After a frenetic week last week, this week was slowish, with just seven intakes, all at the end of the week. But April 2018 is still on track to be the busiest April in LWR’s history.
Beginning with the new intakes, these precious Eastern bluebirds were accidentally transported from Atlanta to the midstate area when someone bought some sort of heavy equipment and Mama Bluebird had built a nest in the exhaust pipe. The buyer had no idea what to do when he found the nest full of babies near dark, so he kept them overnight and took them to friends, a young couple who have several exotic birds, the next morning. This couple spent the remainder of the day on the phone, trying to locate someone who could help. A vet south of them gave them illegal and crappy feeding advice; a naturalist at a nearby state park gave them even worse advice, recommending first that they place the babies in an empty nest and leave it outside and “other birds” would feed them. That ain’t gonna happen, folks. Then she explained to them, in a spectacular display of ignorance, that they only needed to feed the babies in the morning and evening. By early evening, when they finally contacted LWR, the bluebirds were starving and frantic; the couple, with an infant of their own and subsequent strong parental instincts, were about as frantic as the poor birds; and when I told them to get the babies to me ASAP, they had them here within half an hour.
The first video below is after I’d actually sated their hunger somewhat; you can imagine what they sounded like on intake after not eating in nearly 24 hours. The second video was after their hunger was fully sated and they’d settled down; the faint “cricketing” chirp you hear is the phoebes next to them. The third video was at one of their half-hourly feedings today. They’re such gorgeous little birds. Every rehabber has their favorite birds; bluebirds top my list: sweet, gorgeous, and their little begging calls are almost as sweet to me as the adult song.
Beginning with the new intakes, these precious Eastern bluebirds were accidentally transported from Atlanta to the midstate area when someone bought some sort of heavy equipment and Mama Bluebird had built a nest in the exhaust pipe. The buyer had no idea what to do when he found the nest full of babies near dark, so he kept them overnight and took them to friends, a young couple who have several exotic birds, the next morning. This couple spent the remainder of the day on the phone, trying to locate someone who could help. A vet south of them gave them illegal and crappy feeding advice; a naturalist at a nearby state park gave them even worse advice, recommending first that they place the babies in an empty nest and leave it outside and “other birds” would feed them. That ain’t gonna happen, folks. Then she explained to them, in a spectacular display of ignorance, that they only needed to feed the babies in the morning and evening. By early evening, when they finally contacted LWR, the bluebirds were starving and frantic; the couple, with an infant of their own and subsequent strong parental instincts, were about as frantic as the poor birds; and when I told them to get the babies to me ASAP, they had them here within half an hour.
The first video below is after I’d actually sated their hunger somewhat; you can imagine what they sounded like on intake after not eating in nearly 24 hours. The second video was after their hunger was fully sated and they’d settled down; the faint “cricketing” chirp you hear is the phoebes next to them. The third video was at one of their half-hourly feedings today. They’re such gorgeous little birds. Every rehabber has their favorite birds; bluebirds top my list: sweet, gorgeous, and their little begging calls are almost as sweet to me as the adult song.
Sadly, this fledging bluebird wasn’t as lucky. He was a cat-attack victim, the third in two weeks from this same person. And yes, we’ve had the “cats belong indoors” conversation repeatedly, to no avail. This poor baby died in my hands as I was having that conversation yet again. I submit to you that if you allow your cats to roam freely outdoors, you care nothing about our native wildlife and not much more about your cats. You’re exposing the cats to dangers of predation, disease, and human cruelty, while at the same time allowing them to wreak havoc on our native wildlife. And yes, I was angry when I made the video. No, strike that: I was livid.
The seventh intake of the week was this pre-fledgling grackle. He was found in the middle of the road. Bless their hearts, young grackles are ungainly little things, they have lousy personalities, and their begging call is not attractive; as adults they still don’t have a pretty song—but those eyes…Mature grackles have striking yellow eyes set in iridescent black feathers. They’re just mesmerizing!
The phoebes are ready for the songbird flight, as is the sole survivor of the nest of four Carolina wrens. I was hopeful all four would survive but had my doubts; they were kinda scruffy-looking little things, like maybe the parents had been struggling to keep them adequately fed before their nest was inadvertently “relocated” 150 miles away.
Post-feeding, pre-swab-down. The phoebes like to snap at their food, slinging it in the process.
Carolina wrens aren't usually quite this scruffy looking, which is why I suspect the parents were struggling to keep them fed.
The brown thrasher, nuthatches and mourning dove were released; the mourning dove is the only one who’s hung around.
The flyers have been moved to new digs, which they seem to like very much. They’re not quite totally self-feeding but they’re getting there. By late June, they should be releasable.
#4 had his head sticking through the opening and jerked it back just before I snapped the photo.
The barred owl trio is headed for the raptor flight early in the week. They’re now at the “fling and fly” stage, meaning I’m just tossing the food in and letting them do their thing.
The brancher great horned owl is also self-feeding now and will be moved into the crate the barreds will vacate when they go outside. (And before anyone asks, no, you cannot put raptors of different species in the flight together like you can songbirds. Raptors do NOT play well together!)
The final robin hatchling, the unexpected one, lasted twelve hours after hatching. And the adult GHO with soft tissue damage will require euthanasia; she simply cannot fly.
So there ya have it—not as insane as last week but still busy with all the half-hourly feedings, releases, intakes, and housing rearrangements. If April is any indication, May, June and July are gonna be…interesting.
So there ya have it—not as insane as last week but still busy with all the half-hourly feedings, releases, intakes, and housing rearrangements. If April is any indication, May, June and July are gonna be…interesting.
RSS Feed
