For Robin's dad...

Here's an update on BUDDY, the great horned owl I received a few days ago. He's now in a much bigger mew so he can get some exercise for his injured right wing. The wound is still bad but his attitude is getting better by leaps and bounds. He's eating all his food which includes a mouse with his pain medication and antibiotic pill hidden inside.

It's going to take a long time for that bad wound to heal and only then will I know if he'll be strong enough for flight. In the meantime, he's getting feisty which is a good sign.

Critical patient

His name is PILOT and he came from off the Gooseberry Creek Rd, south of Meeteetse. I'm sure he was hit by a vehicle and has suffered very bad head trauma. Both his eyes were swollen shut altho his right eye is improving. His left eye may or may not recover. Xrays show no fractures in his skull or anywhere on his body. That's the good news, the bad news is just how much brain trauma he's suffered.

For now he's in a warm place, is on pain medication and I'm tubing him with fluids for a couple days. After that I'll start him on a critical care diet until he's strong enough for solid food.

Thanks to Tim Upton for rescuing this 10 month old male red-tailed hawk. Hopefully he will make it back to the wild.

UPDATE: Sad to say but PILOT died this morning. I believe that he suffered from more internal injuries than showed when he first came in. His xrays were clear but soft tissue doesn't show on film. He tried but it just wasn't to be.

New home

I just got this photo of DUNCAN in his new home at Utopia Wildlife Rehabilitators in Hope, IN. He's only been there a few weeks and John already has him on his fist. That's amazing. I knew he would make an excellent school bird and he's proving me right. Thanks to Kathy Hershey for giving this splendid baby bald eagle a super forever home.

Very sore today

I have a new patient as of yesterday afternoon. His name is BUDDY, a Great Horned Owl who came from Casper and found on the Albertson's property near town. Robin called me about finding him just standing with one droopy wing. It took some doing to get him here as one of the game wardens told her she wasn't allowed to bring the bird to meet me in Shoshoni, he would do it himself. Then his boss said he couldn't so Daniel relented and told Robin she would be able to do that.

I met her around two o'clock and brought the bird home. I originally thought his wing was broken and was amazed that the xrays proved otherwise. His bicep muscle, between his elbow and shoulder, is damaged, don't know the cause. He has a wound on the wing but I didn't do anything other than give him fluids last night as he was traumatized enough. I also left him two mice in his cage.

This morning BUDDY is on his perch, ate his two mice during the night, and is much more alert. This afternoon Nathan is coming over so we can get his wing cleaned up. Then it's time that will tell me if he'll be okay and fly again.

As you can see in the photo taken by Robin before she called me, BUDDY is not a happy camper.

HERSHEY high

No, not the chocolate but this stunning immature male Red-tailed Hawk. He's what's known as a Western Dark phase and will have his red tail when he molts this year.

HERSHEY came in with a bad wound to his right chest but it's all healed now except for a very small scab. You can see the partially bare spot on his chest. He's in the flight barn and doing great and will be released soon down on a ranch south of Meeteetse.

SIDNEY update

I just wanted to let everyone know that SIDNEY is now in her forever home. She was spayed, which according to Dr. Prior, has not been done before to a porcupine, and is now living at the Yellowstone Wildlife Sanctuary in Red Lodge. Dr. Prior researched the procedure on ppines and could not find any record of it occurring. This is the photo I got from the YWS for Valentines Day. She will join their adult male, ROCKY, as soon as she's all healed up.

She's gone :(

MISS TENNER died today. She's an extraordinary cavy who is about 4 years old. When most sows have 2-4 babies as a usual litter size, MISS TENNER's first litter was 10. Eight of them survived their birth and seven survived to adulthood. Over the past few years she's produced over 25 babies;, an awesome record for any cavy.

For unknown reasons, she got a tumor in her left ear and altho I tried to treat it, nothing would work. Because of her age, and not wanting her to go through the surgery to remove it, I had her euthanized this morning. It is a very sad day for me as she's so special.

