What do I do all day?

Wanna hear about just part of my morning? Feet hit the ground at 6:30; start feeding birds. Three need to be in the flight pen today; one needs medication; one needs to be released. Get everybody fed, first round of the day. Change paper after all AM poops. Move birds to flight pen and make sure there’s enough fresh food and water there. Box up bird ready for release—waterfowl, so must drive to river. Feed inside birds and top off flight-penners. Drive to river, release waterfowl. Come home, feed all birds…again…clean cages of flight-penned birds so they’re ready for their next inmates. Look for some new enrichment toys for crow; he’s bored with the ones from yesterday already. Feed birds again. Oh, and gulp a protein shake for breakfast in between all this…It’s now 8:30. I haven’t combed my hair, brushed my teeth, put in my contacts or put on any makeup yet, but by God the birds are taken care of—for another half hour, anyway!  And this is a slow morning…

After a slight lull there, with few new intakes, this week saw an influx of guests at the LWR B&B.

First, though, let’s start with last week’s mystery (to you) bird. Everybody should know by now that he’s a blue jay! He was only a couple of days old when he was found on the ground, so as of today he’s about 12 days old.  Look at the photos below, snapped every two days, to see how he’s grown in just a week! (Go back to last week’s update to remind yourself what he looked like on June 23, two days before this photo sequence started.) And as you can see in the video clips, he’s preening away at the keratin sheaths over his feathers!

June 25

June 27

June 29

The Eastern phoebe is in the flight pen as of this morning and seems quite happy to be outside now.

Male blue grosbeaks are absolutely breathtaking, as you can see. This guy came in with a wing injury, right at the wrist, that had already healed in the wild. He wasn’t able to fly properly but was eating well, so since I had major editing deadlines, I delayed his euthanasia for several days.  When I took him to Smalley’s Animal Hospital for vet Jim Hobby to euthanize, to our delight and amazement, he flew out of the box and across the room! Our dear grosbeak is now in the flight pen, where he’ll stay a while as he builds his stamina back up.

I’ve always heard green herons called “little green herons.” I have no clue why, as it’s pretty obvious you’re not looking at a great blue heron when you see these little rascals! This juvenile was rescued as he was being attacked by cattle egrets. He had a small puncture wound on his chest but was otherwise unscathed…and uncouth. I thought great blues were ill-tempered, aggressive snots, but noooo…this guy took the prize for being a vicious little cuss. 

Because he wasn’t eating on his own to begin with, I had the great pleasure (yeah, right!) of hand-feeding him…He’d scream and lunge at my hands with that dagger-like beak; I’d grab him anyway and stuff some fish in his beak…He was well-fed; my hands looked like I was some sort of medieval torture victim. (I know—GLOVES! But you don’t have the proper dexterity with gloves, or at least, I don’t.) Below is a clip of me attempting to snag his little butt to feed him...

Happily, he soon realized that he could feed himself and avoid all the drama, so as soon as I was convinced he was truly self-feeding, I took Mr. “I hate your guts, lady” to the river. I was all set, camcorder on and in my hand, as I opened the box…and he shot out like an irascible cannonball, straight over the river…I did manage to catch the really crappy short video below as he disappeared before I could even zoom!

As you well know by now, I urge people to leave fledglings alone and let their parents finish raising them—unless they’re in imminent danger. This blue jay was picked up, kept inside for the night, and fed nothing for half the next day, so when I received the call on him, I didn’t even risk leaving him with the callers to be placed back outside. He needed nutrition and hydration at this point.

Luckily, blue jays are intelligent birds, so he figured out very quickly that I was his new “parent” and he and I are getting along famously. He was another of this morning’s transfers to the flight pen.

(I know--I've GOT to find a good video editing program!)

When the call came from a pharmacy in town that there was a fledgling crow running around their parking lot, I figured it was a grackle. I haven’t been lucky enough to have a crow in rehab in several years.  We discussed the situation. He’d been there for two days and was running all under parked cars and near the road…I made an executive decision (what? I *am* president of LWR, so technically I *am* an executive!) and told them to box him up and bring him on, still figuring it was a grackle.

When I received the bird, I took one look and started grinning. “I’ll be damned; it IS a crow!” And the decision to intervene was the right one. He was rail-thin, ravenous and massively thirsty. He perched on his water dish and drained it dry as soon as I got him home. He’s still not real sure he trusts me, but we’re getting there…

Sometimes it seems no weekly update would be complete without yet another mocker…This little fellow was found in the middle of the road and his finders were perplexed that there was no nest in sight. Mockers’ feet work before their brains or wings do, unfortunately. When they fall from the nest, instead of remaining where they fell, they wander off and end up in the most unusual places…roads, parking lots…

Calls from people who’ve found birds by the roadside rarely end well, as they’ve usually been hit by a vehicle and are fatally injured.  So when the call came in for this bird, I wasn’t really hopeful. I’d pick it up, assess the damage and plan for the euthanasia that would probably be needed.

To my surprise, the finder handed me a bird I didn’t recognize, but the excitement at a previously un-rehabbed and unknown species was tempered by the fact that her left wing had been sheared off at the “wrist.” It was a fresh wound, still bleeding. I guessed the side-view mirror caught her, ripped off her wing and flung her to the shoulder of the road.

First things first—bleeding must be stopped and wound cleaned to see just how bad the damage actually was. Then I’d see about IDing her before I had to put her down.

She was obviously in shock as I cleaned and treated the wing and started her on meds. Once she was stable, I grabbed my Sibley’s and my Birds of Georgia and discovered that I had a yellow-billed cuckoo, common in Georgia during breeding season, but extremely shy and heard more often than seen. They’re also called “rain crows”.

This slender-bodied, elegant looking bird was sitting in a box with part of her wing missing. If she didn’t die from shock or blood loss, what were her chances? She’d probably never fly again, but would she make a good educational bird, given that they’re described as shy?

My questions are slowly being answered. Several hours after intake, she escaped from her fleece-covered box and managed a short flight across the rehab room—and while I was ecstatic to see her fly even a bit, I was less thrilled that she started her wing bleeding again. Two days later, she’s alert and the wound is scabbed over nicely.  Today I offered her a low, broad perch and she’s using it. I had been holding her to hand-feed her the same nutrient-dense formula I feed baby songbirds; today I tried offering the syringe and letting her take it in her beak on her own. Smart bird that she is, she’s taking the syringe feedings without me having to hold her!

Her future is still uncertain. She could still suddenly develop an infection. She could die from the stress of captivity. She’ll probably never again fly well enough to make the annual migration to South America for the winter; her flight will likely never be good enough for that. On the flip side, she’s doing well enough now that I’m cautiously optimistic that she’ll survive and given her very calm demeanor right now (which could change drastically as she heals), she might make an excellent educational bird.

What I do know for sure right now is that I’m utterly captivated by this feathered beauty!