New residents

Her/his name is ZENITH because after all this is a TV. Turkey Vulture that is. Friday morning I received five more residents at IBR from Diane Morse in Gillette. She ran NEW Raptor Center for over 20 years and just recently retired. She still has permits to take in birds until the end of the year so agreed to accept any from her side of the mountain while I was on vacation.

It wasn't but an hour into my flight from Cody that she got a call about a Great Horned Owl that had been burned, possibly from a flare in one of the oil/gas fields. Then not much later she took in a baby Red-tailed Hawk, HIGGINS, who was starving. He also suffered from a broken fibia in his left leg so now has an external fixation device on the leg to hold the bone ends in the right position for healing. A great deal to overcome at such a young age (six months).

She also received another GHO with a wing problem who had been held illegally by some people. Altho they had been feeding the bird the right diet, mice, it was still against the law for them to have the owl.

And, of course, I also took in the two birds she'd had from her rehab work but were not quite ready for release. The vulture is flying but not quite strong enough. And the same for the kestrel. Both will be here until they can make it. I may send the TV to another rehabber in the south so s/he won't have to spend the winter in the cold. S/he is bald, after all.