It's not much of a post I'm afraid.

Which is a good thing....really! I was even considering not doing a posting at all this week, but didn't want y'all to think I was slackin'.

Sadly, we did lose the Saw-whet owl and no one knows why. It was fine one day and gone the next. They did do a necropsy on its body and didn't find anything amiss, like infection. I guess there is always the possibility that it had an infection in its brain, considering how the eye was deteriorating. Needless to say everyone was quite bummed to lose the little cutie.

Kent the Cooper's hawk is still doing well in the outdoor aviary. She is now flying to upper perches and is improving daily from all reports.

Bucky the Cooper's hawk was moved to a nearby aviary to get him away from the constant people traffic, as it was just stressing him out WAY to much.

It has a LOT of foliage and should make him feel a bit safer, as he can hide pretty well in there.

The leg still looks good and he doesn't seem to be favoring it at all anymore, which is a great sign!

We moved the eagle out to the Slatted Flight cage and then to the bigger Heron cage, as I guess he was banging around to much in the smaller Slatted Flight cage.

As you can see, though, he is sitting on the ground. He didn't even turn around when I walked up to him. I was told he wasn't eating well, either. I think everyone is hoping it's just due to the fact that he has been moved around so much and that once he is in the cage for awhile he will calm down and regain his appetite. Guess I'll see tomorrow, as he will have been moved back indoors and started being force fed if he didn't start eating on his own.

Both the Great Blue heron and the Great Horned owl were doing so well they were released! WOOHOO! You gotta love when there is a good outcome to a rehab situation, as it seems like so many of the animals we get in during the "off season" are so compromised in some way that they just don't make it.

Well, that's all there is. Hey, no whining! I told you there wasn't much to post about. Til next time...

Raptor Extremes!

We have one of the smallest and one of the largest raptors in residence at Wolf Hollow right now! Let's start with the wee one first. This little one came to us from Sedro Wooley.

It's a Saw-whet owl and this is how he looked the week he came in. They think he might have taken a glancing blow to the eye by a car, but we'll never know for sure. As you can see, his left eye is pretty messed up. It was swollen, protruding, and has a hyphema, which is a term used to describe the eye when there is bleeding between the cornea and iris. They did a fluorescein exam to look for any tears in the cornea and didn't find any. He was given antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meds, as blood in the eye is a rich protein source for bacterial growth.

Despite all that, he's a feisty one and has a great appetite. He even got loose while his cage was being cleaned and cruised around the Quiet Room. I think, because he looks so tiny (Hell...he IS tiny at 6 inches tall!) one is scared to hold him too tightly. At least I was scared of that. But, if you don't hold him tight enough, he slithers through your hands and then flies around, making you look foolish in the process of trying to catch him. I finally figured out that if I just hold one of my hands in front of his good eye, he won't move since he can't see where he's going. Yep, you gotta be smarter than what you're working with folks, that's my motto!

They are keeping a close watch over how his eye is progressing and even though he is still getting drops put in it, we did move him to an outdoor aviary with more flying room and branches.

Look how cute and yet defiant he looks, all at the same time! Now on to our other extreme!

This Bald eagle is one of our local ones, found right here in Friday Harbor! When found, his right wing was drooping. Not feeling any breaks in the long bone, a vet was brought in to help x-ray him. And here it is!

It was determined that his right shoulder was a bit dislocated but not bad enough to warrant wrapping it. He had no fracture in his left "wrist" area, but might have tendon/ligament damage, as he did have a silver dollar sized piece of skin missing with the muscle exposed. This was an older injury, about a week old. He also has a stress fracture in his left tibiotarsus, but again, rest and time should take care of that, as he is standing on his leg without problems.

But, like most wild animals in a stressful captive situation, they can go off their feed, and he has for the last few days, even though we have tried various food items from rats to herring. If he doesn't start eating by today, we may have to start force feeding him, which won't be pleasant for any and all involved in that process.

Reading back through my blog, I can't believe I haven't even HINTED that we have a Great Horned owl in, as he has been with us for TWO MONTHS now!

