And just as with humans, wildlife has turned its thoughts to love—well, not in the human sense of the word, but mating season is in full force for most critters now. Squirrels are nearing the end of their first breeding cycle; owls are trying to get their babies out of the nest; songbirds are building nests…Speaking of which, here’s an interesting bit of trivia before I get into this week’s LWR update.  Did you know that Eastern bluebirds (EABB) can sometimes lay white eggs? The normal color for EABB eggs is a lovely light blue, but 5% of female EABBs lay only white eggs. The babies are normally pigmented, and the female will lay only white eggs for the rest of her life.  Neat, huh?  And why is this interesting to me? “My” bluebirds this year have five pretty little white eggs in their nest—first time this has ever occurred in the population that’s been using my nest boxes!

Okay, so maybe you’re not as impressed with that little factoid as I am.  Oh well…on to the update!

The squirrel’s eyes opened this week, although you can’t tell it in this photo. He’s still at the “eat and pass out” phase of his life; this week he should start becoming a little more active between feedings.

He also has a neighbor: LWR received another gray squirrel last week, a couple of weeks younger and a whole lot skinnier than Mr. Buddha Belly. This little guy was probably attacked in the nest by a crow—see the abrasion on his flank?  He has a somewhat smaller matching wound on the other flank; his left ear has a small scab; and his left eye was massively swollen when he came in. He also had a nasty case of pneumonia, complete with horrible congestion and rattling breathing.  He’s still on antibiotics and is still a bit lethargic compared to his older neighbor, but he’s much better than when he came in.

We also had a juvenile rabbit come in, attacked by cat. He was lucky that he had only minor wounds, but he still needed a couple of days of antibiotics, as cat saliva is toxic to rabbits. He was quite a happy camper when he was released—the arrow in the photo below shows you the hiding place in the brush that he quickly scampered to in his dash to freedom.

This red shoulder hawk wasn’t as lucky. He was found in the road, but a vet exam revealed only 3-4 tail feathers missing. He was eating well—self-feeding, too—but when I went in the fourth morning to check on him, he’d died during the night. Sometimes the stress of the original injury, combined with the stress of captivity, can cause latent and otherwise benign conditions to flare up, often with fatal results; also, we don’t know what happened for him to’ve been in the road in the first place, so...we just don’t know. Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends (www.bubba-and-friends.org) and I had actually been discussing releasing this guy within a day or two, as he was doing so well…

Today an adult mocker came in, rescued from a hawk. As cruel as it may sound to you, I don’t actually advocate taking prey away from raptors, normally. It’s not pleasant to see them take out songbirds, but they have to eat, too. In this case, however, in addition to a leg that appears broken in the joint, the mocker seems to have some neurological issues that might indicate pesticide poisoning, so the person who rescued him may also have saved the hawk’s life: If he’d eaten a poisoned bird, he would have died, as well.

Let me hop on my soapbox here once more and remind you that pesticides and insecticides are deadly to songbirds, too. They get the poison on their legs and feet, or on their feathers, or they ingest a poisoned insect or plant, and then they take the poison back to their nests on their legs/feathers or feed their babies poisoned insects or berries, killing their babies…or they become too weak and disoriented to fly and are easy prey for raptors, who then die from eating poisoned songbirds. Is it really worth the risk of all that death just so you can take out a few dandelions in your yard? A weed is just a misplaced flower, according to some pundits. While that’s a lovely, poetic notion, here’s something a little more concrete to ponder: those so-called weeds you poison are a source of food for all sorts of wildlife—and some beneficial insects like dragonflies.  Bottom line—I’d rather have a ragged yard and living wildlife than some fake-looking perfect lawn that comes with much too high a cost to the wildlife associated with it. And if that’s not incentive enough for you to lay off the pesticides and insecticides, stop and think about this for a second: you, your children and your family pets are walking on, lying in and otherwise exposed to the very plants you’ve doused with poison!

Ending on an up note, the barn owl from the last update continues to make progress.  His vet exam showed nothing broken and just a slight bruise to that left eye, which thrilled us all. He’s such a gorgeous man! It took him the better part of a week to recover from the vertigo accompanying his concussion, and as of this past week, he’s started fighting me when I feed him—and broke free the other night, leading me on a merry chase through my main rehab area. (Thanks to Steve Hicks for alerting me to the fact that when adult barnies are in rehab, they often refuse to self-feed.) He’s starting to hiss loudly and attempt to scream, but—if you’ll pardon the bad grammar (it sounds funnier this way, for some reason)—his screamer still don’t work right! He IS improving in this area, as well, though, and his flight is looking better and better, so we’re hoping he’ll be release-ready soon.

