Video of the Ravens down in Kanab

I'm posting a video, that Carmen sent me from the Wild Friends department at Best Friends Animal Society down in Kanab, Utah. Since we work together now and then on a variety of wildlife related issues, I had asked her to take these two as we were running out of room here and needed to move someone. Their 'rehab' is essentially done, we are just waiting for the female's (Marie) feathers to molt out and grow back as some idiot had cut them and make her a "pet".
Marie is the vocal one on the right hand side. I sure miss them.
Enjoy!


Debbie

Part of the story.............

As I mentioned in the previous post, it's been a little busy. We had another Golden eagle come in from San Juan county several weeks ago. This angel was found hanging in a Cottonwood tree. Her talons had become caught somehow, and she could not free herself.
I'll post later the entire story and photo's from her being found, captured, in rehab and then release. The finder, our own Keith Cauley wrote an article about his experience and being able to then release her. The local paper ran that article and this is the link to that story.

Enjoy!

http://www.sjrnews.com/

Boy, it's getting chilly................fly birdies, fly

Just going to update on a couple of patients.

First, the little female Kestrel that came in from Redmond, Utah has been released. I took her near the airport here in Price, where I just released some other Kestrels a few months ago and away she went. In spite of all she had endured at the hands of her 'rescuers', she is now free and hopefully doing well. This picture was taken just before I drove her to the airport.











We had another gunshot victim come in recently. An immature male Coopers hawk. Just horrifying. Both legs were broken, the shot having gone through both of them and breaking bones along the way. The poor little guy couldn't stand and was just dragging himself around, on the ground, by his wings. He was near death, starving and dehydrated. Normally we would NEVER do surgery on a patient in this condition. We would take some time and rehydrate them and get their weight up, increasing their chances of surviving the surgery. We didn't have that option on this guy as the injuries were already old and open, so I hydrated him for a day and gave him one tube feeding and said a prayer. We took x-rays and they showed the shot still in the bird. He went into surgery, planning on doing one leg, then bringing him out of anesthesia and then doing the other leg the next morning. He died as soon as the first surgery was over. We did everything we could. He had only lived a few months and suffered terribly at the end. I hate days like that. I have to remind myself of those that make it and are now free again to be wild.
















So now that is two, actually three open cases we have for victims of gunshot. A Turkey vulture from LaSall, Utah, a Golden eagle from Monticello, Utah and this Coopers hawk from Price.

Debbie.....

Enjoy!

Wow, been busy with transfers and more....

I'm not really sure where to start so I'll just sort of jump in here. Our little Kestrel out of Redmond Utah is still kill testing. She's not as aggressive as her male companion was. If you'll recall, he was a non-releasable bird that we were keeping with the female for companionship. He has now been transferred to the Cosley Zoo in Wheaton, Il, where he will be an education ambassador for their education program. I hope he does well. He will also have a female companion there.
His non-releasability was due to an injury and his finders, thinking they knew what was best for him, decided to 'raise' him, not getting him to a rehabilitator so that we could assess what was wrong and get him the help he needed to recover in the time frame he needed. Instead, his broken bones healed incorrectly and made it impossible for him to return to the wild and be a free bird. Sad......


Our Peregrine falcon that was also non-releasable went to Georgia. He will be involved in propagation. His new sweetie, Bonnie, was waiting for him to join her. I've attached a picture of them together sent by John, his new human. Our male is on the left. I hope they make many babies in the future; all of which will be set free to boost the population of wild Anatum Peregrine falcons.

We also were able to get Teasdale, our non-releasable Great Horned owl, to his new home in Cody, Wyoming, where he too, will be an education ambassador. I guess he has won the hearts of many there already, who have been able to see him in all his glory. I'm so happy this placement finally happened. Thanks to Melissa who, on her end, worked to make this happen as well. We have been following his progress on his blog through the museum where he is now residing. Sweet!

On a sad note, we received another Golden eagle from the Monticello airport area. This one had been shot, not with a shotgun, but a gun that shoots bullets. It almost severed this birds left leg, leaving this bird to suffer. Bone was exposed, tissue was missing as well as bone. This bird became weak and thin, coming to us probably on his last day. There was nothing for us to fix, literally. The bullet hit his joint and most of it was gone. We decided, the best thing for HIM, was to end this suffering as a one-legged raptor could never live in the wild and in captivity, is impossible as well. It's all about the quality of life for them, not for us. Disgusting. I'd like to find his perpetrators and meet them in a dark ally, just me and them. It's sickening that this sort of thing still happens, frequently. I start seeing these sort of cases just before hunting season starts, in the Fall. So called hunters, (these aren't hunters at all) out there shooting at anything that moves. Idiots!
I'm posting some stark photo's of the reality of what we do and what we see all too frequently. Deal with it!




Last, for now, we have two Ravens from different situations. One came in from Moab with an injury to a wing, which may or may not make him releasable. The other Raven was supposedly found by some people in Utah county and was 'very friendly'. Well, this very friendly Raven had a homemade band around his ankle, indicating someone had caught him at some point in his life and made him a pet. Wrong and illegal. He somehow got away and went to another house, even though his feathers on his wings had been clipped. He started to hang out with these other people, who now, did not want to turn him over but also wanted to keep him. Had to get law enforcement involved. Idiots! I put the two together, hoping to 'wild up' the confiscated Raven. I believe it is working and with time, hopefully they both can be released, together. I needed more room, so here just a few days ago, I transferred the two to another rehabilitator with some room for them. As soon as the one Raven's feathers have grown out then that bird can be released if he is no longer 'friendly'. Hopefully the Moab Raven will be able to regain strength and movement in his one wing and can be released at the same time.



Debbie..................