Found in Mt. Vernon, he was thin and his left wing drooped at the shoulder. He was placed in a figure 8 body wrap to let the wing heal. I then got the job of taking it off!

It took a bit of maneuvering but I did get it off eventually! He was them placed in the Slatted Flight Cage for initial, post-wing wrap flying jaunts.

After awhile, we then placed him in the Heron cage for even more and longer flight jaunts, as we discovered he had very little flight muscle built up. While the Heron cage is bigger, it is also more exposed, so the birds put in there can get a bit more stressed.

As you can see, he freaked out when I walked in to check on him and is clinging to the side netting of the cage. Fortunately, as of this week he is good to go and will be released later this week!

Let's get to some updates. Unfortunately, our litte Red-breasted sapsucker didn't make it. The Varied thrush did so well it was released last week! As for our Cooper's hawks, allow me to clear up an error I made in a previous posting. After some discussion this past Saturday and some research in bird identification books, I have learned that the dark red eyes along with the horizontalish (it's a word!) red brown pattern on his chest means that not only is Kent a mature bird but he is actually...well...a SHE! And SHE has been moved to a larger outdoor aviary.

Unfortunately, this is mainly where you find her...on the ground. When I went in, she never tried to fly to get away from me. She just ran around a lot and seemed to be favoring her right wing. So we decided to capture her and do a quick examination.

We found that there is still swelling along the "armpit" muscle of her left wing where the injury was but didn't find anything else amiss. Hopefully just giving her some time will help.

Now, Bucky here is a juvenile male Cooper's hawk.

His coloring is more brown/grey than reddish and, more importantly, the spotting on his chest in more vertical that horizontal. That alone is a dead giveaway on his juvenile status. After his latest vet examination, we were given the green light to put him out into a VERY small outdoor mew.

Going from being inside a carrier to an outdoor mew can be very stressful for a bird and Cooper's haws are "stressy" enough in captivity, so, when I went in to feed him, he completely wigged out. I got in and out as quickly as possible, as I was seriously worried he was going to hurt himself with all his thrashing about, what with his leg still having pins and being in a splint. Hence the bad picture. Frankly, I am surprised it came out as well as it did, as I just aimed in his general direction as I was heading out the door.

The Great Blue heron is now in the Heron cage and doing well.

Now flying to the upper perches, he will hopefully be ready to be released shortly. Well, that's all she wrote for this week. Til next time...

Spiderman does not......

a nutritious meal make. Reread it all you want folks, but it's not going to change. That's because this 5 inch tall thing.....

was regurgitated by this.....

a few hours after he was admitted into Wolf Hollow. I think he might have mistook it for a starfish. This beautiful Great Blue heron was found in a construction site in downtown Anacortes. He had walked into part of the site and while he wasn't stuck as in he was caught on something, he was in an area where he couldn't turn around. They got him turned around, he took a couple of steps, and fell forward, only for him to get up, take a couple of steps and fall again. Hence him being brought to us. One can only assume that good ol' Spidey had impeded his ability to eat and digest food. He was anemic when he came in so he was given iron along with Vitamin B complex to help get his appetite up and running again.

We also took an x-ray of him to make sure there was nothing else going on with him.

So this was my first x-ray experience with a live animal, although he stayed pretty calm, what with that towel being over his head and everything. And here is what the x-ray showed!

That's right...nothing. No Batman, no Robin....nothing! So we wait for him to gain his strength back and he should be just fine.

You know, if we have had one of these in before, I don't recall it. It's a Red-breasted sapsucker!

Isn't it gorgeous?! Part of the woodpecker family, this cutie was found in Sedro Wooley near someone's house. We think he hit a window, as you can see that he has a serious head tilt to the right and he circles to the right a lot. This usually indicates a head injury with swelling in the brain. So he got steroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory meds to help with that.

While he is eating on his own, he drinks better if you help him with it. And he's a feisty one, as even after I got done helping him drink and tried to put him back, he just sat on my hand, pecking at me VERY hard, the whole time thinking, I'm sure, "Take THAT...and THAT!"

BEWARE! GRAPHIC PHOTOS ABOUT TO BE POSTED!

