Monteen

Hey ya’ll…

Whew…I placed one Barn owl for “Continued Care” at Chattahoochee Nature Center, which now leaves me with 17 in-house birds, not including the youngsters that I’m hacking. YOW! I’m running down the road with my hair on fire. And we’ve picked up a few summer camp gigs which will bring in some Mouse Money that I’ll get to visit with for a few minutes and then that goes to the house ransom payment…

I forgot to check my last blog to see where I left off, so I’m winging it…pardon the pun.

Stephanie is still alive, but her head is on upside down. She has a couple different ways of looking at life…

There’s this way…


…and that…if you speak to her and touch her…


I tube fed this bird every three hours from Monday through Friday…she’s been eating solid food for a while now and Dr. Martinez is going to refer her to UGA for bloodwork and MRI to see if it’s an ear issue/lesion on the brain sort of thing. Somting vewy wong here… Unless she improves, euthanasia will probably be the end result because she cannot stand on the glove without tumbling turkey over tea kettle. **sigh** Thanks so much to Jeff, the Good Samaritan, for going out of his way to provide her some assistance that day and for donating some Mouse Money and some food for my truck to get her over to UGA for further testing…

Icabod, the Barn Owl was doing well with his finger amputation until about 10 days ago, then he starting picking at the stump. Ugh. We’ve been in for two laser therapy treatments so far, thanks to Dr. Ellis. Laser stimulates healing tissue and reduces inflammation. We’re scheduled for another treatment next Wednesday. What would I do without these people at Loving Hands AC???

Dr’s Ellis and Martinez helping Icabod – Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt him


It takes a lot of LOVING HANDS… Get it???


Dr. Ellis started at the stump and worked her way down the inside of the wing where the nerve runs, again to reduce inflammation and stimulate healing. He’s been a very good patient, except that I’m now having to hand feed him. What else do I have to do???

One of the Barred owl youngsters…I love these birds.


The youngest RSH babe went from this:


To this! I love my job!


One of the older youngsters taking a break in the big Poplar tree…


Hollis, the RSH who was rescued by two (very cute:) Holly Springs police officers and will be ready to go back into the wild by next week! He’s rip roaring and feeling pretty sassy as you can tell in this pic…


A Parliament of owls…almost ready to go, too!


How handsome! Looks like an Olan Mills portrait…the little nubbins are just starting to sprout…

Brotherly or sisterly love…I haven’t quite figured the sexes out yet…


Sam got his glasses prescription filled last week… I think pink becomes him, don’t you?

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. If you have some spare Mouse Money stuffed into the couch cushions and it’s burning a hole it it, you could go over to www.hawktalk.org and make a charitable contribution via PayPal. We sure would appreciate it. Some days, I feel like the Jerry Lewis of raptor rehab, but it’s just part and parcel of what I have to do so that I may continue to keep and care for these incredible animals that mean so much to me, you and the environment….m.

Monteen McCord
770-720-1847
POB 130
Holly Springs, GA 30142
http://monteenmccord.blogspot.com/
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A beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Hey ya’ll,

I hope everyone is doing well. It’s still baby season around here and I have 4 patients in-house…no west for the reary.

My friend Allen posted a 7 minute YouTube clip featuring HawkTalk, so please check it out and let me know what you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_1ub7COSyQ

What’s for breakfast? Oatmeal! For the chickens, that is. I wouldn’t eat that nasty stuff anymore if you paid me. I was chatting with a fellow rehabber the other day and she mentioned that she gave her girls oatmeal and yogurt and since she lives in the woods, alfalfa. I thought about this and decided that instead of tossing the leftover oatmeal (that I bought two winters ago) I would try my girls on it. After much slurping and head slinging, they dug right in. Then I came inside and changed clothes. It wasn’t enough that they slung oatmeal all over me, then a few of them came and wiped their pasty little beaks on my pants when they finished! A mother’s love…

The bird in the foreground is a Saipan Jungle Fowl…it was SUPPOSED to be a girl, but alas, I’m detecting little nubbins on his legs and you know what THAT means. He’s only 16 weeks, but the males are about 3 feet tall and 12 pounds when fully grown and very aggressive. We’ll see how his personality develops and whether his head starts spinning around.


They would rather have grapes I think, but they begrudgingly emptied the bowl…


These chickens are real swingers! PS: I rarely use this swing…for obvious reasons.


You’ll notice Dick the Fayoumi is MIA…he’s living at a local horse farm these days, along with the Auracana that was supposed to be a girl, but fooled the nice people at the hatchery…another 3 bucks down the drain, 6 if you count the Saipan. Go figure. I guess sexing chickens isn’t an exact science.

Dick was a beautiful chicken, but…now Buffy’s feathers can finally grow back.


Dark Brahma – Notice the ‘sideburns’


Michael, the Red Cochin looking all innocent. She’s my 5 toed girl, not by breed, but by accident.

I guess we need an intervention for Face…he ripped the top off the catnip bowl AGAIN.


But then he just passes out and never causes any trouble. Haven’t had to make bail once…

Scully – Wowing the Science Campers at Woodward North! Woot!


The young Screech owls are almost ready to be released


Loving the alien…


Rod Stewart’s love child disguised as a Red-shoulderd hawk.


His older brother


“What’chu lookin’ at Willis?” RIP Gary Coleman…


Landing gear - DOWN


Houston, we have touchdown!


Hollis was rescued by two nice Holly Springs police officers. He has a boo-boo shoulder and a nasty concussion. Notice the blood coming out of his left nare (nostril). He has a killer headache and it will be weeks before I know whether he will be able to go back to the wild. Red Shouldered hawks don’t usually make very good educational birds because of their nervous personality. They act a lot like accipiters. Noisy, too, I might add. The more you ‘shush’ them, the louder they get.


Stephanie, the Great Horned owl was rescued over in Freehome and she might be the victim of organophosphate poisoning. The head tilt and the bright color of the iris’ denote probable neurological and hepatic problems. Emaciated and weak, she is not capable of eating whole food, so I’ve been tube feeding her a high protein gruel every three hours, and although she’s still vertical, she’s not showing much improvement. She is incredible, she is.

My wonderful vet, David Martinez exposing the Auricular Meatus (ear… :)


Icabod is recovering nicely from having his traumatized phalanges (fingers) amputated. The surgical site is nice and pink and he has been a well behaved patient. He will not be able to go back into the wild and I pray that he will agree to glove training. I’ve only met one barn owl in my life that wasn’t the Devil himself. All I can do is try, for his sake.

And dear Grace is a patient again…she started having trouble with her right hind talon and so David removed it on Tuesday. The surgery went well and she will be a houseguest for another month. He bandaged both feet so she will maintain her balance. Isn’t that considerate of him? She went for so long with chronic inflammation that scar tissue formed along the tendons… Bless her gentle, wonderful soul.


RIBBIT

If you can spare a little Mouse Money, we sure would appreciate you following this link over to the PayPal icon www.hawktalk.org and making a contribution. Every little bit helps keep all of us here at HawkTalk alive and kicking and I thank you in advance for your consideration…m.

Monteen McCord
770-720-1847
POB 130
Holly Springs, GA 30142
http://monteenmccord.blogspot.com/
www.hawktalk.org
www.facebook.com/monteenmccord
www.myspace.com/monteenmccord
http://home.fotocommunity.com/monteen
www.linkedin.com/in/monteenmccord
http://twitter.com/MonteenMcCord