Saturday, January 30, 2010

Another cold, gray day but Spring is around the corner!





Time to get everyone caught up. The new eagle, Aquila, is doing very well. She has improved so well, that here in a few days, she will be going out into the flight. We are still caring for her injured foot and it will be harder catching her in the flight, so for a few more days, we will leave her be. The foot is healing well. We just need to make sure that it's healing from the inside-out. It appears that the toe with the most trauma will not function as it previously did, however, it does work somewhat which is better than not at all!






Ari, the Prairie falcon is still doing well. I fear that the feathers on the traumatized area won't grow back, however. The skin is actually missing from that area, so the original feather follicles are gone. I'm going to talk with some other rehabilitators that may have seen this sort of injury and find out what they think his prognosis might be. With other opinions, I should be able to decide what we can and can't do for Ari and go from there.
He sure has a lot of fight in him. When either Connie or I go out to feed him, instead of moving away from us, he flies right to our faces and heads. It can be intimidating, to say the least. We always have to be careful when going into his enclosure.

The little robin passed away, but not before another robin came in. The first robin had difficulty maintaining her weight, regardless of how much she ate, she just kept losing much needed weight. What ever it was that brought her down in the first place is responsible for her difficulties I'm sure. We had her on antibiotics and pain medication from the Raven attack that left her scalped clear to the skull. The second robin is doing well and eats 3 containers of night crawlers a day! Who ever came up with the saying, "she eats like a bird" knows nothing about birds! What ever caused this bird to be down on the ground and picked up by people isn't obvious. There are no broken bones or head trauma, so we have her on antibiotics as a precaution.




Well, that's all for now. Enjoy the pictures!
Debbie....................

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Feathered brothers and sisters, you came to us broken and as you bled…….we saw you desperate, dehydrated, desiccated, diseased, distressed, emaciated, famished, frayed, frightened, helpless, hungry, ragged, ravenous, shaken, shocked, shot, sickly, stressed, stunned, tattered, thirsty, traumatized, torn, weary and wounded. Defiantly, you stood us off with your last breath as we tried to tend to you. We saw you come in as cute, naked, fuzzy, cuddly youth, as mischievous, defiant adolescents, as fierce, regal rulers of the sky and as cunning, maimed elders whose time on earth was almost done. You endeared yourselves to us, bit us, charmed us, footed us, delighted us, hissed at us, talked to us, mantled at us, and graced us with your presence.

Some of you mended and were able to go on your way, never looking back. Some of you were injured in ways that prevented you from going, so you stayed with us to teach us…….And we came to love you. Others were too far gone, and you went home - where you fly free from pain with the Great One. All of you have touched us, and we are changed because of you.

used with permission by Arlene Powers


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