Here is a Varied thrush we got in that blew against a window in a wind storm.

When he was first admitted, his right eye was closed with blood around it. We also think he might have a fractured collar bone, as his right wing was drooping but none of the long bones in the wing were broken. And initially he was pretty neurological, as he was very stressed when he came in, drifting in and out of consciousness. So, he got a wing wrap, steroidal and antibiotic eye drops, non-steroidal pain meds for his shoulder, and a homeopathic drug for stress.

But what, you may ask, about that obvious bump on his head? Initially they thought that was all part of the bumping into the window trauma, as he was bleeding a bit there as well. But as it turns out, it was an older injury and while I was there, they decided to clean it out. Now, I must say, this was pretty gross, as this thing was HUGE and was filled with puss that had hardened.

Now people, these are not small pieces. These are ginormous and when you take something large like this off of a bird's head, this is what it looks like.

Eegs! Nasty, isn't it?! It's hard to see in the photo, but that is a VERY deep hole in this little one's head. So we slapped some Tagaderm over it to keep it clean and so we could keep an eye out for any possible infection.

And yes, I know the Tagaderm piece is a bit too large. He is doing quite well, all things considered.

And how are our two Cooper's hawks doing? They are doing just fine! The Cooper's hawk that had the open shoulder injury, who we have named Kent after the local man who brought him in, got stitches put in.

I know, it's not the best of photos, but you get the gist. And it looks one hell of a lot better than it did, don't you think? He is still working on standing without having to adjust with his wings though.

Oh, and you want to know what else I learned? See how orange/red his eyes are? That means he is still a juvenile, unlike Bucky (I have no idea how THAT name came about), the other Cooper's hawk we have in, whose eyes are yellow.

He is doing much better as well. He can now uncurl the foot on the injured leg and is therefore standing a lot better. The pins and such will be in place for a few more weeks.

That's it for now. I know, I know...I hear a bunch of you saying "WHAT?! After 2 1/2 weeks of no posts, that's it?" Well, I DO have more things to share and will get them posted later this week. Til next time...

And now......

...back to our regularly scheduled blogging! Much has happened in the last 3 weeks, so let's get right to it, shall we?

Look at this GORGEOUS bird we got in!

This is a Tundra swan. The only discernable difference between them and Trumpeter swans is that yellow mark on their bill that leads to their eye. This beauty was found on nearby Orcas Island. It came in very emaciated, weak, and covered in avian lice.

Unfortunately, swans have a love of all things shiny and a good majority of the ones we see are suffering from lead poisoning due to eating lead buckshot or lead fishing weights. By the time we get them, it's too late to do anything for them. Serena, who helped out while our other rehabber was on vacation, said that in all the years she has worked there they have only had one swan that has survived to be released. This one didn't make it through the night.

We actually had a total of 3 swan patients in the last couple of weeks. We found a Trumpeter swan that was emaciated and it died the same day and another one hit the power lines near a pond they tend to congregate in and died before they could get to it. I am sure healthy birds can misjudge distances, but lead poisoning affects the neurological system of the birds first and therefore their eyesight can deteriorate enough for them to do that as well. Our city actually installed fluorescent hanging "tags" from these very same power lines to try and make them more visible to the swans, as these power lines are located along known flight paths of the swans when they come in to land on nearby ponds.

A lot of these tags seems to have come off in the windstorms we have had, so I am hoping there are plans to rehang some more of them.

This is the one animal that we get in that seems so strong, yet at the same time so vulnerable, that I just want to cradle them in my arms and WILL them to get better. If only it was that easy.

We had a Barred owl come in and I actually did the intake exam on it, with a lot of encouragement and help from Serena (Thanks for your patience with me Serena!).

Now, what's wrong with this picture? Yep, for the whole time we examined him, he acted like he was falling asleep! At first I found it amusing and then started to wonder if he had some neurological damage. Besides being very lethargic, he was dehydrated and was favoring his right eye a wee bit. I also had a VERY difficult time getting his beak open to look inside. So even though he was acting lethargic, he had his beak "clenched" the whole time. Serena actually called me the next day to apologize, as she admitted to thinking I had been "wimpy" when trying to open his beak and now she, after having to do the same thing to force feed him, had a VERY sore thumb!

