Handsome

This stunning adult Bald Eagle is PATRICK STEWART, named after a very handsome actor with, shall we say, a minimum of hair on his head, hence almost bald. The eagle was found on the HF Bar Ranch near Buffalo just sitting on a stump in a field. He was seen last night but Brad Rogers, the USFWS agent in the area wasn't notified until this morning. That wonderful man drove PATRICK here arriving around noon.

There isn't anything physically wrong but for some reason the eagle is extremely starved weighing only 5.75 pounds when he should be at least eight. Xrays show no metal in him but as you can see, there is a bit of blood on his beak so he had apparently fed before being found.

Because there doesn't seem to be anything causing his condition and bad depression, a blood sample was taken today and sent to our state lab in Laramie for testing. He will also have a CBC. Tests will be made looking for mercury, lead and WNV just because of all the bald eagle deaths in Utah a couple months ago from that disease.

I've tubed him with a high calorie food and included some Lactated Ringers for hydration. Hopefully it will be enough to give him the will to keep fighting so he can live and be returned to the wild.

UPDATE: He's still alive but the prognosis is very poor. I got the results of two of his tests back. He doesn't have any internal parasites but his lead level is alarming. Anything above 0.6 is considered toxic. His count is 4.75! He has already started his EDTA treatment and will continue that for three days. If he is still alive he'll start another round after being off of it for three days. The treatment consists of six shots a day, three in the morning, three in the evening. And he'll continue to receive the high calorie food via a stomach tube for as long as it takes. Stressful for both of us but the only way to get nutrition into him.

Ready for anything

As most of you know, Cody has experienced a winter this year, first one in about a dozen years. Lots of below temperatures, snow and ice. Well, it's not just in Wyoming. My cousins, Shirley and Pete Repp, who live in Wisconsin, have also had their fill of the white stuff and cold weather. Here's a photo of WALTER, their wonderful little dog, all ready for his walk outside. You'll note he is very fashionable in his plaid coat and black boots.

Great progress

SPENCER is now outside in a larger mew. His electrocution wounds are doing well, sort of. The smaller one is completely healed but the larger one is still open. I don't know how long this repair will take, it's been quite a few weeks as it is. He's been in a 6'x 6' mew to keep him quiet and not using the injured wing. He's feeling so well that he's been anxious and not happy in the smaller place.

He is now in a 13'x 20' mew with lots of perch choices. In this photo he's sitting on the window perch, probably enjoying being able to see distances and life going on around him. As to his future release, that may not happen. It all depends on how his damaged wing comes along after all the wounds are healed. And he still has to replace the covering on two of his left talons.

More room needed

Yesterday I moved beautiful baby Red-tailed Hawk, HIGGINS, to a much larger mew. He's fully recovered from his broken leg and the weather has warmed up enough to get him outside. He's been a 6'x 6' mew for quite a few months and was getting pretty antsy and wanting to fly. As there was nothing wrong with his wings he was more than ready for a change of rooms.

In this photo he's on the lower wall perch but it's still above my reach. Yesterday evening he was on the upper perch so he has obviously retained strong muscles while recuperating.

Amazing trip

His name is HALO because the people who found him decided that he appeared like an angel in their yard. This adult Great Horned Owl was found in the town of Story which is about a four plus hour drive from Cody. Due to our very horrible weather, blizzard conditions making the roads impassable, he was transported to Diane in Gillette for safe keeping until a way was figured out to get him to Cody.

He has a broken right wing which made the transfer more urgent so it could be surgically repaired. Diane and I tried everything we could think of. She finally contacted a firm at the Campbell County airport for help and they certainly went way above and beyond. Flightline agreed to fly the bird here with WGF biologist Erika Peckham accompanying the transfer.

This turned out to be a one and a half hour flight from Gillette to Cody even with the strong winds in our area. Thanks to Ryan for doing such a super job. The other thing they did was to take beautiful PHOENIX, the burned Red-tailed Hawk, back to Diane so she (the bird, not Diane) could be driven to Sheridan for release where she was found.

