Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Red-tailed Hawks, an Eagle, and a Dozen Raccoons


Last week, Catbirds scolded Hous and now and then dove at him.
He's suffering from the Fledgling's Dilemma. "They'd taste great but on the other hand they're trying to peck a hole in my head. "

Astoria Park's Jules Corkery with the Monday Update --

Hi All
I only spent about a half hour out this am - I saw Triborough preening on the top high dining board. I did not see Houston. There were workers at the basketball court - picking up the rest of the unused rolls of fencing and they will probably install the gate today.
I am not sure if this means breakfast had already been served and Houston was on to bigger and better things or if he is just perched somewhere and I didn't have the time to find him. Triborough's crop looked full.
I told the parks manager what was up and that if there was a bird lying down anywhere to call the park rangers.
Wish I had more to tell.
As far as I know Francois was the last to photograph the guys on Saturday 6.28
Maybe he could give some input.
Thanks all!
Jules
(Some of Francois's photos from Saturday, next post down. D.B.)


Beautiful Athena watches for foolish mice to scamper along the base of the pool building's wall.


The Chicken Sandwich Raccoon
The Saturday Night Owls went out, well, Saturday. Not only did we see the Screech Owl youngsters, and Millipedes spawning, but there were also at least a dozen raccoons. They came in all shapes, sizes, and ages.

If you want to see raccoons, the North Woods is the place to be. And rehabber Carol Vinzant was our dynamite coon spotter.


Cheryl of Tulsa took these lovely photos of our friend Thunder soaring over Tulsa.


Soaring with a parent. I do believe that not only is flying together bonding for pairs. I've seen parents circling with their young well into Spring sometimes and there is something about relationship in that as we.

Thunder fledged later than many of our urban eyasses do. Then again all that hanging at the
nest before a late fledging certainly made a difference in her flying ability once she did leave.

Swooping past the rooftops, Thunder really seems to have the whole thing down. I have to admit I'm downright jealous of her freedom in the skies and physicality on the ground..

They made a big difference in each other's lives.
Thanks to John Steffen Jr. for sending in the story.
When Freedom came in she could not stand. Both wings were broken, her left wing in 4 places. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.

This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a week. You know you don't want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her owl cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.

We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington. We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV. Miracle Pets even did a show about us.

In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.

Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone.
Donegal Browne

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

Just wanted to let you know that my partner and I went for a patrol yesterday afternoon in Astoria Park. We saw both parents quietly sitting way up on some rails jutting out from the north side of the Triborough Bridge, pretty much directly above Shore Boulevard. A food vendor told me that they'd been sitting there ever since he set up at 0900 hours. I also came across Trib on the diving platform. He was jumping from rail to rail and looking very playful. It's really nice that that area is separated from the craziness of the pool. He then came down and perched on a tree branch about 15 feet off the ground and tolerated me gawking at him and the angry robins for a solid twenty minutes. We took a couple of loops around the park but couldn't find Hous. I won't be able to swing by there tomorrow, but Thursday is looking good. The Park Manager of Astoria Park is a very nice man and he'll reach out to us if any of the hawks are in trouble. Your best bet of tracking him down is by stopping by the park house right next to the track. But of course, we're all hoping that it will never come to that. I have some nice photographs, so when I finally upload them onto my computer maybe I can send some your way if you are interested. Take care.

Donegal Browne said...

Hello Ranger X,

Thanks for the fine update.

You're right. I've most often found the young hawks around the pool house, as well--On the top level, the diving board, or the trees nearby.

By the way, you can email me directly by clicking on the "contact me" button on the mainpage.