Spend some time outside tomorrow to celebrate the official beginning of Spring. Go—get out and just sit and do nothing but listen to the birds singing!

And if any of you added “oh my!” to that, you’ve been watching a little too much “Wizard of Oz” lately!

It’s been a slow but steady couple of weeks, with a red-tailed hawk, a barred owl, a gray squirrel and, just this morning, a barn owl coming in.

The red tail came in with a nasty broken wing—the entire elbow was exposed, and one of the bones was snapped right at the joint, rendering it unfixable, so we had no choice but to euthanize.  Based on the nature of the injury, raptor rehabber Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends theorizes that the bird may have been attacked by a great horned owl, as the x-rays showed no signs of lead that would indicate a gunshot.  This red tail was absolutely terrified when he came in, which is unusual for red tails and would also fit the GHO attack theory, according to Steve.

A few days later, I received a call about a hit-by-car (HBC) barred owl. This poor bird was concussed out of his gourd, his left eye was pretty cloudy, and he seemed to have some sort of neurological issue, as he couldn’t keep his head level and kept jerking it slowly from side to side.  After a vet exam, I took him home and debated for a few days whether we needed to euthanize, as he had to be force-fed, couldn’t keep his left eye open, and the neurological issue didn’t seem to be clearing up.

The day I’d planned to take him back in for euthanasia, his head stopped jerking and he started eagerly snatching mice from the forceps, so he got a reprieve. The left eye is now open most of the time but is still fairly cloudy. Sometimes it can take up to a month for head injuries to fully heal, though, so he’s got a few more weeks yet and will soon need to be transferred to Bubba & Friends for flight conditioning.

The gray squirrel came in late in February, orphaned when the tree his nest was in was cut down. People, as I’ve mentioned before, there’s no good time in Georgia to fell a tree: in the early fall, squirrels have babies in the nest; in the winter, owls have babies in the nest; in the spring and summer, hawks, songbirds and squirrels have babies in the nest. If the tree absolutely MUST come down, PLEASE check for nests and make arrangements to relocate the babies.  And remember, it’s against federal law to disturb a raptor or songbird nest with eggs or babies in it.

End of lecture…for now…this little guy is growing by leaps and bounds, as you can see from these photos taken over the week and a half he’s been in rehab.

The barn owl came in near noon today, after a concerned couple saw him by the road in front of their house. They were aware enough of their natural surroundings to know he was “their” bird—one they watched in their yard frequently—and they called DNR to locate a rehabber, after removing him from danger and placing him in a cardboard box for transport. My thanks to them for their quick and level-headed action!

Upon intake, the barnie was concussed and lethargic, and it looked as if his left eye was pretty well trashed (see above photo), but I kept smelling pine tar, so I decided to see if I could clean his eye up a bit and determine if maybe it just had pine tar on it. To my delight, that was the problem with his eye; after cleaning, it looked perfectly normal.

However…he favors his right leg. It doesn’t feel broken, but there may be a hip/pelvic injury that even an x-ray won’t show. I’ve consulted with Steve Hicks, who says hip/pelvic injuries are not common in barnies, so our fingers are crossed that he’s just bruised and sore. Since he came in too late to get him to Smalley’s today for x-rays, we’ll have to wait until Monday to find out anything more definite on him. In the meantime, it’s dark, quiet and rest for him while his head stops hurting and the room stops spinning, poor baby.

Keep your fingers crossed that a massive headache and some bruising are the only issues he has, and of course, I’ll keep you posted on his status in the next update.

In closing, Laurens Wildlife Rescue has again this year been invited to join the Green Choice Campaign, but this requires YOUR participation: go to

http://www.greatnonprofits.org/reviews/write/laurens-wildlife-rescue-inc/campaign:28

and post a review of LWR. You don’t have to’ve brought us animals in the past; one of the options under “Your role” is “general member of the public”.  If LWR has at least 10 positive reviews (4 or 5 stars) by March 31, 2011, we will receive exposure to potential donors on the Great Nonprofits Top-Rated Green Nonprofits List. Last year we had two very positive reviews—I know more than two people read this blog, so click on that link and let’s get 10 positive reviews up there!  (Be sure to click on “Green Choice” in the campaign drop-down menu.)