The high light of this past week was a spectacular display of the Northern Lights Friday night. The night sky was ablaze with color.
Moving Gyrfalcon Persimmon and Great Horned Owl Sage into their permanent homes was a major accomplishment this week. All the Education Birds are now housed in the new Education Building. Each has spacious accommodations with their specific needs taken into consideration. Persimmon wasted no time in enjoying his breakfast of quail.
Osprey 24-078 was found on a road near La Grande and transported to Pendleton by ODFW. An exam and radiographs revealed a shattered clavicle. While our x-ray machine is a highly valued piece of equipment, it is installed in such a way that its orientation cannot be changed. Below are two radiographs of the Osprey. The first view is a dorsal-ventral view with the bird on his back on the table. The second view is an H-view with the bird elevated at a 45 degree angle to the table.
The H-view makes it easier to visualize both the clavicle and the coracoid. It shows that there is a mid shaft fracture of the clavicle and the end that articulates with the coracoid is shattered. You can see part of the stainless steel bowl we used to position the osprey at the bottom edge of the x-ray. The damage to the shoulder was too extensive to repair and the bird was euthanized.
The tree housing 6 nestling American Kestrels blew down this past week. The tiny falcons are all uninjured and have quickly learned to eat off a plate.they will be moved to a hack box, allowing them to fledge at their normal times. It is typical to see raptor nestlings of different sizes. The female starts incubating her eggs as soon as the first one is laid. There are usually two or three days between each egg so the babies hatch out every two or three days. This gives the older siblings an advantage if there is not enough prey/food available. They will out compete the younger birds, but at least some of them will survive to fledge. These 6 babies are eating 14 mice per day!
American Kestrel Yoda likes her new home too. Below, she flies between intern Harini and Tricia…
More Northern Lights..
