What are they?

Yesterday I got a call from the rodeo grounds about some baby birds that had been found. Amazingly enough they came from a horse trailer that had just arrived from Montana. When the people were cleaning out the manure the babies fell out.

I have no idea what species these are but as you can see in the photo, all four are barely as big as a chicken egg. I think they're about three or four days old and require feeding every hour. Their beak shape tells me that they're bug eaters so I'm giving them a variety of protein rich food and hope they make it. I have no idea how long they went without food but so far so good.

Thin isn't in for this bird

It was a lucky day today for MINNIE, this stunning immature female Northern Harrier. She would have starved to death in the next couple of days had she not been found by a caring person. As a female she should weigh 14-21 ounces, she came in at 8 ounces.

She would have been one of the 80% of baby birds not surviving their first year but now she has a fighting chance. She immediately started eating the mouse I gave her and by the time I got back with my camera she was ready for a second one.

Her wings are droopy due to weak muscles as her xrays show no breaks at all. At this point all MINNIE needs is lots of good quaility groceries and the chance to build up her flight muscles.

From on high

I never thought PIP would fly again after being caught in a barbwire fence and suffering severe bruising and cuts to his left wing, Imagine my surprise two days ago when I found him glaring at me from a tall wall perch in his mew. The only way he could get there is by flying.

I now have high hopes that this baby GHO will be releasable, possibly in the next month or so.

A real bird is emerging

She's now 18 days old and COTTON is beginning to get in enough hard feathers to make her identification complete. She's also left her "nest box", a small cardboard box she's been in since I received her as a day old baby.

I'm now giving her whole, opened, mice to experiment on self feeding. She doesn't have the hang of it yet but she's working on it. After hearing some strange noises coming from her cage I had to peek and see what was going on. She was standing in a corner "footing" some of the letters on the newspaper under her feet. That means she was trying to grab them.

She'll be ready for a small flight area pretty soon so I have one already set up in my cage room. It's only 50" wide but that will give her a chance to spread her wings and fly.....

She approves

I went out to check on TIMBER this evening and found her missing from the high perch. Looking in all the tree branches proved she wasn't on them. I left the mew and got a flashlight to see if she was perhaps on the ground. Unbeknownst to me, I walked right by her. She was sitting in the tree within a couple feet of my passing. Apparently she approves of this new forest she's living in. Now if she'll just go back up to the perch and eat her mouse......

Can you see me now?

Baby Long-eared Owl, TIMBER, moved into new quarters today. I spent a few hours up on the mountain cutting down an evergreen tree (with permission from the BLM) and some branches to make her new 12'x 16' mew look more like the habitat she normally lives in. Look closely and you can see her up on top of her perch hiding behind one of the branches. The bottom shot shows the view of her perch from the doorway with the tree in the center of the space.

She is now almost six weeks old and needs to be flexing her flying muscles in preparation for release to the wild. It is a very hot day here and luckily some guys came to deliver wallboard so helped me get the heavy, awkward tree in place. It's sort of like that Christmas tree you cut down thinking "it'll fit in the room" and it ends up too tall. It worked and all that pine smell is wonderful.

4th of July babies

Today I received eight very tiny pheasant chicks. They appear to have been hatched yesterday and were found coming out of a recentlty swathed hay field with no parent seen. These little babies will be capable of flight in just a short time but because they have to be brooded at night, they will stay here for a few weeks until old enough and feathered enough for release back where they were found. It's apparently a very good habitat for raising pheasants.

And growing......

An updated photo of COTTON at five days old. She has been identified as a female American Kestrel and is now a week old. She's gone from 21 grams (.74oz) to 72.7 grams (2.56oz.). She's able to sort of sit up, altho not for long, and look around. Her appetite is excellent, loves ground up quail. I'll also introduce her to some mouse pieces as that is a staple in the diet of these smallest of falcons.

Another baby owl

This cutie is TIMBER, a four week old Long-eared Owl found on the ground after a logger cut down her nest tree. The sad news is that there were three smaller babies that had apparently died some time before this one was rescued. A lot of people mistake these for baby GHOs but they are less than half the size and altho they also have "ears" they are closer together and shorter.

This young bird will be put into one of mews after I add a lot of natural branches and hopefully a whole tree to reproduce the forest habitat they live in. Then all she has to do is prove she can make live kills and she'll be released.

Black & white

SPARKLE came to this facility yesterday after being found almost two weeks ago when the rest of the baby magpies were killed. Luckily some very caring people found this survivor. They did a good job of keeping the young bird alive but remember, it is against the law for anyone to take in and keep a protected bird. Black-billed magpies are such a bird.