And thanks to lird Flying Service of Ekalaka, MT, they run Flightline, for donating the cost of the trip to Cody. That saved us many, many hundreds of dollars and has given this beautiful owl a chance to return to the wild if the surgery on the broken wing is successful.

UPDATE: Surgery has been completed and now it's only time that will let me know if it worked out well enough for HALO to fly again. Fingers crossed everyone, okay!

Victim

This is BLACKJACK, an adult American Crow who came in from Greybull. He was spotted walking alongside the road, after dark, by volunteer Sara Sprung. She knew that wasn't normal so turned around and headed back to see why the bird was on the ground. When she got to the bird there was a cat trying to catch him too.

Luckily Sara prevailed and brought the bird to me. Xrays revealed not a broken wing but an air rifle pellet lodged in his chest but not known if it was in his digestive tract or in the muscle. A follow up xray proved it to be in his chest muscle and therefore ruled out his getting lead poisoning from it leaching into his body.

The other thing noticed in the xray was some inflammation to his left wing muscle between his shoulder and elbow. That will take time to repair itself. In the meantime he's doing well and will be released when ready to resume his life.

Oh yes, he's wearing a hawk hood to keep him from eating our fingers as he's being examined. Turns out they work for corvids too.

They are away

I'm cheering them on as they headed for the river and far trees.

This morning I was joined by Susan Osborne and Sara Sprung in the release of two bald eagles. These amazing adult birds came to me many months ago from my friend Diane over in Gillette after she retired. They had both suffered from broken wings and she wasn't sure they would fly again but that question was answered around 11:00a.m. today.

As you can see they were both very anxious to leave their crates and then flew off in the same direction towards the river. This was just above the Corbett Dam east of Cody where the habitat should provide them with whatever they need.

I was originally told they are both females but I believe one is a male. They shared the top of my eagle barn tower and even started carrying sticks, grass and weeds up there as if they were building a nest. Normally I would have returned them to where they came from but as they've been gone from there for over a year, and have apparently bonded, I opted to release them at the same time here so they can continue to strengthen their relationship. Of course I will never know if they do but wish them the best in the rest of their lives.

UPDATE: I drove out to the release site this morning (Monday) and the two eagles were sharing a tree altho they took off when they spotted me above them on the cliff. I am so thrilled they are together, apparently they have become a bonded pair. The river was flowing even tho it's still very cold. There was also a large flock of ducks right under where the eagles were perching so a food source is nearby.

It won't happen

I was hoping to release my immature female Sharp-shinned Hawk today as the weather is just beautiful so I gathered her up from the 8'x20' mew she's been living in for the past month. She has been flying all over in there, up and down, circles, etc. so I thought she was strong enough for release.

Imagine my surprise when I brought her in to be weighed before release and discovered she can't fully extend her left wing. That is the one that was broken but apparently the muscles have shortened which only allows limited flight. In the wild these small accipiters eat birds, small and quick flying birds. She would not have the ability to make those lightening twists and turns to be successful so she will now be placed as an educational bird. She should do well at that, she's just under nine ounces and is an awesome eater. Isn't she beautiful!

Power

That's what I didn't have just two days after leaving the hospital. On Monday morning just a few minutes after I got up at six o'clock the lights went out. I called the power company who sent Tim out to see what was wrong. The sad news is that apparently an owl landed on my transformer and caused the outage. I didn't find his body so have no idea what happened to him. The damage consisted of that blown transformer plus a fuse on the next power pole.

When I checked around the house I found out the rest of the story. I use TCT for my phone and internet. Their surge protector was fried as was their little grey box inside the house. That, in turn, fried my computer, two outlets in my rodent house and, at the time, my well so I didn't have water. Also tripped four breakers. After going a day without water the guys from Wrangler Plumbing arrived to check out the well pump. Amazingly the tripped breaker plus one blown fuse were all that was damaged, the well pump was okay. A short time later the water was running. As the pump is down 150' it's not easy to pull and very expensive to boot.