She's finally away

It took two tries to release SHERRY. The first time she only flew about 100' and came down. When I approached her to make her leave she again flew only a short distance. After doing that a couple more times I just tossed my jacket over her and brought her home.

This time it worked. Nathan and I drove her out to Whistle Creek Road east of Cody and found a perfect release site. We tried off of Eagle Pass but the winds were howling and I didn't want them to push her the wrong way.

When she left the crate, she flew off, made one big circle, and landed on the ground about a quarter mile away. She stood looking at her surroundings probably wondering where the wall was. She roused once and a few minutes later took off again and flew out of our sight behind a hill.

She's been here for many months having come from Sheridan almost starved to death. She'd gained confidence, strength and proved she would make live kills so it was time. I have no idea why she wouldn't fly off the first time a few weeks ago but today it was perfect. As you can tell by my smiling face.

PS: I'm wearing Nathan's GoPro camera so there may be some film of the momentous occasion.

Her Majesty

She thinks she's a queen and she's now on her throne. MADDIE loves to sleep on a pillow so when I got a new one for myself I tossed the old one on the couch. She immediately settled her royal fanny on it.

He's visiting

CLARK, aka. KRYPTON, came here on September 18th with a wound to his back. I think he hit a barbwire fence while chasing a bird. He went to my subpermitte and master falconer, Chris Pfister, for training to see if he's strong enough for release. He's now almost ready for that big step, we're just waiting for the migration back of small and medium songbirds, the main diet for a Peregrine Falcon. He's only here for a couple days as the Pfister's are on a skiing weekend in MT. Isn't he just so handsome!

Freedom

Today I took FISHER back to where he was found caught in a barbwire fence and released him. I didn't get a photo, forgot to take my camera, but he flew off strong and never looked back. This is why I do what I do, to watch the rear end of a bird leaving as quickly as they can.

Sad news

HUB died this morning. I started him on his lead treatment shots yesterday after bringing him back inside. By that afternoon he was totally blind altho he did eat the meat I handed him when I tapped his beak. Then this morning he was barely able to stand and died shortly afterwards. I have no idea why his symptoms worsened so quickly as his lead count was going down. I will certainly miss this magnificent bird.

Two in just two hours

I got a call from a rancher out off Road 2AB this morning. He said he had a hawk with a broken wing next to his garage. I was surprised when I got there to see an adult Goshawk, a rare bird to come to IBR. Also not in a normal habitat as they are forest dwellers living on birds.

These birds are extraordinary flyers able to make quick turns among branches. They fold their wings into their bodies to squeeze through the smallest spaces then spread them out again and continue the chase.

This awesome bird has a broken humerus on his left wing that has been there for a while. I don't know if it can be fixed but as soon as he's stronger he will have surgery to repair the fracture. This is the largest accipiter altho as a male he's not that big. His name is TRAPPER.

UPDATE: I'm very sad to tell you that TRAPPER died this morning. He ate his quail yesterday and seemed stronger but some time this morning he lost most of his meal, got very weak and just gave up.

The second bird who arrived today is this beautiful dark phase Red-tailed Hawk. He was brought to me by Matt Lentsch, WGF warden from Worland. We met in Greybull so neither of us had to drive the full distance.

HERSHEY was hit by a car and altho no bones were broken, he does have a bad cut to the skin on his chest exposing muscle. That was sutured up and hopefully he'll make a full recovery. He also lost about half of his tail feathers so he'll have to stay here until they molt back in. He can't steer without a rudder.

When they don't know......

.....what to do with a strange animal they call me. In this case it was my volunteer, Sara, who called this morning. She had heard from a friend who found this cute little prickly animal near town. And it didn't seem to be afraid, more like someone's pet. Her name, we think it's a female, is SIDNEY. Started out as Sid Vicious as there is apparently some sort of rock "music" person with that name and he has a very wild hairdo.

She only weighs eight pounds so is also possibly a young porcupine. She's been treated for external parasites and is being checked for internal ones. She's eaten corn and carrots from Sara's hand so she's used to humans. Right now she's in one of my mews and seems to be content. I'm trying to find a forever home for her but for now she'll stay here.

