I get a lot of calls about birds - mainly crows or robins - 'attacking' or pecking at their windows. This is different from them slamming into the window when they do not see it. Robins - or any other bird really - may see their reflection in a window and falsely believe who they are seeing is another bird, not themselves. During breeding season, when hormones are increased, highly territorial birds (robins, corvids, peacocks) get very excited about other birds coming into the area they have decided will be their nest site. 

Now, this is not stupid. Its smart. Most songbirds, like robins, feed their babies insects. This is true even of birds that will grow up to eat fruits or seeds, there is nothing with more protein than insects for baby birds. Since they must grow at a phenomenal rate to reach adult size in a matter of just a few weeks, their parents select out an area that they have assessed as being able to provide enough abundance of insects to feed their babies. The birds will base how large an area they need on how many insects...some tiny birds need only a yard or two, others acres. 

If a robin has chosen your yard and location as a good site (yeah for you as they are very cool birds), then both parents will defend that area throughout the nesting period. That means that 'other' robin in the window is a real threat to them. The more energy and time they take to fight that guy, the less they spend with their babies or eggs or feeding. So, it is helpful for the bird for you to intervene and convince them that the bird they are seeing is gone. 

HOW?
First, we must impede the reflection. The reason our windows are so reflective now is from energy efficiency - the mirroring that window manufacturers put inside our windows to refract heat and retain warmth in winter. So any way you can think of to limit that reflectivity will work. This must be done from the outside of the house usually, though drawing down shades is always worth a try. 

Here are some ideas. Go to "Living With" and also "Windows" for comprehensive lists of what to do to exclude birds. 

1) Block the window for the breeding period. Use anything you want, decorate hangings, tarps, garbage bags, sheets, cardboard, or be creative and artistic.

2) Use colorful window paints that will wash off after the babies are mostly raised (2-3 weeks). 

3) Put a full color large picture of a person on the outside of the window, perhaps laminate for it to last. (Don't bother with fake owls)

4) Hanging netting - this does NOT stop the reflection, but it may dissuade a bird from coming back. See instructions on Windows page. Must be placed at least 4-6 inches from the window. Plant hangars and eaves work great for this. 

5) Any product you can paint on the window that will come off will work. 

Remember - Robins have one of the most beautiful calls in the animal world. They have but 3-6 weeks to get their babies raised and ready for a harsh life as a wild bird. 

Also, robins feed entirely on the ground, and the babies must learn to find food on the ground. They often are on the ground before they can fly well. Keeping cats and dogs away from your baby robins is critically important. Love your robins!

Thank goodness for folks who see birds and go, 'That doesn't seem right'! This little cutie pie was found in the Lowe's garden center in Bend. An employee luckily thought that it looked out of place, although there are some birds that make the center their home. But this one looked out of place, so she picked it up and eventually it found its way to me through another person willing to drive her to me.  Luckily too, those involved in the rescue all were wise enough not to simply put the bird outside, where she would for sure have died from hypothermia. She had somehow gotten some kind of sticky spray on her feathers that would have made it nearly impossible for her to stay warm, much less fly. However, this was not immediately apparent and one could easily have mistaken this bird as healthy. (Which is why it is better safe than sorry to call a professional and find out the best thing to do for a bird). 