I now have replaced my computer, TCT came out to replace their equipment, one outlet still has to be replaced but Jeff fixed the one in the rodent house that melted the prongs of my radio cord to the outlet. Only a bill from TCT is needed and then I can turn in a claim to Farmer's Insurance. Boy, all those things are sure expensive but all is okay for the moment.

She is flying high now

Back in July I received a beautiful adult female Red-tailed Hawk named PHOENIX. She has that name as she had survived being badly burned and has risen from the ashes. The left primary wing feathers and tail feathers were about gone leaving only shafts. Her chest and right wing feathers were singed and she had a burn wound to the inside of her right foot.

She is now in the flight barn with all feathers replaced but one on her right wing. She will soon be heading back to the Sheridan area for release as she may have a mate waiting for her. She's a very large female weighing in at almost four pounds. Thanks to Sheridan game warden, Bruce Scigliano, for caring enough to rescue her and meet me in Burgess Junction for the hand off.

Visitor

I don't know if this is the same Red-tailed Hawk who visited my place many times last year but if not, another one has discovered a food source. I have been tossing out the leftover rats not finished by the residents so they won't go to waste. Last year it was a Rough-legged Hawk who came by every day for a couple weeks or more.

Twice my local Golden Eagle has perched on the power poles nearby but hasn't landed for food. I've not been able to find her nest, it must be in the rocky hills to the east of here.

Legless wonders

We had about a foot of snow last week, beautiful but not if you don't have very long legs. This is MADDIE, my corgi mom out playing in it. Not much ground clearance but she was having fun. Her daughter, SOPHIE, was in another part of the yard also buried up to her chest.

This photo is my contribution to my yard. We don't usually get snow that can be made into anything so when the opportunity presented itself I made my first snowman since moving here 32 years ago. Okay, it's only 10 inches tall but I still had fun as did the dogs when they spotted the little fellow.

All better

Just to let everyone know I'm back to normal. Well, whatever that is. My heart problems have stabilized and altho there is a chance of the a-fib to hit again the percentage is low. I'm back to all my usual chores which includes toting 50 pound bags of grain and feed.

Very unexpected happening

I had a very interesting two days after I got the call for a downed hawk in Lovell on Wednesday night (see below post).

Now comes the interesting, unexpected part. When Malcolm was through with xrays and an exam of the hawk I asked him to listen to my heart as it seemed a bit off. He did and immediately said “you should go somewhere”. You should always listen to your veterinarian. Okay, I stopped at Cody Urgent Care Clinic and saw my friend, Dr. Harvey, who did a EKG and said “go to the ER”. I still had the hawk in my truck so brought him back home and got him settled in. Then I drove to the ER.

That was on Thursday morning. I got home Friday evening about 6:30 after spending the intervening time in ICU hooked up to lots of wires, oxygen, bags of fluids, etc. And wore those lovely thigh high pressure stockings plus automatic squeezing things on my calves to prevent clots. The medicine the ER doctor gave me to slow my heart worked immediately but not completely hence the two day stay.

My heart still wasn’t completely back to normal rhythm so they took me downstairs on Friday and shocked my heart. You know the routine, grease the paddles, yell CLEAR! and then hit the switch. I was out as they also put a tube down my throat to check the back of my heart to see if there were any clots hiding there. And found out one of my valves is a bit thick making a bit smaller opening than normal but the cardiologist said it shouldn’t cause any problem at this time. They will keep a watch on it.

Amazingly I was sent home about five hours after all that was done with a perfectly normal heartbeat. Unfortunately I now have to take blood thinners (not Coumadin) for about six weeks and probably the anti-arrhythmia meds forever. I don’t know what the charges will be for the two days but in ICU ????? Probably tens of thousands. Thank goodness for Medicare.

Also thank goodness for the following:

Kimber for driving the two dogs to Lifetime Small Animal Hospital to board til I came home. That resulted in massive amounts of Corgi hair in her car and she's probably still picking it off her clothes.

Liz for quickly going to my place to take care of all the mice, cavies, bunnies and cats. She's my regular help if I'm on vacation so stepped in and knew just what to do.