Major rearrangement

This past week I've had wonderful help in rearranging my cage and storage rooms. Julie helped me clean out two truck loads of stuff from the storage room. Then she and Mic took them to the city dump for me. After there was room, Nathan moved all my bags of wood pellets and shavings to that newly opened space. Previously they took up a lot of floor space in the cage room.

And because I have not been successful in ridding the building of mice, I bought a bunch of containers that have drawers. Now my bandaging material, meds, nuts, bolts, screws, etc. are contained so they won't have a lot of mouse pee and poop all over them.

A couple weeks ago Julie helped me cut up used carpet so that is all now on shelving. I use them for cages and crates so having such a good supply will make it much easier to clean. I have two more shelving units arriving on Tuesday which will go in the storage room to get the remaining stuff up off the floor.

GHO

It seems that each weekend I get in a bird who has to go to the vet on Monday morning for an exam, xrays, etc. This weekend is no exception but for now at least this chubby Great Horned Owl doesn't seem to need that care. FISHER was found caught in a barbwire fence this morning at the Wyoming Trout Ranch. The person who rescued him said he had his wings and feet tangled up but the only wounds I can find are a minor one on his left foot and the leading edge of his left wing tip.

As you can see from this photo, he's not a happy camper. He's in excellent shape, weighs 51.5 ounces, and is very handsome. Hopefully his wounds will heal quickly and he can be taken back to where he was found. If he's old enough to have a mate then time is of the essence. GHO's are early nesters and will be starting to either look for an abandoned redtail or magpie nest, or going back to the one they used last year.

Getting stronger

Handsome HUB is now in a much larger mew. Yesterday afternoon he decided to try and fly to the window in his 6'x 6' area so I decided he needed more room. He's now in my 13'x 20' flight area so he can practice flying. I got the second blood test results and his lead level is going down. And his anemia is at the correct level.

At this point I will not be giving him any chelation treatments as it appears his body is eliminating the lead on its own. He has never shown any symptoms and has gone from 6.9# to 9.2# in two weeks. As you can see in this photo, he's getting ready to finish his meal.

Hopefully, when I do a third blood test in two weeks, the count will be completely normal and he'll be able to go into the flight barn to get strong enough for release.

HUB update

HUB went in for xrays this morning and I was again shocked when I found out he'd been shot. There is one shotgun pellet in his right chest. The worst things are the two fragments in his intestines. If they are lead they could kill him. Blood was drawn to send to the state lab to see if he is suffering from lead poisoning. And a PCV count was done showing he's severely anaemic with a count of 22, half what it should be.

He's eating good red meat now and keeping it down so that should help bring the count up. He can see, at least partially, so this will be a day-at-a-time process. Hopefully he will survive and conquer whatever it is that has him down.

Eagle count day

Saturday was the day to go on our annual Mid-Winter Bald Eagle Count. It's done all over the state along designated routes. I've done the Oregon Basin/HooDoo Ranch/Monster Lake Ranch route for a couple decades and this was an outstanding count year.

This time I was joined by Nathan Horton, a young man I've known for a few years now. He's one I can count on to fix anything and is very knowledgeable on raptors, especially golden eagles. We started out at 8:30 in the morning and ended at 2:00. Along the way we counted a total of 53 birds. That included 28 eagles, 21 rough-legged hawks, two redtails, one ferruginous hawk and one northern harrier. One of the roughies was a dark phase, not seen that much around this part of the country. The bird is shown on top of the power pole. Not the sharpest photo but you can see that he's absolutely chocolate brown all over.

This was also only the second time I've seen a ferrug and the first harrier in quite a few years. The other photo was a selfie that Nathan took as we were taking a lunch break. We stopped near the backside of the Monster Lake Ranch to enjoy the view. It was a super day made better with the company and the successful number of birds.

So frustrating.....

