Storms and Guns are Hard on Birds
The Red-tailed Hawk above was blown from her nest last week and is recovering from an injury to her right hip.
This Red-tailed Hawk fledgling ended up on the ground and was “rescued" by well-meaning folks. She is uninjured and about a week from being able to fly. She will be reunited with her family. (She ate all her breakfast except the skin of the rat.)
Ouch!!!
This young Red-tailed Hawk damaged his right shoulder and hip, and sliced a big hole in his right wing when he fell from the nest - notice the right and left shoulders don’t look the same. He had a three-inch tear on the upper surface of his right wing and a two -inch tear on the lower surface. Hopefully, with physical therapy, he will have normal use of his wing. After just three days he is already more stable on his feet.
Dorsal (upper) wing surface:
Ventral (lower) wing surface:
Record-breaking Month
Sadly, the first two weeks of May have set a record for the number of gunshot birds admitted: a Great Horned Owl on May 1, a Swainson’s Hawk on May 8, a Common Raven on May 10 and an American Crow on May 11. The Swainson’s is recovering well from a gunshot injury to his head. He dislocated his shoulder on impact with the ground. We will evaluate the shoulder once he is able to be moved to a flight pen. The other three birds had nonrepairable injuries and were euthanized.
Common Raven
American Crow
The Crow was found on the Pendleton campus of Blue Mountain Community College.
