Starving redtail

I originally thought this is a baby redtail but I've heard back from my redtail expert with Hawkwatch. She's an adult Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk. The tail coloration is the giveaway. Hopefully the xrays tomorrow will explain why she's so starved. And that her left wing isn't broken, just bruised. She's very hungry, she barely let me open the forceps before she grabbed the mouse and swallowed it whole. The second followed quickly. I just gave her three more and they disappeared just a rapidly.

She came from the Sheridan area and thanks again to Cody Schoonover, WGF, we met at Observation Point in the Big Horn National Forest, halfway for each of us.

Updates

Yesterday Chris headed for his ranch with my last baby redtail, PELE, in a crate. He has the most wonderful ranch on the Gooseberry with tons of rabbits and other small mammals for the redtails he's released there. He's hoping to get a photo this time as he remembered his camera. I'll post it when I see it.

Here's PELE flying away as fast as he can.

Three hawks

It's not often I get these hawks all on the same perch but for some reason they are today. Left to right is an adult redtail who has a chronic problem replacing feathers on both wings and his tail. In the center is a swainson's hawk who has the same problem but only on his right wing. I'm in the process of starting the paperwork to send him to a facility in OR to be an educational bird. The one on the right is another redtail, WAKELEY, who arrived here a short time ago from Sheridan missing her tail. She's the only one with the chance of release.

Two for one

I got a call from Warden Jessica Beecham in Riverton about a downed hawk she'd picked up outside of town on Missouri Valley Road. A man was driving down the road when he saw this bird hit by the vehicle in front of him. That person didn't stop, the second man did. I met Jessica at the park headquarters at the south end of the canyon early this morning.

The two for one means that I received two birds from her and gave her one for release. See the posts below for their story. I can't find anything wrong with this bird. His name is MISERY and he's an immature male ferruginous hawk, the largest hawk there is. He immediately ate the rat I put on his perch so whatever may be bothering him hasn't affected his appetite.

This is the exchange bird in the two for one. Little KITT is now back where he belongs. Thanks to Jessica Beecham, WGF, he was taken to a site where other swainson's hawks are flying around. As a chick of this year he'll need a guide for his long migration to Argentina. Hopefully he makes that arduous journey and returns to this state next year.

Oh no!

Okay, one more trip to Tensleep for yet another hawk. And oh no is right as this is a very young swainson's hawk. His name is TA and he was found just south of Buffalo on the TA Guest Ranch. His home nest is nearby and altho he'd been flying around he was found on the ground yesterday. Kirsten gathered him up, put him in a large dog crate and altho he didn't eat his meat last night apparently he ate some this morning.

He is very starved and would probably have surely died in a few days had he not been found. He does have some feather damage on both wings, don't know what caused that, but right now I can't find anything wrong other than he's so thin. I've managed to get a whole mouse, cut into small pieces, down him and I'll see how that goes. Hopefully within a couple days he'll be ripping and tearing with the best of them.

The worst part of this being a swainson's is that they are now staging for their long 12,000 mile migration to Argentina and this baby will never be ready for that. He needs to be guided by adults and others in the large group making that trek. I know he won't be strong enough, soon enough, so will winter here or be sent somewhere south until the swainson's return in the spring.

OP again

That's Observation Point about halfway to Sheridan. I made yet another drive there, this time to pick up a beautiful red-tailed hawk. It appears her only problem is a missing tail. Completely gone and I can't imagine how that happened. If it was a predator you'd think it would have killed her. She's in excellent condition so now all she has to do is regrow the missing feathers then she will be released. They hunt quick moving mammals and you can't catch them without a rudder.

Hungry hawk

I wish these birds would coordinate their injuries. Yesterday I drove halfway to Sheridan to pick up an injured falcon. I drove right through the middle of Byron to get there. This afternoon I got a call from Tami Asay about an injured hawk in the middle of Byron. She graciously volunteered to drive the bird here.

