since raptors don’t pay well together, they can’t go in with the great horned. THAT is not the sort of live prey test I want!

The adult barred and great horned both also need to be in the raptor flight, again, to see if their healed wing fractures will allow for flight.

The house finch and cedar waxwing were released. To be honest, the waxwing was iffy based on x-rays, but when the rascal started getting loose and leading me on a merry chase all around the house every time I put his berries in or changed his paper, I decided he was ready to go.
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The vultures are feathering out nicely and self-feeding now, which is nice. Messy, but nice…

No, that's not vulture vomit in the dish; it's their every-other-day one-meal treat of chicken livers.

​So at the moment, LWR has ten—count ‘em, TEN—owls of various species (which of Georgia’s native owls am I missing, people? You should know this!); two vultures, three Carolina wrens, a brown thrasher, and a probable chipping sparrow…and the owls and vultures are eatin’ me out of house and home…and May, traditionally “hell month,” hasn’t even started yet…