Monday, February 21, 2011

This Week at Liberty 02/21/2011

The intake total for the year now stands at 117.
Some progress on a couple of previous patients shows up this week, plus we take a look at one or two new arrivals. Prior to the big storm front that moved through the state last weekend, we also got to release one of our recent success story birds. Let's jump right in...!
The harrier gets a tail guard.
Toba and Kristine wipe a messy eater.
A cooper's hawk also gets tail protection.
The male harrier continues to make slow progress toward recovery. Last week he began to get more active (A good sign!) so he was fitted with a tail guard to try to keep his empennage from becoming frayed. Hopefully he'll be going into an outside enclosure as soon as one becomes available! While they were at it, a similar guard was attached to the cooper's hawk which was also endanger of elongating his stay by "brooming" his tail feathers in his cage in the ICU.
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Toba and Sharon examine a gorgeous dark RTH.
Toba makes an ID tag prior to placing the bird outside.
The band is secured in place.
Worthy of a photograph!
A most handsome bird!
We get our share of very dark red-tailed hawks at Liberty and last week another fine specimen came through our doors. Not showing much of the light or buff colored chest, these dark morphs are very distinctive and, seemingly, very strong and "grabby" as a group. The bird was not seriously injured and was banded and placed in the outside RTH enclosure in preparation for a speedy release - it's breeding season!
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Sharon trades looks with another western red-tail.
The sutures are holding.
Another RTH came in with a gaping hole in it's chest. It appears that possibly it was on the short end of a run-in with some barbed wire or possibly an attack by another predator. In any case, Dr. Orr put in some temporary sutures to close the massive wound and it looks like they were just the ticket as the bird is doing well only days later!
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Slow healing is evident.
The GHO that came up from Douglas (thanks, Christie!) a few weeks ago (see TW@L Jan.03 2011) is making slow progress, as is usually the case with electrical injuries. Now that the wounds are healing, it's time to see if the wing will be usable for normal flight as the wraps are removed and feathers can once again grow in.
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A tiny GHO is examined for injury.
It looks a lot like a bullet wound.
The wound is cleaned and irrigated.
Speaking of GHO's, a diminutive owl came in last week with what looks like a bullet wound to his left wing. If it was in fact a gunshot, it appears that the projectile passed completely through the wing without doing much damage to the tissue or breaking any large bones. The med services staff cleaned and treated the wound and will check it again soon to see if X-rays are warranted.
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The osprey hanging around (!) waiting for release.
Dave (rt.) and Greg Kendall load him up for the trip to freedom.
Dave gets ready for the release. (photo by Greg Kendall)
Lift off! (Photo by Greg Kendall)

"There's no place like home!" (Photo by Greg Kendall)
The osprey that came in a couple weeks ago (see TW@L Feb 07) made a full recovery. Last week, his rescuer, Dave Kendall, along with his son Greg, came to Liberty and boxed him up for the ride back to his territory near Gila Bend. Even after the long drive down, the bird flew well when Dave launched him and flew off to begin his life again, hunting the canals and lakes in that area of south-central Arizona. It was another satisfying success story for Liberty, the people at Tierra Construction and the Solana Generating Station who made the call to our hotline, and Dave who drove 150 miles to rescue the downed bird and brought him in for the treatment that saved his life.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow...so many amazing things being done at Liberty Wildlife Foundation...their annual benefit is on April 30th at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Hotel in Scottsdale, the education birds will be present to greet each and every one of us where you can stand
3 feet away from a bald eagele, golden eagle, a vulture,a variety of owls, and that's just at the beginning of the evening...there is so much more! This is a magiecal event! ~Barbie~

Bethany F said...

I am so happy that Osprey is home free! I hope it finds it's mate and makes some pretty osprey babies this year! :-)