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The Peregrine Chick:
Rare bird recuperating from life-saving surgery

Melanie at HAWKE reports that their peregrine is doing very well - recovering from surgery and tolerating the associated handling calmly.  Melanie thinks the bird might be a female and she has 30 years of raptor experience including a couple of peregrines - a male and a female.  She also passed along an email from Carol who found the juvie at her home near the beach.  From the description of the bird's injuries & Carol's description of how the bird was found, it is very probable that the youngster was hunting birds near power/phone lines and collided with them.  We have had similar injuries among birds here so its a good guess.  The wing fracture was an open fracture which are notoriously poor to heal well enough, so the little "girl" will become an education bird - young is good in that case, they can "take" to captivity better than older birds.  Peregrines are snotty-by-nature though, so we will have to see.  

Melanie will send us updates as she has time ... I told her that it would be a great favour for y'all as I know you are experiencing peregrine withdrawal these days.  Will forward whatever I should receive!

So big applause and best wishes to Melanie, her vets, volunteers and all the supporters of HAWKE in Florida!

Alison:
Rare bird recuperating from life-saving surgery
St Augustine News / 28 Nov 2009

A young peregrine falcon, which are only rarely seen in Florida, is recuperating after major life-saving surgery.  Staff at St. Johns Veterinary Clinic operated Friday on the bird, which was found injured earlier this week in Volusia County.  Dr. Mark Gendzier, a veterinarian, said pins were placed in the radius in its left wing, and the tibiotarsus in the bird's right leg.

"This bird was in quite good shape for having two fractures," he said. However, the healing rate for fractures in birds is lower than in humans and other animals because avian bones are hollow.  There also isn't much blood supply to bones, which is essential for healing.

Peregrine falcons were endangered for years after wide-spread use of DDT lowered its reproduction rate, and they had few nests east of the Mississippi, according to the Audubon Society. Now, peregrine falcons migrate through Florida on their way to habitat in South America.  The bird, resting on its breast Friday afternoon in an incubator set to 90 degrees, is expected to pull through.

Melanie Cain-Stage of H.A.W.K.E., a wildlife rehabilitator, said the bird probably would not recover enough to be released into the wild.

"Eventually, he'll get the wrappings off and some rehab like physical therapy" and would become an education bird, she said.

Stage said the bird was too young to be reliably identified as male or female because its flight feathers had not yet come in.  In males, "wing feathers are slate blue," she said, while females have brown wing feathers.
Note: there are no colour differences between the genders.  Adults are slate-grey, juveniles are brown.  Appartently this was a reporting error  :)

If it's a male, she'll name it Ken after longtime friends Ken Pacetti and Ken Moffitt, she said in an e-mail. Pacetti passed away Monday, she said.  In the meantime, she said she'd make up a sling to protect the bird's foot, and would keep it "clean, calm and fed."  

That entails administering painkillers and antibiotics, Gendzier said. And Stage said she'd use calipers to feed the sharp-beaked bird small pieces of quail three times a day.

http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2009-11-28/rare-bird-recuperating-life-saving-surgery

Photo from the Humane Association of Wildlife Care and Education.

Alison:
Idaho: young falcon released after rehab
KLEW-TV, Lewiston



LEWISTON - His trip to the warm south was delayed a bit, but now a peregrine falcon can begin his journey.  The WSU School of Veterinary Medicine released their latest rescue, Stephens, at the KLEW transmitter site Friday morning.

"Stephens was brought in by a falconer, who had helped another person who had found him, got him in a hood and a white bandage and brought him down to WSU," said Dr. Nickol Finch of the WSU Vet School.  Stephens was brought into the Vet hospital on October 2. Doctors spent weeks nursing the injured raptor back to health, setting two bones in his wing. Finch said after four weeks of healing, and two more of physical therapy, Stephens was ready to begin his migration south. 

Stephens is just the most recent in a string of rescues.  "We tend to get about four falcons a year, and this is the first one we've released this year," said Finch. "We usually release about one a year. As of last year we've got 95 raptors, and released about 35."

Finch said the KLEW site at top of the hill was an idea place to release Stephens, on his migration path. He's expected to head to California and Finch said perhaps even farther.  "He flew the direction we didn't want him to go, but that's okay," said Finch. "He'll get his bearings and turn around and go the other way. As far as flying, he was nice and strong. The wind didn't bother him at all. It actually helped him out a little bit."

http://www.klewtv.com/news/local/70069377.html

carly:
Defiance moved to Elmwood Park Zoo (Part 2)

"It's in Pennsylvania where the peregrine is still endangered," and where Palmer hoped Defiance would get not only a home, "but also a mate, and perhaps a chance to breed and help contribute to the population of his species."