    We know its a dove, because she has that dove 'look' - heavy bodies, smallish head, not a full upright position (like a robin), long tail. Now, what kind of dove? What are the distinguishing characteristics?
   Bird ID is not easy, but its fun. Generally, you look for several things. First, basic appearance...what does it look sorta like (a canary? a regular yard bird? a duck?). Then you look at color, size, head size, tail length, type of bill (length and color too), feet, markings on the feathers, where it is. After that, more detail is needed. Try to use a common bird, like the robin or mallard as your comparison to gauge size. 
   How about the next bird? Yep, another dove. And, both are fledglings. What differences do you see? If you saw them side by side, you would see that the one below is about half the size of the other. In fact, you could say the one below is small, and the one above is medium sized. Also, they both are smaller than the adults, and look young. The Collared above does not have its black feathers around the neck that look like a collar. The dove below is a darker color than its parents; the dove above is lighter than its parents. Fledges can be hard to ID, but you can get a sense of if it sorta looks young. Also, fledges often cannot fly yet. They can leave the nest early (totally normal) and stay on the ground for up to a week unable to fly.
   Now, look at the bills. The top one has a heavy, light grey bill, it has bumps on it, and its longer. The one below has a shorter, smaller, brown bill, more pointed. Overall color is different too. Light cocoa below with black spots; color of a hamburger bun mixed with grey above.  The bird below is darker, smaller, with spots, and a small, but pointed brown bill. The one above, is a roundish, heavy looking bird, with light almond (hamburger bun) with grey in it, and a heavyish, long, grey bill.  

   Now, what are they? The one below is our native Mourning Dove. The one above is the Eurasion Collared Dove, they are not original to the US and in fact are having an ecological impact on the smaller mourning dove. They both eat food on the ground: insects, seeds, vegetation. Both nest in trees. The Collared Doves are bigger birds and aggressive to the mourning doves as they compete for valuable food and nesting sites.   

   That's great! Now, before you pick her up, check the scene out. Is she injured, or just bebopping around eating or resting in the sun? Look for the parents. Are there others around? Did you see something capture it, a cat or dog? Is it safe more or less? Are their immediate dangers to the bird that nothing can be done about (like someone else's outdoor cat? Can you ask that person to put the cat inside for a few days? Is it near a window? Has it been in the same place for a long time (sitting still for an hour for example, stunned at the base of a house under a window? 
   Ground feeding birds are best left to learn how to eat and find food. The ground is their dinner table. As young birds, they need to learn to find food. The parents are teaching them by showing them where the food is and bringing them some. And the young are learning on their own. 
   In general, we tend to leave the bigger, more robust Collared Doves alone. The Mourning Doves we can talk to you about to gauge whether there is a real need for 'rescuing'. We can never replace these birds' wild foods in rehab, so we are careful about rushing them in to care. Like all of our youth, they should be watched over some and their play/feeding grounds made as safe as possible for them. Make sure they have some water, and you are not bothering or scaring them if they are in your yard. Bring the dog or cat in till  they can fly. 
   If you are really concerned, the bird is just not flying off, there are no parents (and you have given them privacy to return), and they look injured. Call us. 

   In the meantime, enjoy your doves. They are a neat and pretty bird. The Mourning Doves are a sweet, gentle, and fun little bird. 

 The hunter that shot Hope and Fiona was charged in Lakeview. The Bend Bulletin printed an article that includes information about this today. You can find it here:  Article on Hope (click on link). 

It is with a very sad and heavy heart that I have to report that Hope, the beautiful Trumpeter swan, died February 10th. She had gone in for a second surgery for her wing. Hope was shot by a hunter late October and her mid wing bones were fractured by the pellets. Hope had gone in for a second surgery to remove this wing as it never was able to fully heal, the damage was just too bad. USFWS and ODFW had given us permission to do an amputation rather than euthanize her. She was to be mated up with one of ODFW's male swans in search of a mate and also flightless - part of their swan recovery program here in the state. We had high hopes for Hope. 
Sadly, Hope was unable to wake up after surgery. 

Well December was the busiest we have ever experienced, with nearly 20 water birds being found and brought into the center. Kudos to all of you who helped these sweet little birds!

We had eared, horned, and pied-billed grebes, western grebes, a loon, and new this year, and so exciting, ruddy ducks. Ruddy ducks, like all the others, are unable to fly once grounded...their wings are just too small for their heavy, little bodies. These birds are deep divers and most fishers, so they need that weight to get down into the water. The wings are small so they are streamlined....similar to a penguin. All but the ruddies have their feet positioned back behind them, rather than below like a duck. This makes it hard for them to run or stand up.

