What’d I tell y’all?

Remember last week when I said my mentioning it was a slow rehab season thus far would invite Murphy to the party? Yeah, well, that’s exactly what happened...

I now have FIVE—count ‘em, FIVE—little leather-lunged red shoulders in-house and two young black vultures from different locations. And let’s not forget the juvie barred owl lingering from owl baby season. The LWR B&B has gone from “vacancies” to “no room at the inn.” (Okay, I could squeeze in a screech or two...)

The first arrival of the week was this brancher red shoulder, who came in via DNR from a county within our Region 4. He’s reluctant to self-feed and resistant to being fed, so he’s been a bit of a chore over the past week; additionally, although no injuries showed upon exam by the wildlife biologist who took him in overnight until he could make it to LWR or when I examined him on intake, he doesn’t want to stand. I suspect a pelvic fracture, which doesn’t always show in x-rays; but he’s been kept in a donut all week and is starting to get more mobile, so maybe it was just a really bad bruise. I’ll probably aim at x-rays this week just to be sure, even though the odds are we won’t be able to see any fractures.

The very next day an in-county caller indicated they had two nestling red shoulders that they couldn’t bring to LWR. I called the same game tech who brought me the brancher to see if he could get them, and he was able to do so—and informed me the callers had several vehicles sitting in the yard. So much for “I can’t drive them there,” right? More like “I WON’T drive them there.” I’m not sure how long they’d been with the individual, as they reeked of fish and had bits of fish stuck in their down on intake. For the record, fish is NOT on the red shoulder menu, so for the first few days after their intake I had screaming, hungry birds with indigestion. They wanted the food but couldn’t eat much at a time. And it took them three days to cast pellets. This is what happens when untrained individuals rely on “instinct” or the Internet for wildlife feeding advice.

Now, however, they’re eating well and casting pellets properly. And they look—and smell—much better, too.

And then red shoulder number 5 arrived, a second brancher who’d been with another rehabber for about a week while she tried to find someone who had other red shoulders to house him with. During baby season rehabbers don’t always communicate well with each other; we’re too busy dealing with our intakes. He’s doing well and will go into the mini-pen as soon as the barred moves into the main flight. And yeah, I know his eye color looks Coopish but he SOUNDS like a red shoulder.

The older vulture was apparently dog-attacked but not injured and spent several days with a vet in the county where he was found...where he was fed cat food...which I understand he promptly upchucked all over himself when colleague Kathryn Dudeck triaged him before his transport to LWR.  God love her, she made sure he was clean before transport!

The second one was fed inappropriately as well, based on advice from a rehabber who isn’t licensed for raptors, resulting in rotting food crammed in his crop. Again, Kathryn triaged this one with a crop flush before his transport to LWR, and we’re still considering him critical, so it’s a wait-and-see situation with him.

Meanwhile, the original red shoulder nestling is growing apace and looking just gorgeous. Given the size, I’m thinking this is a female, and she’s gonna be a beauty once her feathers are fully in.

The barred owl hates me and would like to be gone NOW but he has to move to the main flight and pass a live prey test first!

For your listening pleasure, last night...ALL night...I had the battle of the nightjars going on in my yard, as the chuck-will’s-widows and whippoorwills competed to see who was the loudest. And the area unattached male mockers joined in quite frequently...Good thing I was up all night reading anyway!