'Tis the season...

Happy Memorial Day weekend,

I am up to my eyeballs in birds. I'm out of chambers and have four in the house. With only seven of us with active Federal permits in Georgia, there is no one to call because they are all full, too. Just damn. I am overwhelmed.

I've spent the last three days going back and forth with a well intentioned, but ignorant man who took it upon himself to hand raise a nestling Broad-winged hawk. Fed him nothing but, TUBE FED him nothing but, chicken livers, dog food and hamburger meat and raised him like a house cat. He FINALLY surrendered the bird to a veterinary hospital that took me on a two hour odyssey today. Rather than having a relaxing day and going to a party with a friend, I'm wound up with DNR Law Enforcement because they want to ticket this guy and driving all over hell and gone to retrieve the bird. We will have to euthanize the hawk and this is a good example of what NOT to do if you find a baby raptor and think you can raise it properly without the right food and feeding technique. PLEASE get the adorable little fuzzball to, at least, a local vet and even if they put it down, at least it won't be screwed up only to be euthanized in a month. Grrrr....

Yes, it's a crow baby.

"Wally", the crow baby was picked up by a nice lady over in Waleska. His foot is messed up and he can't open it properly. I'm taking him in Tuesday to see if my doctor can fix him up.

While I was picking up the hawk...

I'd rather not raise baby Screech owls by themselves, but he's pretty old and I think he'll be ok. Just WHERE I'm going to put him is another story... sometimes, you just have to go with what you have. I hate that.



The Harris hawk isn't doing so well. Dr. Martinez pulled the pin yesterday and ended up having to wrap it up again because the fracture is unstable and she still has an infection, so I've started her back on the antibiotics. We'll re-evaluate in two weeks and make a decision to keep going or euthanize. I'm not looking forward to that day at all.

Since I was already bummed out today, I thought I may as well do it up good and create my Mina's slideshow. A few hours and many tissues later, it's done. I set it to Bette Midler's 'Wind Beneath My Wings' and it makes me blubber to look at it. For $12.00, you could blubber too, and it would help me feed all these wonderful little beings currently in my possession.

On a parting note, I now have a young Red-tailed hawk too socialized to be released. She came to me a few days ago by my friend and colleague down at Chattahoochee Nature Center. She knew that I was on the lookout for one since I've had such a hard time finding an appropriate RTH to use as a teaching tool since Mina's death. Thank you, Kathryn. During the afternoon as I was tweaking Mina's slideshow, I was working with the new babe. So goes the circle of life.

The new babe...

Miss Mina, I will miss you every day and twice on Sunday. God made only one of you.

Take care of yourselves and each other and thank you for taking the time to read my blog....m. www.hawktalk.org