Sad news - we lost Spencer. She was found grounded and injured a few weeks ago. Apparently she was transported by someone from the Humane Society to the Pembina Vet Clinic and then off to rehab. For those who don't know, injures wildlife can be dropped off at WHS during working hours and Pembina Vet Clinic anytime (they are open 24/7) and they will be picked by volunteers and transported to the wildlife rehab centres. And that's what happened to Spencer. We don't know any of the details of where she was found or by who though. The thought is that because the first to transport her were from WHS, that WHS would have a record of the call/drop off but it seems not.
What we do know is that when she came in she appeared to okay but the rehabbers were concerned about head trauma perhaps from a collision. She didn't like being in care and head trauma resolves itself on its own or it doesn't so they let her rest and kept an eye on her. Good news was that head trauma was ruled out as time went by but she wasn't flying. Sometimes birds who really really don't do well in care can be stubborn - we've had a couple of those over the years.
After a bit more time hoping she just get frustrated and start to fly and she still wasn't they wondered what else might be going on since she appeared to be "fine" except for the not trying to fly part. So despite her extreme displeasure she went off the vet and it was found she had a broken wing and a broken leg - which shocked the heck out of every one because she'd been standing on both legs with no apparent injury - the wing was the same - no droop or asymmetry. These are serious injuries so her chances of recovering well enough to be released went down markedly. But no one likes to write off a bird with attitude and willpower so now it was a waiting game until she healed or healed more.
That's when it got worse. I mentioned that Spencer was not a happy camper in care ... well she disliked it so much that she buggered up her broken wing so badly the only option was going to be to amputate it and given how much she hated being in care, we couldn't consign her to a life trapped in captivity with one wing and potentially arthritic pain in her leg. I don't know that I've ever used the word "trapped" when we have had a bird in captivity. Most have settled into a partnership with their keepers/handlers and there has been dignity and purpose and enrichment for them. Spencer was never going to tolerate captivity, healthy or impaired so while the decision to euthanize is always based on the best interests for the bird, it is usually based solely on medical reasons. For Spencer there was literally nothing we could do for her - IF she healed she was going to be in pain and because of personality she was going to be trapped. We couldn't do anything else for her, we couldn't make any part of that equation tolerable.
I had hope that her third time nesting with Hart at Logan would be the charm and she would finally raise all her chicks without our assistance or intervention. Instead we had to intervene on her behalf and give her the only assistance we could. I do hope her chicks will reappear somewhere, it took her years to finally have chicks, and I can't fault her maternal skills once she got into the proper headspace. She had to work at motherhood unlike many of our females, it would be nice to know that hard work paid off for her. That is the memorial I'd like to see for Spencer.
