HATTERAS ISLAND Cooper's Hawk - this young bird was found in a driveway in Rodanthe dodging people and feral cats. It was dehydrated and emaciated from not eating...so weak it could not fly. |  For the initial exam, I wrapped the hawk in a towel. Doing this kept the bird immobile to prevent injury to itself and to me. With time and lots of TLC, the bird put on weight and regained its strength. |  In this photo, the hawk is shown "mantling". That is, spreading its wings in order to hide its food from other birds of prey. Eventually the bird was restored to health and was released back into the wild. |
 Opossum - This little guy was found clinging to the body of its dead mother that had been hit by a car. The first round of treatment was to get it warm, then hydrate it...like so. |  Fast forward a few months, the baby opossum is a bit bigger than my thumb now. Finally it bears a resemblance to what it will look like as a fully-grown adult. |  A little older and a lot bigger, the orphan sleeps after a meal. Eventually it will be placed with other little opossums so it doesn't get depressed and will continue to thrive. |
 Fish Crow - This orphan was deserted by its parents and found after being on the ground for several days without food and water. In addition, the bird had a very heavy parasite load (lice and mites). All this resulted in "feather stress", brittle feathers that broke easily. The crow had to go through several lengthy moulting periods in order to replace these |  feathers with healthy ones. Crows are challenging cases for the rehabber. The birds not only have special dietary requirements and social needs, but they have to be integrated with a group of wild crows before they can be released. To be accepted by a flock, the bird first must learn "crow talk" from the local crows. Crows are also incredibly |  intelligent creatures. Because of that, they need enrichment activities while in captivity. However, they should never become habituated to humans nor tamed. This crow eventually grew into a beautiful, healthy bird, and after being in rehabilitation for a number of months, it finally was released. Of all my cases, this one was the most rewarding for me so far. |
 Great Horned Owl - Common in the island's maritime forest, the Great Horned Owl often can be heard after dark sending out its distinctive call. This guy was found in a local neighborhood unable to fly. |  Upon close examination, I found a deep wound on the inner thigh, probably inflicted by whatever prey the owl had grabbed last. There was a lot of damage to the bird's tissues and much swelling. |  Antibiotics, anti-inflamatories, and time were needed before the bird completely healed. Eventually it was able to fly again, and after the bird recovered from its injuries, it was released into the woods nearby. |
 Tundra Swan - These are very large, very wild birds that winter here in the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge. This Tundra Swan had been shot, its leg broken by the bullet. The challenge with this case was to keep the bird off its feet while the leg healed, but I had to make sure its wings didn't atrophy during |  the six weeks it stayed in the hammock. To do this, I had to regularly "fly" the swan like I'm doing in the photo above. I'd hold onto the bird while it flapped its wings like crazy. It took a lot of strength for me to do this, and I got pretty beaten up, but it worked! An additional concern was to get the bird rehabbed |  before the Tundra Swans' migration. Otherwise I'd have to DRIVE it north several hundred miles. One other thing I dealt with was preventing bed sores. This case was a good learning experience for me that resulted in a successful rehabilitation. The bird totally recovered and was released in time to join the other Tundra Swans for their trip home. |
 Mud Turtle - This turtle was found on a hot summer day beside the busy highway. She'd been hit by a car while crossing the road in search of a place to lay her eggs. In addition to the obvious trauma, she was extremely dehydrated. The first thing she needed was fluids. About four weeks later she laid her eggs, and about two weeks after that, she |  started eating. I fed her a diet that was rich in nutrients and calcium. Eventually I was able to slowly begin the realignment of her shell fragments using whatever I could find to assist me in that process. I epoxied nuts to her shell, through which I ran cord that I slowly tightened to bring the fragments together. This took months. The procedure changed as her |  shell condition improved. After about a year, her shell had reformed and the fragments had fused together. Even the breaks at the bridges of her shell healed. One part of her shell was missing, but that space where the shell used to be slowly began to fill in. When I was confident that she finally was able to survive on her own, I released her. Talk about learning experiences! |
 Pelagic Birds - Pelagic birds or "sea birds", like the dovekie and gannet shown above, usually come to shore only when they are ready to nest, when they are ill, or when they are blown in by a strong wind and are too weak from fighting the wind to fly back out to the open sea. Treating these birds isn't normally a problem, and with experience you can tell if the birds' waterproofing is sufficient to keep them warm before releasing them. What are problems are feeding them, exercising them, and |  releasing them. Many pelagic birds don't recognize fish as food unless they've caught it themselves. That means most pelagic birds have to be force-fed, which is stressful on them. However, feeding them is easier than exercising them. Before these birds can be released, they must be in good muscular shape. This is often difficult to achieve because they have huge space requirements for flight and also need lots of water for take-offs since many run on the water to help them get airborne. This takes a large pool in a |  giant flight cage, and these are not things that most rehabilitators have. Another condition for release is good weather - at least three consecutive days of it. Then there need to be flocks of other pelagic birds close to the release site that can be as far away as 50 miles out to sea. In other words, the rehabber must arrange to get an offshore boat ride. Fortunately for me, that part has been made easy, thanks to Brian of Brian Patteson, Inc. My rehabilitated pelagics can usually hitch a ride with him on one of his Pelagic Bird Tours out of Hatteras Village. |