Many Thanks
Thank you to everyone who has helped Blue Mountain Wildlife through this most amazing year. Your generous support has helped care for more than 1300 birds so far this year. We couldn’t do our work without you and without the help of very dedicated volunteers who have driven thousands of miles this year.
Thank you also to the Wildlife Charitable Trust and Wildhorse Foundation for grant funding to support operating expenses and the Get the Lead Out! program, respectively. Helping birds impacted by humans is a huge team effort. Thank you for being part of the team.
A Rough Week for Owls
There were just nine admissions this past week, a welcome slowdown after the past few months. Six of the birds were raptors, all owls. Four had injuries that were not repairable. One Barn Owl has an ulna fracture in the right wing that we hope will heal. Another Barn Owl had no injuries, but could not fly, or even stand up, because many of her feathers were entangled in the seed heads of a foxtail relative. Samantha, Nicole and Megan spent more than 30 minutes removing the sticky weeds from the owl’s feathers. The owl spent most of the first night removing many individual seeds from her feathers. We hope that after a few days to recover from her struggles, she will be ready for release.
Golden Eagle 18-612 Update
I'm saddened to report that we could not save the young Golden Eagle admitted last week. The emaciation and anemia were too advanced and he died Monday night.
The Good News is there were Multiple Releases this Past Week
Common Nighthawk 18-603 spent a good minute surveying its surroundings from Samantha’s hand before taking flight.
American Kestrel 18-489 was found near Pomeroy, WA on July 29. She had been hit by a car and suffered a coracoid fracture in her right shoulder. Amazingly she recovered quickly and we released her Saturday at the Garfield County Fair in Pomeroy. At first she didn’t want to leave her travel box. Then she almost collided with a very surprised onlooker, but quickly recovered and flew out of site.
Intern Megan released Barn Swallow 18-547, admitted as a nestling, at McKay Wildlife Refuge.
Swainson’s Hawk 18-588 was released from a hack box.