Sara, my volunteer, for dropping everything and taking care of the birds which included the new roughie (see below post). That meant wrapping him in a towel and handing him mice as he was pretty thin and I wasn't sure he'd eat on his own. She called me on Friday morning to say he was scarfing down whole mice on his own so she didn't have to go through hand feeding him.

And to Lisa Harvey plus all the doctors and nurses at West Park Hospital in the ER and ICU. They were super and obviously I needed their expertise and caring to make everything come out okay.

As I didn't sleep at all Thursday night it was so great to be home, showered, fed and warm. One of my cats never let me out of her sight from the time I walked in the door til we climbed into bed at 8:30. Ahhhhh heaven to be in my own bed again.

First, first

I received a call on January 1st from the Lovell PD about a hawk they'd rescued after being hit by a truck. He called Bill Robertson, the Greybull WGF warden who was coming to Cody the next day and would bring the bird here. As it's a 50 mile drive to Lovell that was a great help.

I got the bird who turned out to be the first Rough-legged Hawk of the new year. He has a fractured right wing that should be repairable, we'll find out on Monday when he goes in for surgery.

SPENCER update

A desperate emergency happened with SPENCER today just before noon. I was checking on the birds and went into his mew to see if he'd eaten yesterdays rat. He was up on his low tower and when I looked, it was covered with blood.

He came here on December 5th with a very small wound on the inside of his right wing near his wrist. I suspected electrocution and that was confirmed a week ago when I treated the wound and it was larger. It was dry and scabbed over so I moved him into an outside mew. Today that wound was 2-3 inches across and wouldn't stop bleeding. I quickly gathered him up and rushed him to Dr. Blessing who put about a half dozen sutures in the wound to stop the bleeding. The tendons are now exposed and skin missing. I hate electrocutions as they kill from within. I hope this won't go any farther and cause even more tissue damage. He's back inside under a heat lamp and will be treated with meds every day.

As you can see in the above photos, there is extensive damage to his wing tissue. The sutures are in the center of the open spot, the yellow is medicine as well as the moist area. He is an amazingly tolerant bird to put up with my holding his wing out while spraying the liquid antibiotic on the wound. And he's been eating his meals so he apparently has decided to make the best of a bad situation.

At this point I don't know if we can save the majority of his wing. The damage will continue until it runs its course, I don't know the final outcome. He is an adult so if he has a mate the pair will be broken up. Hopefully she will agree to take on another partner and continue to raise these awesome birds of prey.

Special accomodations

This is TANK, a beautiful adult male Rough-legged Hawk. He was right near the town of Meeteetse on the 23rd when he was hit by a car. Unfortunately the driver never stopped. Fortunately another driver, right behind him, and her family who were on their way to Colorado for Christmas did stop, gathered up the bird and called me. I asked them to take the hawk to the gas station in Meeteetse, and ask for a box to put him in until I could get there. The lady behind the counter was super so when I got there he was safely in a box and waiting inside where it was warm.

As you can see from this photo TANK is not in a usual pose for a raptor. The damage is apparently to his spine altho nothing appears to be broken in the xrays we took a couple hours later. He has full use of his legs, wings and feet but can't stand up. Scoots backwards just fine so I put him in this sling to keep him in a normal position. Hopefully this is just some spinal bruising and it will soon repair itself.

Until that time I have to hand feed him which is not his favorite thing altho he does swallow all the mouse pieces when I put them in his mouth. Hopefully he'll be up and feeding himself very soon so he can be on his way.

UPDATE: Sad news. His head injury worsened during the night and he started having seizures. He was euthanized on Saturday morning.

Great news times two

Today some really good news for two birds. The top photo is of MONROE flying off after his wing repaired itself with cage rest. Altho it was another 300 mile round trip to Riverton for the release, it was worth it. He only weighs 4.3 ounces but is still a mighty little bird.