The smallest grebes need at least 20 feet of water runway to get into the air. The ruddies even longer, they have to huff and puff and waddle on top of the water a good distance to finally get themselves launched into the air. Google some images of grebees running on water, it is quite cool.

All but the ruddies and coots, should have been somewhere else. The little grebes - horned, eared, and pied-billed - migrate in December and even into January. The coots and ruddies are local but the cold froze up their water and they simply did not have enough to get launched. The western grebe and loon simply did not make it over the Cascades and got caught in the storms. All were taken to appropriate places. The western and loon went to Yaquina Bay, the horned went to Siletz Bay, the eareds went to Summer Lake, the pied-billed went to Fern Ridge in Eugene, and the ruddies and coots stayed in Bend at Hatfield Lake. All were happy to get out of the snow and onto water!​ 

To me, there is almost nothing more fascinating then water bird feet. I just love those cute little webbed feet, and how the birds use them to paddle around and fish. The western can get going fast enough, primarily with his feet that he can actually spear a fish! Very cool (not for the fish of course). 

In the pictures below, you can see how the eared grebes feet are behind her, while the ruddies is underneath. Ruddies eat vegetation and some water bugs, eareds eat bugs and fish. You can see that the size of their wings, while helping them underwater, makes them less able to get out of the water and into the air. The coot, the one with the white nose, has his feet most like the usual duck, right beneath his belly. Looking closely at their feet, you will see that all 3 types of birds have different webbing. The coot and eareds have lobes in their webbing, while the duck has the usual ducklike paddle for a foot. 

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Hope was shot near Summer Lake. She has a broken wing and had 4 hours of orthopedic surgery last Tues (25th). She now has 6 weeks of rehabilitation and recovery ahead of her. Care of Hope and her rehabilitation will involve physical therapy a couple times a week, bandage changes, medications twice a day, a diversity of food, and specialized housing that protects her keel, feet, and the waterproofing of her plumage. 

Hope is a Trumpeter Swan, which were on the endangered species list for decades. Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife has worked for 20 years to get Trumpeters nesting and breeding again here in Oregon. Hope is the first bird born in Summer Lake to have been from a completely wild pair of birds. Her injury is particularly tragic for this reason. And ODFW, Native Bird Care, and her Drs are doing all they possibly can to save Hope. 

The little - specifically 10 gram! - yellow warbler was released yesterday. Above is a picture a day or two before in the aviary. There was some question on whether she was a yellow or orange-crowned. These pictures may resolve that, specially the rear one. She mooned me. 

Its so difficult to take photos once they are in the aviary...just so high strung and no, they won't sit for me, not this sized bird.

She is a good example of a window strike. Another I got in just after her was not so lucky. These little birds can get going amazingly fast, and when the hit a window if they don't hit their head, they take the strike with the shoulder or full body. Clavicle and coracoid injuries result. 

Its best to not handle a bird much with this kind of injury. Something has to be done to keep the bird's wing in correct placement for healing...best done by someone with skill and small hands. Its easy to make this injury worse and cause the bird to be unreleasable (a death sentence). 

A flight cage is so important. This bird once out of her wrap, had difficulty gaining loft and navigating. She went from a large indoor netted enclosure, to the 12' x 16' aviary - quite large for her tiny size. It took her 3 full days of full on flight to gain her strength, endurance, and stamina back. She would not have been releasable without this physical therapy. She spent a full week in the aviary. 

She was released yesterday, and we wish her well. Just in time to migrate to Mexico. Have a safe trip!

A type of warbler, am not sure what kind. IF you know, please comment or share an email with me. 

And yes, it was excruciatingly difficult to wrap this little girl's wing and body in tiny vet wrap (specially since my assistant's hands are not small, luckily mine are). Took me much practice over the years to be able to do this...geesh. 

Its not hard to put too much tension on this kind of wrap for this size bird and impact their breathing. Air sacs on birds are all over and just under the skin. Have to make sure the medical care we give doesn't cause more harm. 

