Thank You To All Who Have Donated to the Repair Fund
Thank you to everyone who has made a donation to help replace the collapsed Scavenger Pen. You have helped raise $3,100. That will cover the replacement cost of the greenhouse frame and part of the freight expense to ship it to Pendleton - it is nearly a ton of metal! We are more than halfway to having the needed funds. We will also need to purchase 2" X 4”s and plywood to rebuild the sidewalls of the pen. If the frame can be delivered by the end of March, we can erect the new flight pen in April and have it available for use reconditioning rehabilitated raptors during the busy summer season.
In the meantime, Daryl and Darrel are enjoying their new home!
Volunteer Opportunities
1. Plumbing, wiring and an ethernet cable need to be laid in a ditch to the new display pens. The ditch has been dug, but the bottom needs to be smoothed so the plumbing and wiring can be laid. A half dozen volunteers would make short work of smoothing out the ditch.
2. Next is assembling the water pipe and laying the electrical line and ethernet cable. Then the ditch can be buried. The tractor bucket can do most of the hard work.
3. Once the ditch is buried the collapsed pen needs to be disassembled. The metal and old lumber can be recycled. We have a pickup truck to put the lumber in. A long flatbed trailer is needed to transport the metal bows of the greenhouse. Repairs can then be made to the loading shed on the south end of the pen. With a dozen volunteers, we should be done in a few hours. BMW will provide the pizza!
4. The last job is to assemble the greenhouse frame and side walls of the new pen. If anyone has access to a lift we could use to assemble the greenhouse bows, please let me know. With a dozen volunteers, this can be accomplished in one day. Lunch will be provided!
If you are able to help with any of these projects either reply to this mail or call the center, 541-278-0215. Thank you in advance!
The Week in Review
It was another rough week for raptors. There were just four admission. Two Red-tailed Hawks were gunshot victims and a Red-tailed Hawk and a Great Horned Owl were struck by vehicles. All had non-repairable injuries and were euthanized.
Two of the Red-tailed Hawks had both humerus and femur fractures. One was shot, the other was hit by a car. In the first radiograph the arrows point to damage caused by one projectile. If you look closely, you will see a tiny metal fragment at the tip of arrow one. Many metal fragments and a humerus fracture are visible at arrow 2. Although there are no metal fragments visible at arrow 3, necropsy results indicated the projectile was responsible for the femur fracture. The arrows in the second radiograph point to the humerus and femur fractures caused by the bird being struck by a vehicle.
Sometimes we are not able to determine if a bird was shot by doing an initial exam and taking a radiograph. Such was the case for Red-tailed Hawk 21-035. It was apparent fro the initial exam and radiograph that the hawks right elbow was to damaged to repair. It was not until a necropsy was performed that it became apparent that the damage was caused by a projectile. In the photo below, the wall hole on the right is the entrance wound. The larger hole to the left is the exit wound.
Samantha necropsies all birds that die or are euthanized due to their injuries. We always learn a lot when comparing the necropsy results to what we find during the exam and see radiographically.