The bottom photo is handsome HIGGINS, the baby redtail who arrived with an unexpected broken leg. He's gone through surgery with external pins applied to keep the bone ends in alignment. It took many weeks and spaced out removal of the six pins but he finally was able to stretch out his leg in a normal position. Unfortunately he wasn't able to hold his foot flat so had to wear a shoe for most of the time. Just last Monday I removed the shoe and voila! he's standing normally on his left foot. Now he just has to get strength back in that leg and a good grip with the foot and he'll be ready for release. That won't be until this Spring so he'll have the best chance for survival.

Christmas morning

At least two of us were just relaxing. This is SOPHIE and SISTER soaking up the rays on my unmade bed after enjoying a leisurely breakfast. It's a brilliantly blue sky outside, the wind is calm and all is right with our world. I got the chores done early and then came in to open my presents. My volunteer, Sara, is coming over for dinner, this will be a wonderful day. It is so far.

Fun new rug

This is something I got for the fun of it. There's a company that makes personalized merchandise and I picked this rug. It's called a Tweet Heart rug and it has the names of most of the dogs, cats and a horse who have lived with me over the past 45 years starting with my first dog, GYPSY and including the two dogs and two cats now here. Their names are on each of the little bird houses.

Now I need to buy another one to include those names I missed.

Strange visitors

I know, these aren't wild birds but they are now staying here for an undetermined time. Their person had to move out of state with not much notice so I'm babysitting them until she gets settled.

The top bird is a Rose Breasted Cockatoo, her name is CRAZY GIRL and she's nine years old. She is also looking for a home with someone who is very knowledgeable about psittacines, or parrot like birds. They are very like an intelligent perpetual two year old and need interaction with their person. She was hand raised and does have a few words and sounds in her vocalization.

The other bird is a hybrid Amazon Parrot, ANNIE, and she is 12 years old. She was also hand raised and will be going to her person as soon as it's possible. She sings opera, says words and is quite entertaining.

Wounded youngster

Today I was lucky thanks to WGF Warden Dan Thiele of Buffalo and BLM person Bob Barr. Dan picked up this young male Bald Eagle in the Buffalo Wetland Habitat Area unable to fly after he was luckily spotted before he spent too much time on the ground. I believe he'll be two years old in about April. As Buffalo is across the mountains to the east of Cody, it would have been a trip for me over what may have been some bad roads. That's were more luck came in. Bob was coming over to Worland for some shopping and agreed to bring the bird with him. That made it only a 192 mile round trip for me. I had already made arrangements for x-rays on LOKI which proved he does have a fractured ulna in his left wing. The radius is just fine so it will act as a splint if surgery is not deemed necessary. He goes in on Monday to see if that's the case or if it will only take some support bandaging for a few weeks.

UPDATE: Surgery had to be done but so far so good. He's being very quiet in his mew, eating his meals and perching. I did put a red heat lamp in there as it's still not the warmest of times altho today, Wednesday, it's supposed to be in the upper 50s. That will end with possible snow and in the 20s tomorrow.

Yum ! ! ! !

Tonight is the annual Christmas party at the Stone Soup Studio in Cody. Linda Raynolds and Elijah Cobb put this on to celebrate the season and it's a wonderful time. Everyone brings a dish to share which means there is a huge variety from soup to nuts. Actually I don't think I've ever seen soup but that's about the only thing not offered. My contribution is two apple pies as shown above. I know, it's cake icing but it's the only thing I could think of to make it festive. What's a little more sugar in your diet, right!

New eagle patient

I don't know what caused this beautiful adult male eagle to be grounded but he isn't able to fly. SPENCER was found in a Lovell oil field and the fear is that he was electrocuted. Only time will tell if the small wounds on his right wing will develop into a non-repairable situation. In the meantime, he's finally eating and is doing well. Not happy being inside but for the moment it's the best place for him. Our extremely cold weather would be hard on him in his present condition.

Great improvement

TUNDRA has made great strides since he came in unable to stand or walk. As you can see, he's not only standing but up on a floor perch in his cage. He's been filling up on a diet of mouse pieces but just recently he's been able to do some ripping and tearing on his own. He's gone from 22 ounces to 31 ounces, quite a gain in 10 days. If he continues to make such progress he will be ready for release in March when they head north.