Selfie

Not mine but from a friend in NY. Dr. John Eliot Parks of Cornell University received an adult male Golden Eagle from me a couple years ago. That bird, BURL, has been a challenge from day one. John planned on using him on his fist for educational work but the bird had other ideas. He refused to be tamed, wouldn't eat on his fist, wouldn't even sit on it. He pouted up a lot but on a recent Saturday, when John gathered him up for routine beak trimming, BURL decided to cooperate. After the exam he sat on John's fist for a few minutes. He did bate (jump off) but got up right away and again sat quietly.

Hopefully all the trying times are over altho I believe this beautiful eagle will always be a handful (pardon the pun) This is a selfie photo John took of the two of them in a calm time.

Smile!

My volunteer Sara took her dogs for a walk today and found out it was very windy. This is Rita, her female pit bull, facing into that strong wind, so strong her lips were blown wide.

Unusual color

I've only seen this pigeon a couple times and this is a very out-of-focus photo but I wanted to show you a very unusual color phase. This bird is a light rusty red from his chest to his tail and iridescent purple on his top half. I say he but I'm not sure what it is. Hopefully he'll land again at the water pan and I'll be able to take a much better photo of him.

Training ground

I was racking my brain to think of a way to train HIGGINS to catch live prey so he would be ready for release. He's been here since October recovering from a broken leg that required extensive surgery to repair. It took many weeks before four of the pins were removed but he had to continue wearing a "sandal" to keep the toes open. When the final pin was removed he also was able to go without the sandal. Within a week his left foot was working wonderfully.

Then he went into the hawk flight barn to strengthen the long unused muscles to power his wings and sustain flight. He's been flying all over the 32' x 48' barn for a few weeks but I had no idea if he'd remember to make his own kills so he would be releasable.

Because anything I put out for him would just run away, My friend Jenny came up with the idea of using a large kiddie wading pool. Then I thought of painting the inside the color of dirt. I didn't think the bright blue with cute fishies on the bottom would be the most natural of settings. Thanks to the guys at Sherwin Williams here in Cody, I have the perfect color paint to do the job.

And today he made his first live kill. A few more in the coming days and then I'll take him to an excellent release site not far from Cody. This area has trees, a creek, horses and their feed, which will attract mice and other rodents, and seclusion. It's been a long time coming and I'll add a release photo after he successfully begins the next chapter in his life.

He did it ! ! ! !

Finally, LOKI figured out how to fly to the highest wall perch in the flight barn. He came here on December 13th from Buffalo. Thanks to Dan Thiele, WGF, who drove him over after rescuing him on the Buffalo Wetland Habitat Area. He was only 7.75 pounds at the time and had a broken ulna, the largest bone between his wrist and elbow.

Surgery was done on December 16th and after the pin was pulled out on January 28th of this year he was put in the eagle flight barn. He didn't waste much time practicing his flying and today made a huge break through. For a couple weeks he's been flying high enough to make it to the lower wall perch but never landed on it. Today he bypassed that goal and went for the big one.

Here he is proudly on the high wall perch which is about 20' from the ground. He seems a bit stunned to look down on me but now he will hopefully visit this place often. He is gaining strength in his flying and will one day be released.

First one!

Isn't he handsome? And you'll notice he's standing in the snow. We had a very short mini-blizzard just a bit before this wonderful adult male robin stopped by for a drink of water. It's the first one I've seen this year so Spring must surely be on the way.

Super release

Thanks to Christine Smith, the Editor of the Dubois Frontier newspaper, I have a photo of beautiful ISIS at the moment of her release back in her home territory. Thanks again to USFWS biologist, Pat Hnilicka, and the original bird finders for making this possible. Below is the article written by Christine for her paper.

Bald eagle released to territory east of town
By Christine Smith
Dubois Frontier Editor

A week after being found beside the road east of Dubois, a bald eagle was released back to her flying grounds last Thursday. The female bald eagle was found Thursday, Feb. 27 by residents who were driving by the Red Rocks area. In the midst of the sagebrush, a distinct “white blob” was spotted. The couple, who have chosen to remain anonymous, drove back and saw the wind ruffling feathers on the head of a bald eagle.

Believing the bird to be dead, they reported it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The next morning, they went back to check and walked over to the bird, which startled them by jumping up, flying a short distance and then landing in the river. When Pat Hnilicka, a wildlife biologist with the USFWS arrived, they went to the site, where they had to cross the river to find her.

She came out of some shrubs and then flew back into the river where Hnilicka was able to catch her as she floated down toward him.
“She was a healthy eagle– she weighed over 12 pounds,” Hnilicka said, but he was unable to determine what happened to her.
The eagle had no signs of disease or broken bones, but she was visually nonresponsive, he said. “Whether she couldn’t see or was in shock, I don’t know. Something acute had happened.” Hnilicka put her in a box on a jacket to help absorb some of the water she took on in the river. Then they headed to Cody where Susan Ahalt at Ironside Bird Rescue was waiting.