Yesterday the annual Mid-winter Bald Eagle count took place all over WY. Nathan and I had the route that encompassed Oregon Basin, the HooDoo and Monster Lake Ranch. It was an awesome day with the second highest number of total birds seen since I started doing this a couple decades ago.

We were about 2/3s of the way through our routes when I got a call from Brad Gibbs, one of the game wardens in Riverton. An adult bald eagle was found near the border of the reservation and it was only able to fly a short distance. He gathered it up and met me in Thermopolis for the hand off.

His name is HUB and he's yet another adult raptor with problems that shouldn't be happening. He's very thin, weighs less than 6.5 pounds. And at this point I'm not sure if he sees very well. He's weak so last night I gave him fluids and this morning repeated that plus some small pieces of antelope steak.

He looks great in the photo doesn't he? The red on the top of his head is from the red heat lamp he's under. He has enough problems so I didn't want him trying too hard to produce warmth.

HUB will go into the doctor tomorrow for xrays and blood tests. Also test his fecal sample to see if he's suffering from any internal parasites.

Let it go, let it go......

Gathering before opening the crate.

John doing the door opening duty.

And she's away!

Or in this case, "Let her go". Today the beautiful adult bald eagle, ELSA, was released back where she was found near Sheridan College. These photos are from Bud Stewart, WGF office there in Sheridan. As you can see in the one photo, ELSA had a huge cheering section to watch the event. The middle photo shows John Woller, the one who originally saw her and called for help.

It was a bit of a cloudy day but the sun was shining on all the faces as they watched this awesome female take off. Bud said she made a short flight to a hillside but within five minutes there was another adult bald flying over her.

At this point I believe it is her mate as Bud said there was a noticeable difference in size in the two birds. ELSA is a huge female and, as you know, males are smaller in the raptor world.

I'll probably get more photos from the day and there will be an article written in the Sheridan Press. This is the first eagle release where I wasn't present so I've been on pins and needles all day. I felt better when John sent me an email saying it went exceptionally well and would send more later.

Thanks everyone. Also thanks to Dr. Ted Vlahos who hauled the eagle over to Sheridan. He's a renowned equine vet and also has an office there. As he was headed that direction yesterday he agreed to take her.

First patients of the year

Didn't happen until the 4th but my first of 2016 is a GHO noted in the post below. The second is this wonderful little immature male Rough-legged Hawk. His name is KING and he has a broken right wing. Again, the Game & Fish came through. Chris Queen, warden in Powell, called me and drove the bird here.

He's not completely standing in this photo, just got back from his surgery with Dr. Blessing. There were a lot of small bone pieces so it's not known if he'll fly well enough for release. In the meantime, KING, will be here recovering. Hopefully all will go well as he has a date for an annual migration to above the Arctic Circle in March. Now he just has to be strong enough to keep it.

Some days it just doesn't pay to get up. This little Great Horned Owl, JACK, was hit by a vehicle while out looking for something to eat. Thanks to WGF Wildlife Biologist, Leslie Schreiber, he's now trying to recover. The problems are a lot including what I thought was complete blindness. And he can't stand up.

He got a cortisone shot yesterday and this morning he can see movement. Still can't stand so he's now resting in a hammock inside of a plastic container. That way he'll be upright in a normal position which will give his legs a chance to recover. There's nothing wrong with his ability to move his legs and open and close his feet, he just can't stand.

As you can see in the photo, his left eye is totally damaged, his lens is ruptured. He will never see out of that eye again. The good thing is that owls do a majority of their hunting with their ears, not their eyes. They can pinpoint the location of a small mouse even if they can't see it. Pretty amazing birds.

Ready to leave

ELSA on top of the tower in the eagle flight barn.

I put ELSA into the eagle barn today and then had to remove her within a short time. She kept flying up and hanging upside down from the roof netting and that wouldn't do at all. She's now back in the 13x20' mew and will soon be taken back to Sheridan for release. She's also eating most everything I give her altho for a bald eagle she's not fond of fish.

I'll get another photo of her flying away when that happens. I won't be there, she'll be taken back to Sheridan for release as she probably has a mate in that area.