This tiny one is doing just fine. 

Injury is to the coracoid from hitting a window. She has some neurological issues, but is working through those fast. In a couple days, the wrap will come off and we will test flight. After that, she will have some flight time (exercise and PT) in the aviary, to get her strength and flexibility back. 

Then its off to South America.

First, I have rebranded from Grebe Acres Wild Bird Care to Native Bird Care of Sisters, Oregon. It was needed...what is a grebe anyway!

To quickly catch up on the summer special visitors, Luna the loon and the killdeer....Luna got released late May successfully at Wickiup Reservoir in the Mountains of Central Oregon. She is still there as her injuries, while we saved her life, likely made her feel less than confident in continuing her migration north and breeding. We hope that next year will find her with babies somewhere where loons go. 

We have had 3 killdeer released of our 5 this year. The tiny ones - not so tiny now - have a couple more weeks to go. The killdeer were released at Summer Lake, which is a beautiful wildlife refuge for shore and water birds down in the central part of the state. If you have not gone...and are in Oregon, this place is a phenomenal place to bird. And there is a wonderful lodge, and a lodge with hotsprings nearby, nice!

Killdeer and loons are some of the most stressful birds to rehabilitate. I consider myself lucky to be able to release them healthy and able to go on to reproduce. Many of these birds languish in care, often through no fault of the rehabber. They require specialized care and facilities. 

I currently have songbirds as well that will be released soon. It has been a busy season, as usual. 

My next posts will be about what it takes to do wild bird rescue and rehabilitation. If you have ever wondered about what we do...well tune in. 

Thanks for loving birds!

Here are a couple more pics. 

Luna was released at Wickiup Reservoir, Central Oregon. We are lucky to  have such incredible habitat to release birds back to. She is safe, tons of fish, and its a nice summer. 

Always nervous about waterproofing with these kinds of birds, even if you have floated them on water for several hours or even over night. Luna here is already looking for fish, YES! If she had been breaching (standing up and flapping her wings over and over), that could have been a sign of lack of waterproofing. I could not have caught her again, so it is so very critical to get these birds fully waterproof before release. Giving them pools to stay in is the only real way to do that with confidence. Go Luna!

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And here is another pic of the group of 3 killdeer released at Summer Lake. This one is already relaxed and grooming. Lots of bugs and other shorebirds, including killdeer, for them to hang with. Good luck little ones...

More releases to come.....

Well its been a real Killdeer season this year! Above is Sweetie, a baby raised by Kim F, here in Central Oregon and transferred to me to join my crew. These inland shorebirds come in mainly because they fall into storm drains, their parents are killed on highways, or dog or cat grabs them. 

They come in tiny usually, under 6 grams and sized about that of a quarter with legs. They take special settings and care, are easily stressed, and require a lot of attention. IF they survive past a week or few days and are housed and cared for appropriately, they can grow to be released. 

These two little ones came in after being found in a storm drain (someone heard the peeping). After not finding either parent, they came to us. The little black specs are flightless fruit flies, one of the many bugs they have to eat. Insects are the main diet for these guys, there is no gaping for a hand-made diet and I have never seen them eat dog food!

Fly larvae, white mealworms, waxworms, and baby crickets are what they need to survive...and A LOT of those. These have to be fed a particular way to avoid calcium deficiencies and other nutritional issues. All of the bugs we rehabbers feed are not nutritionally balanced and must be supplemented in specific ways, otherwise long-term issues will result. Many of these would not be seen before release, but only after. For example, without the right amount of calcium to phosphorus as a juvenile, a bird could grow up to be unable to fully calcify and egg, with that egg potentially breaking inside the bird and killing the bird. Leg and wing fractures also occur once in the while in birds raised with poor nutrition. 

As baby birds grow, whether song, shore, or water, they all must be transferred to increasingly larger enclosures that fit their particular needs for feeding, enrichment, safety, and physical development. 

