From World Bird Sanctuary
Mistakes were made. Barred Owl 23-742 suffered an unusual accident while hunting, getting both legs wedged into a tree crook. Thankfully, a passerby noticed the poor owl’s plight as she hung upside down in the tree and called our hospital for help. Our rescuers successfully removed the owl from the tree and brought her in for care.
While 23-742 escaped without any fractures, she has significant constriction wounds to both her legs. With how tightly her legs were wedged, circulation would have been cut off to the area and to her feet for an unknown amount of time. With injuries like this, it can take several days before the full extent of the damage can be determined, so it is too early to tell if she will survive her accident.
So far, 23-742 is using both of her feet reasonably well and is resting comfortably with medications for both pain and to help improve circulation to the area. Her wounds are bandaged, and she will receive daily cleaning and dressing changes to monitor the condition of the tissue.
I have a love hate relationship with Grackles. They pass through on migration. When they start flocking in fall, you know winter is about to set in. (the hate part of our relationship…) and when they pass through in spring, it’s fairly reliable that winter is not coming back (the love part).
They’re pretty cool birds, though a bit raucous. Mini-crows with shinny heads.
I do think the grackles are pretty. I love that iridescence and those beady little eyes! The starlings seem to follow them to my place, and once they show up, that’s the end of my fancy no shell bird seed. 😔 The red wing blackbirds show up then too and they’ve been pretty harmless too.