We gave him some sub-q fluids and then gave him a homeopathic medicine for stress. He had to be force fed for a few weeks and everyone I talked to said they had never had to deal with a bird that was so difficult to force feed before. The next week, when we had to force feed him, I made a quip about needing a wedge of wood to help keep his beak open, but a Q-tip ended up doing the trick and made the feeding job a LOT easier! And it turns out that his "sleepy" behavior is just how his body handles stress.

He is doing just great now and last week we moved him to the slatted flight cage for some flying practice!

We have in two Cooper's hawks right now. The first one we got in right after our nasty wind storm. I had just remarked to someone earlier in the morning that I always worried a bit about the birds, as how did they survive such strong winds, when someone called to say they found a Cooper's hawk laying in a puddle of mud at the base of an uprooted tree.

His muddy feet and feathers weren't the only thing wrong with him. His left wing was drooping, but upon feeling for broken bones, we couldn't find any. But when we lifted his wing, we found the cause of the droop...a nasty wound in his shoulder!

You can see just how muddy he was, so the wound had to be flushed with saline and then scrubbed with Betadine. I held him but was constantly wincing in sympathy because it HAD to hurt. After it was cleaned and the edges plucked of feathers, we put Tagaderm over it. It's like a clear bandage, so they can keep an eye on it to see if it gets infected.

And while he could move his legs, he could not grip or stand and he had lack of muscle tone in his tail. So we thought he might have a spinal injury as well. We gave him sub-q fluids, a homeopathic drug for fear and stress, an antibiotic for his wound, and a non-steroidal drug for pain and inflammation.

When I came in last week and inquired about him, I was told that as of that previous Tuesday he still wasn't standing and they were considering euthanizing him. That is until Nikki, our rehabber, went in on Wednesday to examine him and he taloned her!

As you can see, he is now standing, albeit somewhat unsteadily, he is eating on his own, and his shoulder wound, free of infection, was operated on and stitched closed this past week.

Our other Cooper's hawk story is another one of those "What the HELL, people?!" stories. He was found on Orcas Island and was unable to stand. Upon examination and subsequent x-raying, it was discovered that someone had shot him! Again, people, if you are so bored and stir crazy living on the islands that you feel the need to shoot at anything that moves, it's time to move to the mainland!

The buckshot pellet had fractured his right femur and shattered one end into a couple of pieces. He underwent 3 hours of surgery and what they did was fascinating! They pinned his little leg. They ran pins along the bone, pinning the bone ends internally, and out either end of his femur. They then made a crossbar and attached it at one end along the two pin ends to keep the whole thing stabilized. Then the whole thing was wrapped up. At least I THINK that's what they did, if I understood it correctly as it was explained to me.

As of last Saturday he was standing, although he couldn't uncurl the foot on his injured leg, and was eating if you got the food in his beak.

He looks pretty good for a bird that was shot, doesn't he?

And last but not least was this interesting and very puzzling case we had with a Glaucous-winged gull we got brought to us on Saturday. A gentleman found him high up on a beach, unable to fly, and it was making these terrible gasping noises. It sounded to me like he was having problems breathing, like something was caught in his trachea or gullet. Nikki said it sounded like it was dying and sure enough it did during our examination. We finished examining it and could find nothing wrong with it from outward appearances. It wasn't even thin. So we decided to x-ray it to see if there was something going on internally that we couldn't see or feel.

This was the first time I got to be there when an animal was x-rayed so it was pretty interesting, as they have the film developer there as well. And here is what we found...


...absolutely nothing! No broken bones, nothing stuck in his crop or trachea...nothing! So we then decided to necropsy it as a final push at determining what had caused its demise. And guess what? He had NO LUNGS!!! I am serious people. We found some yellow grainy, infectious looking bits but that was it! We followed the trachea past the breastbone to about the liver and it veered off into air sacs but we didn't even see where the branches were that should have gone TO the lungs! We were so confused by the whole thing we even went to look at an avian anatomy book to make sure we were, well, NOT seeing what we WEREN'T seeing. It was VERY bizarre!