Shorebirds require enclosures that protect, but also encourage muscle development in their feet and legs. Thus, these little ones moved into a larger setting, but are still on soft cloth. 

After a bit, they all go into a 'shorebird box' or other much larger enclosure that for us in Central Oregon is still inside since our nights can be in the 30s. The box is not a box per se, but a large, wood structure that I can put pea gravel or sand in for their feet and they can run and even take small hopper jumps in. They grow in their for another bit, till finally they have the feathering to stay warm and can go outside in the shorebird aviary. 

I had another intake of 3 more Killdeer just a bit older that were able to go out to the aviary sooner than my little ones. 

This is the outdoor aviary, which is 12 x 16, and large enough for them to fly. The habitat is set up to allow them to learn to navigate high desert landscapes, which for them is shrubs, dirt, and grasses. They are found in all sorts of habitats, and while shore birds, they do frequent water, they also look for their bugs in other wide open spaces. 

You can see the little mound of pea gravel in the center, Killdeer like to see around them, so this gives them an idea of a view. The walls are not completely enclosed so they can see their surroundings. 

Anyhooo.....this is Killdeer rehab....Hard, expensive, and very time intensive....but sooo worth it. If you love shorebirds, make sure to support your local shorebird rehab expert, they need it! 

​Like most of these injured water birds, she came in hypothermic and emaciated. In this condition, rehab is very tentative as getting the bird warm and eating again can be difficult. Luna was quite lethargic, as the picture with her vet shows...you would NEVER want to be this close to a healthy loon's bill!!! They use those weapons to stab and aim for the eyes. but in Luna's case, she was so very tired she just sat there. Of course I was not far away!

She checked out fair, the wing injury is in her patagium (the thin skin on the forward part of a bird's wing and also some bruising. Her tongue has some dying tissue in it (necrosis) but is already growing back (bird tongues are amazing!). After hydration, warmth, and rest, we got her on some good slurry and easy to digest recipes. Slowly she has regained her energy and her attitude.

​Starvation results in these birds being unable to keep their temps up, they get cold fast and too low a temp can kill them. So warming and feeding is critical, after hydration. Luna got to swim in her therapy pool from the start, just a little at a time. Now she is on the pool all day, with just short breaks for nutrition and check ups. Her pool has recirculating, filtered water - a KEY to rehabbing water birds since loss of waterproofing happens easily and a lot in captivity. Protecting that, her feet, and her keel is critical.

ote the green 'donut' she is sitting on, this protects their keels which can wind up with sores if their weight is not kept off it. Secondary injuries are often why waterbirds don't make it in rehab.

I will blog on keel sores next! Stay tuned.

Luna is getting better, wish her luck and if you want to help her out...please consider making a donation, she needs fish!

​Can you guess what this little cutie is? Actually, he or she is not that little. About the size of a football, and heavy. She is an American Coot (Fulica americana). The males and females have identical plumage, an expert can tell the difference by their vocalizations.

Like some other water-associated birds, the coot can get way-laid by a storm and wind up where he or she should not be. So it was with this one. She was in excellent condition though, quite fat, strong, and anxious to get away from me. But, like grebes and other water type birds, she could not take off from the ground, she needed a running start - on water!

After a one night bed & breakfast (which she turned down), off she went to the nearest group of other coots and open water.

Some interesting facts about the coot:

1) they are not ducks - in fact they are a type of rail, a rail is a type of marsh bird and eats almost only vegetation. Usually you would have to look hard for a rail, but coots are pretty gregarious. They live on freshwater lakes around marshy, wetland like habitats. They need the vegetation at the edges of these water bodies to eat, though you will find them out in deeper water too (unlike other rails).

2) Check out those green and huge feet! This bird is a swimmer, like the grebe, loon, and merganser. It is a heavy bird for that reason, to be able to sink down in the water and swim. Their wings, while larger in proportion than a grebes to body size, are still not strong enough for a land take-off. They must have a good bit of water - and not a pond mind you - a lake. 