“Bald eagles are born with a bad attitude and it never improves,” Ahalt said, explaining the abnormal behavior of the bird, which, upon arrival, “just laid there” instead of reacting to movement near her. “I’d put my hand near her face and she didn’t move, didn’t bite, didn’t do anything,” Ahalt said. “I couldn’t figure out why because I couldn’t see anything wrong.” Isis, as Ahalt named the eagle, spent the first night in a crate in a warm room, and by the next morning, she appeared to be able to see.

“She saw me coming in and when I moved across the room, she saw the movement,” Ahalt said. The eagle was moved to a small mew with a wall perch where Ahalt found her perched a few hours later. A move to a larger mew allowed Isis to fly around– and to try to get out. “I called Pat and told him, ‘I think she’s ready,’” Ahalt said.

Isis hadn’t eaten while at Ironside, but on that last day, Ahalt gathered her up– which was a process in itself– and, using long forceps, handed her six mice and venison scraps. “At least she went out of here with some groceries in her,” Ahalt said. “I’m amazed how quickly she got over whatever happened.”

This time of year, Ahalt explained, bald eagles, which mate for life, begin nesting and commence breeding. Their offspring are usually hatched in April, which is why it was so important that Isis be returned to the wild. Last Thursday, a week after first being found, Hnilicka brought Isis back to Red Rocks to release her back into the habitat– and to the probable mate– with which she was familiar. Transported in a standard animal crate in Hnilicka’s truck, once at the area, he faced the crate into the wind, tilting it back slightly.

The release took merely seconds, as Isis left the crate, let her feet touch the ground for the briefest of all possible time, took flight into the wind, banked left and disappeared down river.

Hnilicka encourages people who find injured wildlife to report it to the Game and Fish or the USFWS. He said it’s better to make a call to the proper officials instead of trying to handle the animals themselves because it is dangerous. Injured wildlife could have beeen poisoned or rabid. “It’s a consideration of both human and animal safety,” Hnilicka said.

Boo!

She looks terrifying but this Long-eared Owl isn't much bigger than a pigeon. This is her threat pose, she's hoping to look fierce enough to scare off anyone. I'm a little late in posting her photo, she came to me the very end of December with a fractured right wing. Right now she's still wearing a pin in the bone but that should come out in a week or so.

She is non-flighted because the tendon at the leading edge of her wing was also damaged and couldn't be repaired enough for flight. At this time I'm working at having her placed as an educational bird in a facility permitted for that purpose. Are you just a little scared?

And another...

ISIS arrived yesterday afternoon thanks to Pat Hnilicka, USFWS biologist in Lander. He drove to between Riverton and Dubois, near Crowheart, when he got the call there was an adult bald eagle on the side of the road. He couldn't find anything broken but called me and said he'd drive her up to IBR. About four hours later he arrived here.

We've had some pretty bad snowfall the past few days but he made it down my road. I also can't find anything broken on this amazingly beautiful female except for one thing. ISIS appeared, yesterday, to be totally blind. She had also fallen into the nearby river and was soaking wet. Pat put her in a box on a jacket and with the heat pouring out in the truck cab she was almost dry by the time they arrived.

I had an appointment this morning to have her checked out with Dr. Blessing but unfortunately the wind, combined with all the snow, has my road impassable. I only got about 100' before the crusty drifts were too much. I tried shoveling but decided I would have to do the whole half mile to the county road. I'm now trying to find someone with a plow or front loader.

She seems as if she sees something this morning so perhaps her eyesight will improve. In the meantime it's more hand feeding altho at almost 13 pounds she's in excellent condition. Oh yes, the blue thing is a tail protector made out of a feed sack. It's to keep the tip of her white tail, well, white.

UPDATE: I never made it to the vet, snow is so deep and crusty I was only able to make it about 100' from my house. It's now been plowed so I can drive out but can't get to the vet until Monday. The really good news is that when I tossed a rat down in front of ISIS she bent down and looked at it. Hopefully this means she'll be back in her home territory in time for breeding.

Sadness

Unfortunately PATRICK lost his battle with lead poisoning last night. As predicted, he did well for a day or so then went downhill quickly. Because his count was almost eight times what is considered a toxic level it was inevitable he would not make it but everyone kept trying. It still doesn't make it any easier to lose such a magnificent bird. He is an adult so there's probably a female waiting for his return to their home territory. We shall both miss seeing him fly free again.

The above photos were taken by the people at the ranch before he was gathered up. As you can see in the one picture, his eyes show how bad he feels. When disturbed he did open his eyes and assume a defensive posture but it didn't last long. Joyce Inchauspe and Richard Platt sent these photos and promised to keep an eye out for any other birds in trouble.

Christmas again ????

Seems that way. Here are photos of a couple of my small evergreen trees taken this morning. Just when the 12+" of snow finally melted along came another bunch of the white stuff. It hasn't completely stopped but after over 6" it's slowed significantly. At least I finally got the chicken houses cleaned during the short spell between storms. Melting snow makes part of their yard a muddy mess. Now for the bunny barn clean up......that will have to wait for warmer temps as their droppings tend to freeze into the ground.

UPDATE: It's one day later and we're now up to about 12" of snow. It's still coming down but barely so maybe it'll stop soon. Just when the chicken yards were drying out so they could come stand in the sun...... This is supposed to last for quite a few days, ick, I am so ready for winter to be over.

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.