Angels falling from the sky...........

Well there has been some strange goings on the last couple of weeks in Utah. We had a later than normal migration of Grebes, mostly Eared, but we saw some Westerns as well. The 'regular' migration was pretty much over. But one late large migration made national news, unfortunately.

Near Cedar City Utah, which is south of us, a group of over 5,000 came down in a Walmart parking lot, killing over 1,500 of them. These strange occurrences happen frequently, usually during snow or rain. During a snow storm, they can ice-over and this sends them to the ground and since Grebes migrate at night, their view of wet pavement looks similar to a lake. Think about it, a large area void of any trees or other land markers and with all the bright parking

lights, the wet ground reflects like water. These birds land in lakes as they are completely helpless on land, so they are always looking for water while migrating. Once they are on the ground, they are stuck. Some become injured in the 'landing' while others just need to be put onto a large body of water. These birds take a long 'run' before they can get air born, just like a jet vs. a helicopter.

The way this was handled by our states' wildlife agency made this terrible situation even worse. People with no medical background decided to put the surviving birds, even injured ones, onto water saying 'people couldn't help them'. Really? We rehabilitators do just that. We have that background to know what can or cannot be done and we were never asked to assist in this situation. We are wildlife rehabilitators for the State of Utah and none of us even received a phone call. Shame on you DWR! There needs to be a plan put into place, when things like this happen, that professionals can intervene and help determine what can be done to help the injured.

There needs to be a plan in place to work through these situations, involving wildlife rehabilitators since we are the ones qualified to determine what can and cannot be repaired well enough to survive in the wild. These are highly stressed birds and the handling they received was terrible.

No, this would not have been an easy task to work through, but none of what we rehabilitators do is easy.

You should have seen the video taken of these guys throwing the birds into a lake from a cardboard box, with no regard to how they landed. These birds were hitting each other, landing on top of one another and the public is watching this on the news channels. Embarrassing. Then a spokesperson goes on speaking that this is what is best for the birds....and we wonder why the general public thinks the way that they do regarding injured wildlife, thinking "oh, it's no big deal, anyone can do it". Well no wonder when they see stories like that on the news......ARGH! Birds with broken wings being thrown into a lake with clearly no chance of leaving that lake, ever!

It's an insult to our profession and our expertise. These DWR people don't have a clue about what we do and what is possible in the field of wildlife medicine. While these events will happen again and again, the devastation of these situations doesn't need to be made worse at the hands of people our wildlife is suppose to be being watched out for.

We received several Grebes during and after this large migration. Already having snow falling here in Utah, Grebes were being found, a few here and there throughout the state.

I've posted some of the photo's of these fallen angels and they were all successfully released throughout the state where we could find open water, once we determined they had no injuries.

Debbie

It's even COLDER.....BURRRRR

OK,
It's gone polar now. I hate it when everything freezes; water hoses, ponds, my toes and so on.


Copper has finally started to eat on his own....we have been waiting for this to happen as every time that we would have to catch him to feed him, it jeopardizes his surgery site. Not good. The picture I've included today is of Copper right after his surgery. Amazing work.

Spirit, another golden eagle with us who has secondary lead poisoning, finally opened up one of her feet and stood on it. She briefly opened her right foot as well, but then it became clenched again. Poor girl hit her balled-up foot on the ground as though she was trying to make it open. She has so much fight and doesn't understand why she can't move the way she use to. Just heartbreaking.

When you have the time, go check out another blog site by another rehabilitator in New York. Suzie Gilbert is also a published author. She collects wonderful stories about her rehabilitation and others in the field. It's called The Crooked Wing.

http://suziegilbert.wordpress.com

Enjoy.................
Debbie

A cold cold day in eastern Utah.....

Buuurrrr............Very cold here and windy. I've already had my fill of that!
Our three Great Horned owls are doing well. We are still searching for placement for them with a good facility somewhere in the country. I have had a facility in New York that was referred to us by a mutual friend who also has a facility there as well, call regarding one of the male owls. She is possibly interested but would not be able to build a facility for him until Spring, weather of course. We will have to see.

Copper is still not eating on his own, so we catch him once a day and force feed him. Today, we offered him food out in his mew, so tonight, we will see if he ate it.


We have a new Golden eagle that has secondary lead poisoning. She came in near death, very thin and dehydrated. She was anemic and covered in lice.
Her feet are clenched tight, which is one of the potential symptoms of lead. Her appetite, however, is voracious, something you don't normally see in lead patients. She has had one week of chelation therapy and her levels are now 'within normal range'. She still cannot stand and is very wobbly. Most of her parasites are now gone. We have named her Spirit.




We also were brought a female pheasant today, the apparent victim of a dog attack, but it appears it was the most recent attack. She has some injuries that suggest an earlier attack as well. Poor little thing. She is on pain meds and antibiotics. We will have to assess what her possibilities are in the next few days.

That's all for now...............Debbie