Those fantastic feet are lobed and large to paddle their way all around under and on top of water. 

Check out this cool bird online at the Cornell Laboratory website and impress your friends when you see one in the wild by saying, "Did you know that is not a duck? Its a rail....!"  

​I got a call Christmas day from a couple,Chente and Melina, vacationing on the Florida panhandle. They had found a horned grebe quite a ways up a beach and chosen to rescue the bird. Their story follows in the next post. This is one of those situations in which knowing what the best action to take is quite difficult. In this case, they made the decision to take the bird with them in hopes that they could find help for it. 

Birds who winter near or on the sea do get on the beach - gulls, shorebirds, crows, pelicans. But how do you know if the bird sitting on the beach is in peril or not? How do you know what to do with a bird that seems in distress? Take it back to the water? Rescue it? Leave it? 

In some cases, the bird will look beat up, full of sand, and barely alive. Rescue is the right and obvious choice. In others, the bird might have just come up on the beach and its situation is less clear. Birds are excellent at faking injury; predatory birds and animals look for the injured. 

There are some bird species whose presence on a beach should cause immediate concern: sea ducks (pretty much any of them), loons, grebes (any), puffins (any alcids), murres -- pretty much any of the birds that live on the sea either year-round or winters. All of these are categorized as "water" birds or "sea" birds - what they have in common is that they all live the majority of their lives on water. The common beach-goers - gulls, shorebirds, some songbirds, and the corvid family and raptors/eagles - while living near water, are not water birds. 

There are freshwater birds as well and some of these (loons, grebes, some cormorants) live part of the year on sea water and the other part on lakes and rivers. The pelican is the water bird that does visit the beach and is an exception to this rule. Note too that surf scoters are named right - they are nature's surfers and ride the waves looking for what the water churns up to eat. Any other bird being tossed around in surf is not a good thing.

Water birds have unique anatomies that allow them to literally float on water year round. Loons and grebes are so water-attached that they even build their nests on reeds floating on the edges of lakes, their babies ride on their backs to stay dry and warm for the first 2 weeks.  

So, how can these birds live like this? How do they stay warm and dry?

Feathers!

The feather is one of the world's most amazing anatomical structures. As we all know, down is super warm, and waterbirds have a lot of it. The other feathers work like skin-diving suits, physically preventing water from getting onto the skin of the bird. They do this through microscopic barbs that hook together like Velcro. A fully waterproof bird's feathers will shed water and be completely dry immediately after full submersion in water. In rehab, one of the most extraordinary processes to watch is to see a bird's feathers go from wet to dry as the bird preens or is washed (do not attempt to waterproof a bird, it requires expert knowledge, do not attempt this yourself).  

Back to our Horned Grebe:

The little Horned Grebe was most likely not waterproof. Any kind of contamination (pollution, a seeping wound from an injury,serious physical disarray of feathers like from surf) can impair waterproofing. I cannot know what this little bird ran into as I was not there to examine her, but clearly she was cold. When water - even "warm" water like in Florida - gets on the skin of a bird, it begins to drain heat from the bird. Eventually, the bird will get more and more wet, and colder, until the bird knows she or he has to get out of the water. Once the outer flight feathers are too wet, the bird can no longer fly, and has to waddle up onto the shore. First, she has to go through the surf where she gets more debris and sand in her feathers, and thus wetter and colder. Our little grebe likely needed a good bath.

​Our story ends well: the little horned grebe was taken to the Pensacola Wildlife Sanctuary. The full story will be continued in my next post - stay tuned!

What Can You Do?

Chente and Melina followed their gut feelings about our little grebe. And they made a wise choice in picking that bird up. They no doubt saved that bird's life as she would have been either killed by another animal or died from starvation.

Here are some questions you can ask if you find a bird on the beach:

1) What kind of bird is she or he? Chente and Melina got on their smart phones and identified their bird as a horned grebe. If you find you have a true water bird, and they are not general beach goers...then  you can assume you need to rescue.

