Yet another barred owl

Barreds are the world’s worst at ending up in rehab, partially because they tend to hunt along the edges of roads and end up getting whacked by vehicles. As a result, they’re probably the most common species raptor rehabbers see as intakes. One year LWR had something like 23 come in, and not one was savable—that was a really bad year. Fortunately, few years see that sort of 100% euthanasia rate.

This past week, this barred came in with head trauma. He was lucky; nothing was broken. He was just having trouble adjusting his horizontal and vertical hold, as it were. Then we had several days of rain, a wet spell that just ended in the wee hours this morning. So he’s been sitting on ready for a few days now and will be released early this week.

The broken-foot barred continues to eat well and remains antsy—I honestly don’t see how that foot will ever heal, the way he bounces around in his box, but we’ll see. And he delights in trashing his box daily, as you can see... At least he’s leaving the boot on, which vet Jim Hobby and I really didn’t expect. We figured we’d be re-wrapping it nonstop.

And the red tail won himself a slight reprieve when twice last week I saw him attempting low flight—I mean VERY low and not far. But it was a vast improvement over seeing him just run along the ground, and he IS a red tail, so he gets another chance. However, he’s also developed bumblefoot where he and the older red tail released last month locked talons one day, so now that will need treating, as well. It’s always something...

As for the fundraiser, it ended at midnight Saturday with under 50% of the goal met. Heartfelt thanks to those who donated; to those who waited for “someone else” to donate, let me explain some hard facts to you: In the entire state of Georgia, there are just 11 licensed raptor rehabbers, most of whom are in the metro- Atlanta area. Currently I’m the only one listed for the mid-state area; there are two in South Georgia and one on the coast. If those of us outside the metro-Atlanta area stop taking birds, that means there’s no one south of the metro area licensed to take them—which would mean a drive to Atlanta if you wanted help for an injured raptor. Those few of us south of Atlanta keep people from having to make that day trip.

LWR doesn’t do fundraisers because they’re fun; they’re not. Quite frankly, they’re a massive headache, especially given the low response rate, and the funds raised come nowhere close to covering our expenses. But we feel that the fundraisers give the public some stake—some sense of “partnership”—in our efforts. Not everyone can rehab, but most people can spare a donation now and then. Sadly, even the people who bring us birds seldom donate toward their care, and the general public seems not to care at all—until they need a rehabber. Then they cannot understand why no one is within convenient driving distance, why no one can drop everything they’re doing to come get their one bird...or, in extreme cases, why the rehabber whose number they were given says they can’t take anything else at the moment due to space or financial constraints.

Y’all, we don’t do this to make money, but it takes money to do it. And most of us use our own funds to cover the shortfall in our rehab budgets. THIS is why fundraisers are important to us. And they should be to you, as well, because if the state/feds ever decide to create paid positions for wildlife rehabbers, YOUR taxes would go up to cover the salaries for those new government employees. A tax-deductible donation to LWR or your nearest wildlife rehabber keeps us in business and keeps your taxes from increasing. Something for you to consider...