Birds and kids were hopping this past week at Blue Mountain Wildlife! Two classes of 2nd graders visited from Athena and three classes from La Grande. 

Students learned about birds of prey… 

Dissected owl pellets and played the Migration Game…

Baby Bird Feeding Is In High Gear…

Intern Lizzie has been busy! Her day starts at 7:00 am and she is feeding babies, along with her regular duties, until 9:00 pm. There are American Crows…

House Finches…

Western Screech Owls…

And Another Barn Owl…

Six young Barn Owls shave been transferred to the Benton City Center. More than 70 owlets have been placed in hack boxes there. All have fledged, but are still returning for food (mice) at night. It will take them a month or so to become proficient hunters.

Four Great Horned Owls have fledged at the Pendleton hack site, although the two youngest are still quite fuzzy and have minimal flight skills… 

There is a resident family of owls at the Great Horned Owl hack site. Tricia spotted mom feeding one of her youngsters. Mom is on the left. Her full grown offspring is on the right. The resident owls will be great role models for the owls we have placed there…

Swainson’s Hawk 23-114

A few injured birds were admitted this past week, including a Swainson’s Hawk. Unfortunately his left wing was too badly damaged to repair and he was humanely euthanized. The hawk was very thin, having been on the ground at least a week, but  had managed to catch a snake. It is the bulge at the base of his neck (in the crop).

Hanging out with friends at the hack site…

La Grande ODFW brought an adult Swainson’s Hawk 23-093 to Pendleton. The hawk had been found on the ground, unable to fly, east of La Grande. The only obvious injury was a small laceration on the tip of the right wing. A radiograph made it apparent the hawk had been shot. Fortunately there are no fractures and we hope he will make a complete recovery. Can you find the four pellets? 

The hawk also has a blood lead level of 11.14 micrograms/deciliter and is receiving chelation treatment. That is a relatively low level of lead, but there is no safe lead level. Since we are giving him antibiotics it is a simple matter to add oral chelation. No attempt will be made to remove the pellets as the surgery would cause more tissue damage than the pellets. The lead in his blood came from eating carrion that had been shot with lead ammunition. Hunt with non-lead ammunition to prevent secondary poisoning!

Two Releases This Past Week

Common Poorwill 23-093 

The Poorwill’s test flight on Monday went very well. On Tuesday we took it a few miles south of where it had originally been found and released it in perfect Poorwill habitat. It seemed very happy to be back home!

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The Tri-Cities Center has been especially busy this week. To manage the large influx of injured and baby birds, not to mention coyotes, we have set up a drop site where people can bring birds at a specified time. Volunteer Gail has been the contact person for the past three days. This seems to be an efficient way to collect wildlife needing care. 

We are also setting up a calendar that volunteers can use to schedule a shift at the Tri-Cities center to help with feeding, cleaning and the myriad of other jobs that need to be done. Winnie has sent a link to volunteers so you can easily schedule a shift. The calendar automatically updates so it is always current. Thank you so much for helping our native wildlife. Thank you also to volunteer Ken for transporting the coyote pup to Washington State University Wildlife Rehabilitation Center so it could receive the care it needs. 

Daryl and Darrel are Laying Eggs

The Pendleton Center has been busy as well, especially the Daryls. They have laid two eggs. We are not certain, but we think both eggs have been laid by Daryl, affectionately dubbed ornery Daryl. The two Turkey Vultures are siblings, but have distinctly different personalities. Sweet Darrel is the boss, which may explain why ornery Daryl thinks I should be number three. Tricia and I spend time each afternoon working with the Daryls. We seem to be in a race to the bottom to determine who is number four! Never a dull moment at the wildlife center.

The Hack Box Door is Open

The hack box door has been opened for the older Great Horned Owls. They haven’t ventured far and are still on the table the hack box (a large dog kennel) is setting on. They have enough flight feathers to begin practicing their flying skills. Both birds are banded. You can see the metal band on the right leg of the older owl (on the left).

Common Poorwill

The Poorwill was found on the ground, which isn’t too unusual, but it made no effort to fly away when approached. We found no injuries during the physical exam or radiograph. We suspect a collision with something that resulted in a head injury. It is much feistier now, so we will try another test flight on Monday and see if it’s ready for release. 

The Pendleton center continues to be fairly slow, although we did admit the first songbird babies of the season. Below is a nestling House Finch. It seems to be doing well. Sadly its 4 siblings did not survive the fall from their nest. We also have a fledgling robin that is fully feathered, but not quite able to fly yet. It doesn’t appear to be injured, but its not very spunky. Its first landing may have been kind of rough. Hopefully it will feel better with a little cage rest.

Red-tailed Hawk 23-058

An adult Red-tailed Hawk was hit by a car on the freeway near Pendleton. The injuries to its left side were too extensive to repair. There were multiple fractures in the humerus and ulna and the left elbow and hip were dislocated.

Multiple Young Great Horned Owls

Two owls were placed in a hack box at a site just a few miles from the Pendleton center. Wild Great Horned Owls nesting nearby will help them learn the ropes of being Great Horned Owl once they fledge in about a week. Two younger owls will be placed in a second hack box at the site in the coming week (photo below).

It’s Mother’s Day! So from everyone at BMW we wish all Mother’s a Happy Day!

These 5 Barn Owls were in a hay stack that was being moved. One has a broken leg that is splinted. The other 4 are banded (and color coded so we can easily tell them apart). We are requesting permission to send the banded owls to the Washington center to be hacked with the 50 Barn Owls already there. 

We don’t often get Great Horned Owls from haystacks, but that’s where these two little guys came from. They seem to be in good health.

The two Great Horned Owlets below came from different nests, but they will soon become best friends. We are fortunate to have a great location to hack/raise young Great Horned Owls just a few miles from the Pendleton center. 

Young Visitors Visitors from La Grande

These middle school students from La Grande already new a lot about raptors and asked lots of good questions. It was great fun having them come or a visit.