The birds, that is, and since the funds are getting on the dangerously low side with just under half the year remaining, LWR has an active fundraising campaign in place through August 21:
Thus far $20 has been donated through Fundrazr and $417 outside Fundrazr, for a total of $437. We have $1563 to go to meet our goal, folks, so please donate generously and share our fundraiser with your friends.
Now, on to the birds…
The red shoulder has been released!
Now, on to the birds…
The red shoulder has been released!
And immediately replaced in the flight pen by the juvy red tail.
The chimney swifts are progressing nicely and should be flight pen-ready in a day or two.
We had several songbird releases this past week, as well: both robins, the brown thrasher and the mocker.
This juvenile cormorant came in with an old eye injury; it looked nasty but it had healed in the wild and had been injured for so long that he’d already learned to adapt, and adapt well. After a couple of days’ observation, he was released.
Unfortunately, the great blue heron who came in weak and emaciated was not as lucky, dying overnight.
A late-night call about a hit-by-car owl resulted in the intake of this youngish barred owl, whose right wing was shattered at the wrist, in addition to an eye injury. The wrist fracture was the deal-breaker, though, as the break was in the joint and this isn’t a fixable injury—at least, not one that will allow flight.
A late-night call about a hit-by-car owl resulted in the intake of this youngish barred owl, whose right wing was shattered at the wrist, in addition to an eye injury. The wrist fracture was the deal-breaker, though, as the break was in the joint and this isn’t a fixable injury—at least, not one that will allow flight.
When these two mockers were found in the road with no nest in sight, it seemed a little odd for birds so young—older mockers will simply hop away from the tree their nest is in when they fall, but these babies were just getting their wing feathers in good, so it was a bit puzzling. They did well for several days and then both crashed the same day, leading me to believe there were issues that may’ve caused the parents to eject them from the nest.
The juvy kite is looking gorgeous and will be transferred to Bubba & Friends this week. Steve Hicks has a juvy slightly older than my guy, and with migration looming in the very near future for these birds, we wanted them to be able to pair up and at least have each other until they can join up with a migrating flock. Steve’s pretty much at capacity at the moment, but he does have his kite already in a flight pen. Recall, if you will, that my raptor flight is sorta occupied at the moment by that gorgeous red tail, who would definitely not “play nice” with the kite, so my kite will join Steve’s kite.
The wobbly brown thrasher has improved drastically in the past week and is in the songbird flight building up flight strength and skill.
The older screech is still a pissy little snot and needs to be in the flight pen, but red tails and screeches don’t exactly mix well, so he’s stuck inside until the red tail can be released.
The younger screech is, quite frankly, on borrowed time at the moment. If you’ll recall, since her initial intake, she’s had eating issues. She’s now at the point that while she refuses to even attempt self-feeding she’s also resisting being hand-fed and spitting back pretty much everything she’s fed. I’ve consulted with colleagues Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends and Kathryn Dudeck of Chattahoochee Nature Center, as well as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and no one can come up with a reason the screech refuses to self-feed and likes to spit out her food—nor have we found a solution aside from a liquid diet, which is not helping her build any sort of survival skills. Bottom line: a bird that has so little self-preservation instinct that it won’t even attempt self-feeding has very little chance of survival in the wild. Her chances are looking grimmer by the day…
Given the wide range of territory LWR covers, reuniting nestlings or fledglings with their parents is usually impossible, but sometimes luck is on our side. My nephew saw this fledgling barn swallow, one of the colony who’s had nests under my parents’ carport this year, grounded; he started to pick the bird up and it flitted another 10-12 feet and landed in the hay field, wings outspread and unable to lift off again.
My nephew scooped him up and brought him to LWR, where we determined that he’d probably been the last to hatch and fledged too early under pressure from his newly-fledged sibs and parents. He was NOT a happy camper, but I kept him for a couple of days to give him time to finish maturing to flight-readiness and then took him back to my parents’ carport, camera at the ready, to release him back into the colony…
…And the little snot took off before I could even focus the camera on him, happily rejoining his family. So no pix or video of the actual release, but a very happy little barn swallow when he regained his freedom! The video below, taken from inside my parents’ laundry room, gives you an idea of the level of swallow activity under their carport. Pretty amazing, huh?!
…And the little snot took off before I could even focus the camera on him, happily rejoining his family. So no pix or video of the actual release, but a very happy little barn swallow when he regained his freedom! The video below, taken from inside my parents’ laundry room, gives you an idea of the level of swallow activity under their carport. Pretty amazing, huh?!
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