Right now this beautiful little fellow is learning how to eat food on his own as he's been hand fed by his rescuers. He should be ready to join all the local magpies in a couple weeks.

Beautiful view

Because of the wildfires near this area the sunsets are awesome. This is the view from my yard facing North. Aren't I just the luckiest person to live in such beauty?

What is going on????

Most raptors, in this part of the country, are hatched from March through April so the young are old enough and have the time to learn the skills needed so they have a chance of reaching maturity.

Not so with these two babies. I believe HOOTER, the baby GHO is about 8-9 weeks old. I don't even know what species of falcon the other baby is, perhaps a merlin. I think COTTON is only about 1-2 days old. And you can see his size relative to a regular chicken egg.

The owl was found under the nest tree and because he's very thin I made the decision to bring him back to IBR for some groceries and then return him to his parents and the other two siblings.

The baby falcon was found under the nest, along with three dead siblings, and no parents were seen. The owl has a super chance of being returned to the wild in a short amount of time. The falcon, iffy. I'll let you know when I make a positive ID on this very tiny bird.

An answer

Today I may have found out why SEEDY died. As I mentioned in his eulogy, he may have challenged the GHO I'd recently put in their flight area. He's been in there for almost two decades and has had many, many other owls sharing his space, this time it was different and resulted in his death. Today I found an egg hidden in a corner, an owl egg. That means I had the sex wrong on one of them, SEEDY or SMIDGE is a female.

They've been together for six years but apparently it's been a long courtship and it ended with SEEDY trying to be dominant with the newcomer. As I still have his body I can have an autopsy done to determine the sex but that won't bring him back so I'll just go on as is.

Hard landing

Most baby birds take to flying quite well but the landings are something else. This is PIP, probably around 12 weeks old who found himself in a rather precarious position yesterday. He was caught up in a barbwire fence which can be devastating. Naturally he fought to get free and he did but he took some hardware with him.

Caught up in the feathers on the leading edge of his left wing was a barb from the fence. How it came undone is beyond me but both points and the twisted wire in between were stuck near his elbow. The bad news is that the remaining barbs in the fence cut his wing up pretty bad. Luckily there are no broken bones but it will take some time to see if there is muscle and tendon damage.

He's a fiesty little bird so attitude make carry the day.

Short stay

Just last Saturday I received a beautiful adult male kestrel after he was rescued from the middle of the highway near the Chief Joseph turnoff on the Belfry Hiway. He had apparently been hit by a car while dining as a mouse body was near him. Thanks to a very caring person he was picked up and I was called.

CHIEF suffered no serious injuries which is amazaing as he only weighs a bit under 3.5 ounces, compared to the many thousand pounds of a vehicle. I believe he had a bit of a sore wing and probably a headache but is doing so well and flying so strong that he will be released this weekend near where he was found so he can rejoin his mate.

As you can see in this photo, his coloration is a very vivid orange, the look an adult male kestrel takes on during breeding season. That is over, the baby falcons have probably already fledged, but it takes a while for it to fade.

NOTE: He blasted out of the crate and instead of heading for the nearby trees he went up and let me see just how strong he is. He flew and soared in circles above me for a few minutes then as if deciding I'd seen enough, headed west over the hill.

Another good release

Today I set CARNEY loose to begin the rest of her life. This beautiful adult female Sharp-Shinned Hawk came up from Lander after apparently hitting a window in the town. She had a broken left wing but it was in good position so no surgery was needed.

These photos show her sitting on the highest perch in her flight area and right after release on the roof of my north room addition. I blinked my eye and missed her next takeoff so don't know which direction she headed. Hopefully it was towards a long and fruitful life.

Survivors

These two little cuties are the remaining babies in a nest of four robins found without a parent. Unfortunately the other two didn't make it but so far these are okay. They are almost old enough to fly and will go outside soon to practice that and finding bugs. I have an adult female in the yard that may (hopefully) help in that education.

Field of Honor

All this week, in the town of Cody, there is an amazing display involving 800 American flags. It's called the Field of Honor and celebrates Flag Day on June 14th. So far this is the only one of its kind in the state and I certainly encourage all to go see it. The Field of Honor obervances began in Sandy City, UT in 2002 on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The idea has now been celebrated across the country and includes honor or rememberance for active duty or veteran military personnel, first responders or any other loved ones.

Moth?

I have no idea what kind of moth/butterfly this is but it fell near my feet as I was moving my hose. I think it's a moth. So pretty and with such vivid markings. Anyone know the species let me know.

