The Week in Review: Mostly Babies!!!
Black-billed Magpie 22-140
The land owner didn’t realize the Magpie nest was active when he cut the nest tree down. There was just one baby and some unhatched eggs in the nest. His weight has quadrupled in 6 days, from 15 grams to 60 grams. Baby birds like to eat!
Great Horned Owlets 22-150 and 22-153
These two owlets fell from the same nest one day apart. Fortunately they were not injured. Owls don’t build a nest, but will use a nest built by someone else. The plan is to secure a larger nest basket to the original nest and place the young owls in it. Hopefully they will stay put in the larger place and their parents can continue raising them.
American Kestrels 22-142-147
These six nestling falcons became homeless when the building their parents chose to nest in was torn down. Since the building was inside the walls of a prison, we were not given the option of putting up a nest box so the parents could continue raising their brood. We will put up a nest box in a suitable place and provide food to the kestrels until they are foraging on their own. This method of raising young raptors is called hacking.
Red-winged Blackbirds 22-156 & 22-157
These tiny nestlings were made homeless when their nest was destroyed. They love formula and mealworms, but get filled up in a hurry. They are getting fed every 30 minutes from dawn to dusk!
Swainson’s Hawk 22-155
It wasn’t all baby birds this week. Sadly, this adult Swainson’s Hawk was shot near Athena. He had no feeling in his feet or use of his legs and was euthanized. The air rifle pellet that caused the damage is visible on the radiograph below.
