Beatrix’s quail arrived yesterday so Dennis and I hopped into the truck and headed down to the depot to pick it up. Good thing we had the truck because 400 frozen quail comes in 10 boxes! A little while later we were pulling up to Beatrix’s new (hopefully) temporary home where a toboggan helped make light work of our delivery in the cold weather. Hopefully Beatrix and her neighbour PWRC’s ambassador peregrine, Aidin, will enjoy the new addition to their daily menu.
I haven’t seen Beatrix since she left on migration in the autumn of 2015 so I was looking forward to seeing her. I was out of town when she arrived and then she had surgery and that is stressful enough and I decided to let her settle down with PWRC before visiting. The quail delivery was perfect for timing. The sutures have been removed from her feet and though she is still on medication to prevent a recurrence of the bumblefoot, she is recovering very well and Lisa is cautiously (all rehabbers are wisely cautious by nature) optimistic about her recovery.
So there she was, hanging out on her perch where she has room to hop up, hop down, stretch her wings and stay warm. And she has her neighbour Aidin to chat with – well, Aidin does the chatting (she’s a softly chatty bird) and Beatrix listens, but they seem to be comfortable neighbours. Earlier Lisa had reported that Beatrix was finally feeding herself again and though it makes for a messy photo (check out her beak and feet in the photo) it is great to see the evidence of her independence in all it’s bloody, feathered glory. Speaking of feathers, the trip north and surgery were understandably stressful on Beatrix and she has lost some of the feathers she was regrowing. That’s not unusual. We will need to wait for her feathers to regrow however before she can be re-released. If she lost the feathers in part because she was moulting, then so long as everything else goes well, we may be able to release her sooner than if her feather lost was solely due to stress. Either way, she will need at least a month hopping, jumping and flying around in a flight cage so we have no tentative dates for her release yet. Our job for now is to provide good nutrition (check), continuing medical care (check) and time to get rebuild her strength and coordination (coming soon).
If folks want to help support Beatrix’s recovery, please consider making a donation or purchasing something from our online store. Normally we only have one new keepsake stamp available each year, this year we had three, one of which is of Beatrix.