Or maybe not. The prospective female procreator, Stevie (named for Stevie Nicks), died this fall, the zoo's general curator David Wood reported in a phone conversation from Defiance's new home in Norristown, Pa. But Wood said Defiance appears to be enjoying a happy "alternative lifestyle" with his new, as-yet-unnamed birdy buddy, who turned out to be a male, DNA tests revealed. Defiance gets along well with his companion, recently imported from a West Virginia zoo, in a brand new habitat they share.

"We have a donor who is very interested in peregrines, so we were able to build a whole new exhibit. Defiance is doing great and we're very happy and lucky to have him," Wood said.

Dr. Carol Calista, a Las Cruces veterinarian who works with CDWR rehabilitation efforts, termed the bird's survival 'a miracle,' Palmer said, adding that the "feisty bird can claim at least part of the credit."

She stressed that it took more than a village to save Defiance.

"It took the cooperative effort of county government in the form of Dona Ana Animal Control, two states--New Mexico and Pennsylvania--and the federal government to provide him with a life at Elmwood Park Zoo, where he can live a productive life," Palmer said.

He can also be a ambassador for his species to the more than 130,000 visitors who come to the Elmwood Park Zoo each year.

Link to original article: http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-sunlife/ci_13775422

carly:
Defiance moved to Elmwood Park Zoo (Part 1)

LAS CRUCES— Defiance is a peregrine falcon who lost a wing and survived agonizing ordeals before his rescue and rehab in New Mexico. Now the feisty bird, who was not expected to live, has a birdy buddy and a posh habitat in a new territory almost 2,000 miles away.

"Defiance earned his name because he defied animal control, his human care-giver, injury, starvation, infection and even death," said Jessica Palmer, a Chihuahua Desert Wildlife Rescue (CDWR) rehabilitation specialist who cared for Defiance in her Las Cruces home. Defiance was a fledgling, just 'earning his wings' when he was picked up and swept by high wind to become tangled in string or wire. As an inexperienced flyer, the peregrine could have simply miscalculated or misjudged the distance of something. Either way, he became entangled in wire, mostly barbed wire or high tension lines. He must have hung by the wing for days until the weight of his body severed the limb from his body," Palmer reports. "Despite the ordeal, it took the Dona Ana Animal Control officer nearly a full day to capture the peregrine. She gave chase with her nets and he, as his name suggests, defied her," Palmer said.

By the time Defiance arrived at her home on July 7, Palmer's evaluation indicated the bird had managed to survive for a week without food and with a life-threatening wound that was infected.

"The severing of wing near the shoulder is among the worst injuries a bird can receive. The major arteries and veins run directly between heart and lungs into the wing. Usually, the bird will bleed to death. If it survives, the presence of infection (can be) lethal, the risk of death increased since the toxins quickly spread to the vital organs and throughout the body."

It seemed unlikely he would survive the night. But Palmer, experienced in wildlife rehabilitation as well as a nurse, educator and an author of novels, sci-fi and fantasy, textbooks and nonfiction historical works, was hoping for a happy ending.

"He was provided with a warm, restful environment and given a small amount of food and water, for fear his body would reject too grand a feast," Palmer said. "When he tolerated the first meal, more food was supplied. As evening drew to a close, he had eaten well. Still, as the sun set, the death watch began. At first light he was found, still standing, with a look of defiance upon his face. As if to say: "So you thought I was going to die."

Defiance's wound was treated and he was given antibiotics, but Palmer admits that each night she "said a formal farewell, not expecting him to be alive the next day, and each morning, I found him with that same look of defiance upon his face."

The bird's survival presented its own set of problems, including a search for a home.

"Obviously he was going to live and equally obvious, he could not be released to the wild. Once it became apparent the bird would survive, verbal permission was obtained from the Federal Government to place him. The total loss of a wing usually requires euthanasia," she said, because "it may lead to severe loss of balance. Birds use their wings as much to maintain balance while standing and walking as to fly. With the total loss, the bird may fall, often sustaining further injuries."

But dauntless, Defiance "beat the odds. He learned, and he learned quickly, to tuck and roll like an acrobat. He learned to climb and he learned to jump from perch to perch."

Palmer stressed there is no warm and fuzzy bird-human love story to report.

Defiance "was neither intimidated nor impressed" by Palmer, but "tolerated" her, "as the bringer of food and human 'lunch lady.'"

He let her know that "his forbearance was conditional, every time I entered the pen, with sloshing bucket and scrub brush. Defiance would climb up to the highest perch and leap down to land on my head, shoulder or back. He would stomp around a few times to notify me that he was in charge here and I was allowed into his territory on sufferance" and then "he jumped back onto his perch and watched for any false moves."

But one of nature's fiercest predators did not attack his savior.

"Never once during this weekly assertion of territory did this creature--who could have easily ripped flesh from bone--break the skin. Never a scratch," Palmer said.

And the plucky bird was suddenly very popular.

"Competition was fierce, with six different states applying to provide a home for him. It became a choice of what was best for the individual bird and for the species of as a whole."

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