A correction, update and thanks!

The correction is that the sandhill crane came from Homer, not Soldotna. He's liking the outdoors a lot more than the indoor mews.

From Soldotna we did get an immature great horned owl with a broken wing. Check out those eyes.

The thanks goes to PET ER from Petra. They gave me some donated road kill squirrels and she loved them.

Sandhill Crane is in, Scaups are out

This Sandhill Crane came to us from Soldotna earlier this week. It was a very late hatchling and mom and pop and another older sibling headed south leaving this one behind.

I took this photo of these scaups right before I crated them up to release them. They were orphaned back in July.

All of the scaups were sticking together after I released them at West Chester Lagoon. They were really having a blast diving and swimming real fast. Now it's up to Mother Nature.

Bye Bye Bob

I guess it felt like the first day of school. You take your kid there and just wish for the best. Bob had come to us from the Alaska Sealife Center back in July as a real young guy. He had been attacked by something, patched back together by ASLC and sent to Bird TLC.

Bob grew and grew and was sent out to the flight center on August 14 to get ready for his life after TLC. Our biggest concern about Bob was all he really knew was people. The hardest thing for the volunteers at the flight center to do was not be friendly to Bob. We weren't mean or anything like that, just not friendly. Bob likes super worms and mice. When a volunteer would go to the flight center to feed, Bob would greet them at the door.

The weather has been great, but fall is fast on its way. The leaves are changing, it's cooler at night and birds are starting to head south. It was now or never for Bob. To ship him outside would cost a small fortune, he wouldn't make an easy education bird to deal with and he deserves another chance at life in the wild where he belongs.

For the last couple of days, Britt and I have been working a project put at the flight center. Bob got some extra servings for dinner to help him prepare for his journey. Today we finished the project and it was time for Bob to leave.

With suggestions of where to go from friends of Bob, we headed to Wasilla where UAF has some experimental farms where sand hill cranes are known to visit. Sure enough there were plenty there. With a lot of coaxing, Bob took to flight. He flew better than we had expected and probably surprised himself as well.

We did have to recover him a couple times to get him headed in the right direction. The last we saw of him he was in a field with about 20 other sand hill cranes. He hadn't mingled in with them yet. SHC's were coming and going while we were there, so we figured he will figure things out before long.

Bob, we wish you the best. You have to get your own super worms and mice now.

Photo Credit: Britt Coon / Bird TLC

Busy Wednesday

For starters, we have a Great Gray Owl that came to us from Tok. It was hit by a car and brought in by a good citizen. We were determining if it was flighted or still needed some more r&r. The flight test didn't work out at TLC, so later on, Britt and I took the GGO out to the flight center. We brought her back. She needs some more r&r.

I couldn't go to the Alaska State Fair today. My real job was getting in the way. Cindy is checked off on Ghost (she was my mentor). So they got to go to the fair. In this picture they are getting familiarized with one another again. She does his exams and beak trimming, but doesn't get to work with him much. She reported back that things went real well.

We also got a immature bald in almost a month ago. He had some super lice. They had him so down that he wasn't expected to live. His name is Easy Rider, because a guy wrapped him up in his coat and brought him to TLC on his motorcycle. The lice lost! We took him to the flight center also. He flew right to perch and then chowed down on some salmon we had put out for him.

Last thing tonight, Britt exercised the sand hill crane or was that the other way around? It's getting big. We're discussing it's release options now.

New resident at the flight center

Our junior sandhill crane moved to the flight center on Wednesday. Here he'll be able to get some flight time and there's less of a chance of him getting imprinted.

Photo credit: Britt Coon / Bird TLC

Sandhill Crane

Matt and Ellen brought in this sandhill crane they came accross. I'm not sure how it got injured. It either flew into something or was hit by a car. Tomorrow it gets x-rays. There are no obvious injuries, but it has problems standing and has no desire to eat.

We'll keep you updated.

Sometimes the hunted

I got a call from Megan at the office yesterday. A gentleman had called her about a sand hill crane in his back yard. He saw an eagle attack it and it landed in his yard for cover. It seems to have gotten a broken leg. The guy was watching it because the eagle had perched in a tree and was keeping an eye on it. She wanted me to go recover the crane.

As I got closer to his house I called for more accurate directions. He told me never mind. The neighbors dog had scared the bird off. He said it headed northwest and the eagle was on its tail.

I was on lunch anyways, so I headed north for grunts and giggles. As I headed down a side dirt road, I noticed an older SUV pulled over to the side and the people were looking up at a tree. As I got closer I spotted the eagle they were looking up at. I pulled along side and they said it was after a sand hill crane in the bushes. What are the odds?

I was a little unsure of what to do. The eagle was doing what came natural. It was hunting and the crane was dinner, maybe. I decided to just hangout for a while. A raven didn't like the eagle in the area, so he started giving it a hard time. After a bit the eagle had enough and flew off.

I decided to get my blanket and go check the crane out. As I got closer I did see that its leg was broken. So I took my time and slowly walked towards it. I got about 10 feet away and the neighbor shouted, "can I help you?" On that note, the bird flew away. I watched it fly off and it wasn't long the eagle was headed that way also.

I don't know the ending. They were to far off when I lost sight of them. There was no real way to catch up with them. So, lunch was over and it was back to work.