Weather delays red tail release

As you’ll recall, the young male red tail was placed in the raptor flight last week, whereupon we had several unseasonably cold days and nights, followed by a rain threat that, as of this moment, appears to’ve fizzled. All this means the poor fellow’s release has been delayed. He needed the extra time, anyway, as he was initially a bit reluctant to fly. This isn’t an issue anymore; he’s flying beautifully and eating well. So…weather cooperating, we’re aiming at a release tomorrow!
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The screech continues to eat well as his wing fracture heals (we hope; remember, it’s right in the joint), and he’s still the reigning king of stinkeye.

The barred owl is still awaiting further callusing on his wing fractures (again, we hope) and will need follow-up x-rays in a few weeks.
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And the only intake for the week was a gorgeous first-year female red tail with a nasty wing fracture and a fractured or dislocated hip. She came in crawling with maggots, so before I could take her to the vet for x-rays to see what we had to work with, I had to “de-maggot” her. This took the better part of the day of intake, so the goal was to take her to Smalley’s the following day, but she died overnight. I wasn’t overly surprised, honestly. She was fairly well-fleshed but waaay too docile to’ve been a healthy bird.

After "de-maggoting" and before her overnight death...

​Baby bird season will kick in within the next few weeks, so we’re trying to get organized for that. The mesh in the songbird flight needed replacing; we’re half-done and hope to finish within the next couple of days. My niece has been helping with that, thank goodness; it’s a four-handed job. I’ve got to load up on paper towels and Kleenex, as well, and get the rehab room cleaned out and organized so everything’s in place when those first wee ones come in. If they’ll juuuust hold off another couple of weeks…