What a week…

This has been the busiest week of the season thus far, so hold onto your hats, people.
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First, did any of you bet on what last week’s awaited  downy owl was? If you bet barred, as I did, you win! Yep, it was downy barred owl number SIX.  

​The suspected GSW red shoulder was in fact NOT shot, which was quite a relief. He did have a fractured metacarpal--or hand, as it were—but it wasn’t a bad fracture, so he’s doing the R&R routine at LWR for a few weeks.

​Sadly neither the sharpie nor the adult barred owl were as lucky. The sharpie’s wing was badly fractured…

​…and the barred’s wing had been broken right in the joint.

The downy barred whose wing felt “off” to me was fine; his x-rays showed no fractures. 
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The red shoulder who’d been building up his flight muscles after recovering from a wing fracture was released.

So melodramatic!

​This freed up the raptor flight for ALL SIX barred owls, the oldest four a few days before the youngest two. 

Front and back views of a threat display

The youngest two just went into the raptor flight this morning, in fact.

​The GHOs were moved into a large crate to give them elbow room while they await their turn in the raptor flight.

​The flyers are ready for release next week.

The gunshot osprey and red-tailed hawk who came in with an awkwardly healed beak fracture both died last week. If you’ll recall, I was worried about the osprey anyway, but he seemed to be holding his own until he keeled over between morning and evening feedings mid-week. The red tail was doing great and had even started using his beak to tear at his food some—and then one morning, he was dead. No rhyme or reason—all was going well and looking promising, and he just died. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of wildlife rehab: a bird will be doing great and then just keel over for no apparent reason…

The leg trap GHO continues to eat well, hiss and generally make it known that he is NOT a happy camper. Another week or so, and he’ll be ready for x-rays to see how that leg is healing.
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This poor mocker was found on the ground, chilled and soaked to the bone, with a badly broken leg, after early-week rains. He didn’t have a chance and died within minutes of intake.

​And this hummer’s wing was too badly broken to help her, sadly. 

​When this red shoulder was brought at night in after being pulled from a truck grille earlier in the day, he had abrasions on both wings and a laceration on his throat. Initially nothing felt broken, but by the time we got to Smalley’s the next day, the swelling in the left wing had gone down and it was drooping noticeably.  When vet Peggy Hobby x-rayed it, we found it was too badly broken to repair.

​The mourning dove from last week was released and is still hanging around the yard. I know it’s her because of the lack of tail feathers, but she’s doing just fine!

​And this fledgling mourning dove was kidnapped and taken to the police department in a neighboring county. They didn’t get location or contact info from the finders, so the bird couldn’t be reunited with its parents.

Folks, if a bird is fully feathered and has short tail feathers, it’s out of the nest but still dependent on its parents, who may not be hovering overhead all the time. Wait an hour or so to see if the parents are feeding a FULLY FEATHERED young bird on the ground; if not place it in a cardboard box lined with tissue or paper towels and call your local rehabber. If the bird has NO feathers or is only PARTIALLY feathered, place it in a tissue nest inside a cardboard box and call the rehabber ASAP. Of course, if the bird is in imminent danger—a cat, a snake, a dog, etc.—or appears injured, by all means rescue immediately and call a rehabber as soon as the bird is safe.

​These Carolina wrens were true orphans; one of the parents was found dead in front of the nest and the other parent never showed.  Carolina wrens are stressy little birds, so I wasn’t surprised when two of them died within days of intake—not happy, but not surprised.

​The nuthatch from last week is ready for the flight pen.

​She’ll be joined by the fledgling dove and this adorable fellow—a brown thrasher, Georgia’s state bird. He came in as a late nestling found in the middle of the rescuer’s yard just before being snapped up by a dog. Look how quickly he matured over this past week!

​This nestling mockingbird was taken away from an outdoor cat. He’s on meds now for a couple of minor scratches, as cat saliva is toxic to birds and other wildlife. When I suggested to the rescuer that her outdoor cats would be better off inside, and the wildlife in her yard would be safer, I got the usual “Oh, that just won’t work” spiel…and she cheerfully drove off without even offering a donation to help care for the bird her cats had attacked. And you wonder why rehabbers don’t like people…

​When the rescuer found this mallard, he was in the middle of a busy road and seemed stunned and unable to move.  By the time his rescuer was able to get the bird to LWR later in the day, he’d perked up considerably, and after a day of cage rest he seemed eager to move on. He was delighted to be offered his freedom, as you can see in the videos below.

​And these gorgeous little bluebird nestlings were found on a boat dock—one was on the dock; the other was hanging from the nest, if I understood the rescuers correctly. It sounds to me like perhaps a snake got into the nest and these two babies managed to escape being eaten by jumping out. Their rescuers made an approximately four-hour round-trip after work to get these babies to LWR and made a donation, so kudos to them for their efforts and their support. (The red flecks are bits of the emergency diet of cat food they were fed while awaiting transport; most has been cleaned off and the few flecks left are in the down that will be shed, not on the emerging feathers. When feeding ANY wildlife, make sure the food doesn’t get into their feathers or fur. It can cause all sorts of problems, ranging from inability to fly to bacterial infections.)