Barn Owl Central
Barn Owl season started a month earlier than usual this year, but seemed to be going along at a fairly typical pace, until this week. The number of baby Barn Owls doubled in two days and now totals 90! The 2014 total was 96. Overall numbers are up as well. As of April 19, 2014 there were 51 admissions. This year’s April 19 total is 168. Its going to be a busy year.
Two Tough Dudes
We Can Eat From A Plate!
Returned to the Nest Tree
The fuzzy Western Screech Owl blown from its nest tree last week was looking much better after a couple days of R & R. Intern Jordan climbed a very tall ladder to get him back where he belonged. (The wire in the second photo is a telephone line, not a power line!)
Emaciated Red-tailed Hawk
On Wednesday volunteer Claudia drove to Prosser, caught an injured Red-tailed Hawk, drove the hawk to Umatilla where she met Bob, who brought the bird to Pendleton. The hawk had broken her wing, but been on the ground long enough for the fracture to heal, at least two weeks. She was about 40 percent underweight, indicating she had likely not eaten since her injury. In addition, she was extremely dehydrated and very anemic - she had one-quarter the number of red blood cells of a healthy hawk.
Extreme emaciation is a very challenging condition to treat. The GI tract is shut down, preventing the absorption of nutrients given by mouth. The first two days the hawk received all nutrition intravenously. On day three, an oral mixture of amino acids and 5% dextrose was added. We affectionately refer to this solution as Light Mouse Slurry. On day 5, a lipid component was added to make Standard Mouse Slurry. (Mouse Slurry gets its name because it contains the same ratio of protein, carbohydrate and fat as a mouse.) The hawk also received blood transfusions on days 1, 2, 3 & 4.
Her improvement has been painstakingly slow, but she is improving. In the first photo below, intern Brittany restrains the hawk while fluids are administered via a catheter placed in the jugular vein. The second photo was taken Sunday afternoon after her mid-day treatment.
