Thanks to your generous donations, we met and slightly exceeded our $2000 fundraising goal--$2037, to be exact. Heartfelt thanks to those of you who donated to help us “give Nature’s children a second chance.”
Just three new intakes this week. The most recent was a nestling mocker found in a parking lot. Unfortunately, he died the night of his intake. Based on the blood pooled around his beak the next morning, I suspect he got into chemicals while on the ground—God knows what kinds of residue he could have gotten on his skin and ingested as he preened his growing feathers…
This barred owl was luckier—he was found by the roadside favoring a wing and with one eye closed. Upon intake and examination, there were no broken bones, just some really trashed feathers. Within a few days he was alert enough for the raptor flight pen, but there may be soft tissue damage, as so far he refuses to fly.
Just three new intakes this week. The most recent was a nestling mocker found in a parking lot. Unfortunately, he died the night of his intake. Based on the blood pooled around his beak the next morning, I suspect he got into chemicals while on the ground—God knows what kinds of residue he could have gotten on his skin and ingested as he preened his growing feathers…
This barred owl was luckier—he was found by the roadside favoring a wing and with one eye closed. Upon intake and examination, there were no broken bones, just some really trashed feathers. Within a few days he was alert enough for the raptor flight pen, but there may be soft tissue damage, as so far he refuses to fly.
Just a day after the barred owl came in, this great horned owl came in with similar injuries, although he was found grounded in a park. His eye was in worse shape, though, and he didn’t respond to treatment, continuing to decline instead. He was euthanized to provide a humane end to his suffering.
Sadly, it’s that time of year when the good outcomes will diminish considerably, but this week wasn’t all gloom and doom.
The screeches continue to thrive and are still in indoor caging only because the barred owl is in the raptor flight. Unlike songbirds, raptors don’t play well together, so the screeches are stuck inside until we see if the barred owl’s soft tissue damage will resolve to allow flight.
The screeches continue to thrive and are still in indoor caging only because the barred owl is in the raptor flight. Unlike songbirds, raptors don’t play well together, so the screeches are stuck inside until we see if the barred owl’s soft tissue damage will resolve to allow flight.
I have a big mea culpa to confess this week, too…remember last week’s nestling red bellied woodpeckers? Well…ummm…as the feathers came in, it became glaringly obvious that I had, in fact, two red-HEADED woodpeckers! Don’t let the black heads throw you off; juvy red-headeds have black heads.
Hey, the size was right; the vocalizations were similar enough to fool a tired rehabber at the end of baby season…
The runt is still struggling, bless his little heart, but he IS trying and he eats well. He’s just so far behind his sib developmentally that I worry about him.
The runt is still struggling, bless his little heart, but he IS trying and he eats well. He’s just so far behind his sib developmentally that I worry about him.
Photo taken while they were out of their nest box so I could clean it.
And the hummer was a no-go yet again, although this week he did show more interest in the world outside his cage, so…persistence is key! We’ll keep trying and hope the migratory instinct kicks in pretty quickly. (That godawful racket you hear in the video is a Japanese quail that someone mistook for an injured nighthawk and brought to LWR for treatment. Not native, not protected by MBTA, so still trying to find someone who wants the cute, albeit noisome, rascal as a pet. Any takers? Anyone? No? Oh well…)
Yeah, we have a little molt going on there!
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