NOTE: I found out what it is, it's a member of the giant silk moth family. It's called a Polyphemus Moth and apparently mine is a female. The information said they only live a short time as an adult, probably near the end of her life when I found her. I'll check my aspen tree to see if there are a lot of little yellow caterpillars roaming around on it. Maybe they'll eat oyster shell scales, that would be super.

Now?????

Yes, this was taken at 6:30pm today in Cody, WY. That's the 25th of May, 2012 and there's a bit of snow on the ground with an outside temperature of 35. Not the latest snow we've received, that happend on July 4th many years ago. And not the most at this time of the year but I do have a fire in my woodstove to take the chill off the house. The top photo was taken just two hours after the middle one.

And to think, just a week ago it was in the 80s. Ahhhhh, living in the beautiful Cody mountains.

Con te partiro

In Italian that means "Time to say goodbye". They say things come in three and in about that many months I've lost three dear friends. This morning my wonderful old school bird-foster dad Great Horned Owl, SEEDY, was killed. He's been with me for 20 years and altho both he and I have a responsibility in his death, most of the blame goes to me.

This morning I did what I've done dozens of times in 15 years, I put another GHO in the same flight area that SEEDY and SMIDGE live in. The only answer I can come up with is that because of the time of the year, testosterone levels were high. The new owl, JONESY, is a male as is SEEDY. Perhaps this time my old boy decided to let the newcomer know who was boss. Unfortunately the new owl is much younger and stronger and was able to use that to his advantage and overpower the older bird.

I, of course, feel such guilt at this happening and will regret it for a long time. I will also remember all the wonderful programs this amazing owl and I shared over these two decades. The above photo is our last educational program before he and I retired from doing them. He will be sadly missed forever.

Flown away

Today I took BUMP back to where he was originally found after being hit by a car south of Meeteetse. When I opened the crate door he wasted no time in taking off but I held my breath as instead of heading for the large cottonwoods right in front of him he curved around towards the highway. His first landing was on one of the t-posts right alongside the pavement. A magpie came at him so he took off and this time towards open space and sagebrush. He landed in a clearing and by the time I drove away he was still sitting there gazing all around him as if amazed he'd been returned to his territory.

Fuzzy baby

I just received the first baby Great Horned Owl of the year and this one is hurting. I don't know if he fell out of the nest tree, I couldn't spot it in the huge evergreen he was hiding beneath. He has a very bad abrasion to the left side of his head and neck but there isn't an open wound. He only weighs 19 ounces and is probably just over two weeks old.

He does, however, know what a mouse is for and scarfed down three of them in quick order once I got him back from the vet and a sort of nest made. He also has a mirror hanging on the door so he can see another of his species. He's old enough to know he's an owl but I don't want to take any chances.

At this point he should make a complete recovery but the tissue around his left ear is also swollen so I don't know just how much damage has been done. When he gets old enough he'll join my foster GHO, SEEDY, in the flight area.

Oh yes, his name is vanGOGH

Untimely swim

I spent this morning at the Arbor Day tree giveaway in Cody and on the way home got a call to pick up a downed Osprey. This is BELLE. I hope she is just a year old and doesn't have a mate or a nest set up as she has a badly broken right wing so won't be getting home for a long time. That is if it's fixable. She is now bandaged to prevent further damage and will go in on Monday for xrays and to see if repair surgery is an option.

This is a very difficult species to keep as they aren't the best eaters in captivity. Hopefully she will be an exception and readily take to being handed a whole fish and not have to catch it herself.

NOTE: She died Wednesday morning. Just too much trauma and stress for this wonderful young lady.

Long drive

Last Friday I spent six hours on the road driving to Lander and back to pick up a beautiful one year old female Sharp-shinned Hawk. She had been found in the middle of town and was luckily gathered up before any more damage had been done. I got a call from the WG&F office there asking if I would take her for rehabilitation. I was told that she was in very bad shape but she came around and was standing by the time I got there.

Her name is CARNEY as she was found in front of a place called Carnegie. Her left ulna is broken altho the radius is just fine. Amazing how the larger bone fractured but not the smaller, thinner one. At this time she is behaving herself in a cage, eating her half quail a day and therefore isn't wearing any bandage. The unbroken bone is acting as a splint so given a few weeks she should be strong enough to put into a small flight area to strengthen her wing for release. By not having the wing imobilized she will keep the muscles stronger and not require physical manipulation. That would be very stressful for her and sharpies don't handle stress very well.