Thursday, June 10, 2010

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

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Monteen McCord
770-720-1847
POB 130
Holly Springs, GA 30142
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2 Comments:

At June 10, 2010 at 2:33 PM , Blogger Gaina said...

LOL the photo of Face raiding the catnip is hilarious :).

I think I must have been really fortunate to only meet nice bard owls!

Grace is such a brave sweetheart, I love her :).

 
At June 10, 2010 at 2:37 PM , Blogger Monteen said...

I love her, too Gaina. Thank you for your comments....m.

 

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