I decided to name him BYRON. It's a cooper's hawk and is about starved to death. As you can see in the photo, his right wing isn't right. He has a fracture of that humerus, probably from hitting a wire or messing up a landing. I believe it's a male and about four to five months old. He'll go in tomorrow morning for xrays to see just how bad the fracture is. Hopefully it will be fixable.

Aging hawk

Today I drove down to Meeteetse to recover an injured hawk. The injury to her right elbow was severe so she was humanely euthanized. Just to give you a lesson, birds feet show their age just as humans hands do. Mine are wrinkly, thin skinned and have lots of veins showing. This is a photo of this old ladies feet. As you can see, they really do appear old. Even the feathers on top of her head looked to be grey. I would guess her to be in her late teens or older. She is a beautiful bird and I'm certainly glad the rancher found her, she's an elderly bird and didn't deserve to die a lingering death because she couldn't hunt.

Starving baby

The birds just keep coming. Besides the baby osprey this morning, I just received a starving baby Swainson's Hawk. His name is KITT and I believe it to be a male around 4-5 months old. He was found on the ground 31 miles up the Southfork Road unable to fly far. Right now he's rather weak so I gave him some lactated ringers solution and cut up mouse pieces.

He's up on his perch and seems bright. I hope he makes it because this species spends the winter in Argentina and that's a very long migration. I don't know if this young bird will be ready for that, he may have to winter over here and be released when they others come back in the Spring.

High again

When I went in to feed my two baby redtails I was pleased to see that both of them were on the lower perch. Then, to my amazement, both flew to the high perch! PELE has been going there for some time but little QUAD has not. He came in with two fractures in one wing after falling 90' when still a downy baby (see previous posts). Surgery was done but I doubted he would ever fly well enough for release so had made arrangements for him to be transferred to a facility in NH as an educational bird.

The look on his face when he found himself up so high was priceless. He gazed around in awe appearing to try and figure out just where he was and how he got there. I called the NH people and told them I was putting a hold on his transfer because he just might beat the odds and be releasable.

The photo shows QUAD on the left and PELE on the right.

New mom and sibling

SPARKY is now in his foster nest along with another baby Swainson's Hawk. That pink is a person making their way up that very nasty olive tree to put him in the nest. The other photo shows his new mom all settled down with her two kids. Great job was done by everyone in making sure this baby has a chance at a long and healthy life.

Short stay

SPARKY resting after eating a mouse snack. Photo by Gwyn McKee.

Probably the shortest time a hawk has been at IBR was today when SPARKY arrived around 10:30 this morning from Gillette. Gwyn McKee, a consultant biologist, drove this baby swainson's hawk over after discovering his parent dead from electrocution. Unfortunately the nest was on top of a power pole. Because this was the only chick in the nest it was decided, for his survival, he would be removed.

After making the over three hour trip, and settling SPARKY into a cage, Gwyn had an amazing thought. She knew of another swainson's nest also with one chick, not that far from this babies dangerous home. She made numerous calls to have someone check to see if that baby was still in his nest but it took a while to get an answer.

The results were that this baby swainson's made a trip back to near Gillette to be fostered into the second nest. I'm awaiting news as to how that went. It's in a Russian olive tree, not the most hospitable location, so I suggested whoever does the placement take along some wire cutters to clip the big thorns to make it safer for the chicks when they decide to branch.

Don't you just love it when it works!

Weird markings

Baby QUAD is growing up but his feathers are certainly unusual. When baby raptors miss meals as they're feathering out they can get "stress" lines on them. Usually this causes the feathers to break at that line as it's a very weak point. In this case he lost a lot of feathers around his neck, you can see the white collar.

His tail is the most odd because below the fuzzy stress line the coloration is normal. Above that line they are reddish. QUAD is going to go into training soon so he can be placed as an educational bird. With his very young age he should be easily placed at a facility as a raptor ambassador. He's being trained by my subpermittee, and master falconer, Chris Pfister.

Are you my mommy?