That's it for now. I joined the 21st century and got DSL, so I will be posting more regularly, as it was just getting too frustrating posting without it, hence the long lag time between postings.

Til next time...

The Eagle Flight Cage was a Snowstorm Casualty!

DAMN IT! I can't believe this has happened! This wonderful structure has held up for 7 years, but I guess the weight of over 12 inches of wet, heavy snow falling in such a short amount of time was just too much for it.

Before

After

While we are VERY thankful that the eagle was not injured and was able to fly off, this is seriously the last thing this wonderful organization needs to deal with right now.

I think I have been pretty good up until now, as far as not using this blog to directly request that people make donations to Wolf Hollow. But people, if there ever was a time, it is now, as it is going to take thousands to repair this. So I am imploring you readers, especially to any San Juan Islanders who read this, to please donate to Wolf Hollow to help them repair this crucial rehab element. Wolf Hollow does an amazing job helping the animals, the very animals that make these islands such a great and unique place to live. We have rehabbed eagles every year that I have been there and this flight cage is needed to help them learn to fly, including turning, which is so important to their survival. We have no other cage which can help the eagles accomplish that. Thank you.

Thanks for the fishy memories!

We have released the last of our seals.

After all the nasty weather we had, we were a bit anxious, wondering what the weather was going to be like. We shouldn't have worried. It ended up being a beautiful day and we got to introduce them to their new environment in calm waters.

It was also the quickest seal release I have ever been to, with all of them taking to the water the minute their crate doors were opened.

It was also one of those sad/happy moments when you realize just how empty Wolf Hollow will be without them there. But having time to spend out by the seal pool finally gave me a chance to get a picture of Limpet. You remember, she's the seal that came in with the wounds to the head and the bad eye.

Well, it's been interesting to see how this loss of an eye has affected her. And one of the things that slowly began to emerge was the fact that while the damaged eye shrank, the other eye GREW! I wanted to make sure it wasn't some weird...no pun intended here...optical illusion, but it wasn't. Problem was, the older she got, the more camera shy she became! And she NEVER hauled out onto the platform. So getting a picture of has been the biggest photo challenge I have had this year. Seriously, this is what I usually caught on film when trying to photograph her.

I was always just a FRACTION too slow. You could almost hear her mocking and japing me! But my infinite patience paid off with this picture I took while waiting to net her for release.

It's still not the best picture of her, but you get the gist. All of us came to an agreement that it must be nature's way of compensating for the loss of her other eye.

Let's move on to the other temporary residents of Chez Wolf Hollow. We got in a Bufflehead a couple of weeks ago. When found, she was thin and, like most animals that are ailing, had a heavy parasite load. The first time I saw her, she let me know in no uncertain terms that she didn't appreciate my interest in her, which is a good sign.

Isn't she cute?! She was eating well enough that by last week she was getting swim sessions to try and get her waterproofing up and running again.

My guess is that, if she hasn't been already, she will be released soon.

We released the five older raccoons and had the oh-so-fun task of catching the three smaller ones who were residing in the weaning cage so we could move them out to the woods to their final residence. Catching them was a HUGE challenge and let's just say that catching the first five, which we had raised from babies, was one HECK of a lot easier than these three, which were already youngsters when they arrived at Wolf Hollow. I don't have pics of this endeavor, as it was my job to hold open the crate door and then slam it shut after each of the screaming and biting youngsters was put in. But I do have pics of them being released in their new enclosure.

And of course, they did what one would expect raccoons to do after being freed from the dreaded carrier...they headed for the high ground!

The outdoor woods enclosure is interesting, as it has a big tree at the center, so it kind of looks like a circus tent. When we left, the three of them were trying their hardest to squeeze out the top.

We released the Merlin! First, we caught him so we could transfer him to the Heron Cage to make sure he could fly well, including turning and landing.

While he wasn't thrilled about being handled, he passed his flying test and when he wouldn't self-release, i.e. fly out the door, we had to catch him again and then.....

That's it from the frozen San Juan Islands.

Til next time...