A momentous occasion for baby redtail, PELE. I put him in with BONNIE 3 so he'll have a foster mom. As you can see from this photo, he's asking her just who she is. As seen in a previous post, he fell out of his nest in a tall tree and we were unable to replace him in it. He's eating his rats on his own so I figured it was time to introduce him to an adult.

Within moments he was squeeking at her and food begging. He'd already finished one rat so he wasn't hungry but perhaps just needing some necessary support from who he thought might be his mom. Now I hope they bond and he becomes a stronger bird as he ages. He's only about 40 days old now and weighs a whopping 34.5 ounces.

On the road again

And again, and again. Tuesday it was to the top of the mountain in the Big Horn National Forest to meet Bruce Scigliano, WGF warden and the long-eared owl in a previous post. Then to Tensleep to meet Charlene and her husband from north of Gillette with an adult female kestrel. Today it was back to Thermopolis to meet Dave with a baby redtail found on the ground at a uranium mine on a sheep ranch near Douglas.

The long-ear is doing fine. Not so with the last two. The kestrel's right wing radius and ulna were shattered, five breaks and not repairable so she was humanely euthanized. Today also bad news. Something got ahold of the baby redtail and destroyed both wings near his elbows. The muscles were shredded, bones were showing, there was not enough skin to cover them and there were large holes between the leading edge tendon and the elbow joint. He was also euthanized. I have not a clue as to the animal/bird who could have done this. He was found near a hog fence, perhaps he got caught in it and destroyed his wings fighting to get free. We'll never know.

I am so sad when these things happen altho I know that life is hard for young and old birds alike.

New baby

And this time it's not a GHO. This is PELE, (not the famous soccer player) a Red-tailed Hawk about 25-30 days old. Unfortunately he came out of his nest high in a large tree. The worst part is the huge sand layer right under the nest which makes it impossible for a power company truck to get under it. Those trucks weight tens of thousands of pounds and it would probably be permanently stuck if it ventured onto the sand. The nest is also too high to reach with any ladder I know of.

There is another chick in the nest so the parents will still be kept busy finding and bringing back food. In the meantime, PELE, will be here in the care of my redtail foster mom, BONNIE 3.

New residents

Today I received two hawks from the Teton Raptor Center in Wilson, WY. Both these birds needed some more room to stretch their wings so they are now in my 17'x 20' flight mew. They have damaged some of their wing feathers, this will give them a chance to replace those and gain muscle strength for release. As they have only been flying on a creance (long line), the open area won't restrict where they go and how they get there. They'll go into my 32'x 48' hawk flight barn when ready.

Thanks to TRC for trusting me again with the care of their birds. The swainson's (bottom) will go back to ID where he came from when ready. The redtail (top) will be released in a good habitat around here. He is a baby of last year so doesn't have a home territory.

More on QUAD

You have to look very closely at this photo to see one hatched baby. Another egg behind it and the two easily seen.

Today I received a couple photos of the nest where baby QUAD was born. As you can see, it's at the top of the huge silo and mom is staring at Cameron, the photographer. She chose a wonderful location and when I stopped by this morning two of the babies had already left the nest, one just moved to a lower platform. One of the chicks is already hunting, it had a mouse in its beak while flying up to a power pole. Second baby was also on a power pole. I didn't see either adult.

QUAD update

This morning I noticed that QUAD's left wing was a bit droopy. That can happen when all the large feathers are in the blood stage, they become very heavy and hard to keep up in a normal position. But in this case, it was only his left so I took him in for xrays. Good and bad news. His ulna is fractured mid-shaft but is in alignment and good position. The radius is fine. But......there is a fracture of his humerus right at the elbow. It too isn't in bad position but I don't know what will happen in the long run.

Because of his tender age, and because these baby hawks grow so fast, he'll have his bandage changed quite often. Before the vet office trip he did eat more than half of his mouse pieces on his own. Now he just has to get this darn standing up thing figured out without his left wing for balance.