2) What is the bird's condition? Is she or he filthy, like they took a bath in sand? Rescue. Oiled, greasy, dirty, unkempt, etc. Rescue. 

2.b). Is the bird injured? Obvious broken wing? Leg dragging? Wing dragging? Blood? Rescue

3). Can the bird walk? Is the bird trying to get away, and if so, how is it walking? Does it try to stand up and waddle a few inches or feet then fall back down? That is likely a grebe or loon, their feet are placed to far back on their bodies to keep them upright for anymore than a few feet at a time. If another bird acts like this, it is injured. In either case - Rescue.

4). When you walk away and stop looking at it, does the bird drop his head back down and "rest"? Does it look exhausted? Watch a gull, how it sits on the sand, alert, clean. How does your bird look generally?

While we want and need to respect wildlife, and they are truly magicians in terms of what they go through to stay alive, we still need to be aware. Intervening when its not necessary is not good, we can accidentally "kidnap" babies from their parents, disrupt their ability to migrate, etc etc....but to not act when a bird is truly in distress, is to resign the bird to death. 

With just a bit of observation, a smart phone, a quick phone call....Chente and Melina saved this bird. You can too. 

My next post will be Melina's story about exactly what happened. She offers an excellent example of how to rescue a horned grebe on a beach...on a holiday! 

​May the birds be with you. 

This beautiful loon was found in the middle of Hwy 97, a few days into our first serious dump of snow and cold snap. He (or she) clearly face-planted into the hwy as the tip of his bill is damaged. We are assessing as to weather he can be rehabilitated. 

Water birds like loons, grebes, and mergansers not only need their sharp bill to catch (or spear) fish, but to preen and maintain their waterproofing. You can see in this picture that his waterproofing is compromised - there is a small nickle sized darker spot just under his chin...this is a spot where clearly he has lost his waterproofing. Likely he got some debris(perhaps blood from the injury) here. This is an avenue to hyperthermia were he to be released with this. 


Weather can force a bird down for various reasons - sometimes because of poor physical condition (parasite loads or just lack of enough food to develop the muscle mass for the whole migratory trip), but sometimes simply from really bad weather. Loon and grebes can mistake our wet pavement for rivers...seems odd, but visibility can be hindered in bad weather, as we all know. 


Please if you see a bird on the snow, in a road, or just acting strange...or in a location that seems odd...give us a call. Unless a bird is a crow or a songbird actively eating seeds under a tree or hopping around on snow...consider that bird in distress. Birds do not sit in the snow (unless they are ptarmagin!) generally....No shorebird should ever be in the snow...and no water birds. 

I believe this bird to be a common loon.

Hard to believe, but this is a treble hook fishing lure - right where Grace has been feeding. Unbelievable. It must have washed up in the last day as I scour the bottom of the river when I drop her food. Luckily I found it before she did. 

Found out that it is legal for fisher folks to be able to any kind of lure in the downtown river section. Which means anyone who wades or swims into the river or feeds on the bottom of the river is at risk for getting these stuck in them. The one that got Grace was much larger than this one, but still a lure like this is going to get eaten by some bird eventually. 

When swallowed, fishing lines and lures are death sentences for birds. 22% of brown pelicans taken in by  the International Bird Rescue have line or lure injuries. Lures can be swallowed whole by larger birds like herons, egrets, or other fish eaters. They get impaled into webbed feet, stuck into necks and wings, and impaled into tongues.  

Grace was a lucky bird - many people saw her and called a variety of folks. I cringe to think of the likely thousands who perish under the water, wound up in line, and drowning without anyone ever knowing or seeing them. This is a real risk for the fish eaters or swim through the water like bullets - your mergansers, grebes (horned, eared, pied-billed, westerns, clarks), fresh water cormorants, and loons. 

Conscientious fisher folks use barbless hooks, hooks that biodegrade, and do all they can not to cut their lines. No lure biodegrades fast, but eventually they will rust out. The one I found was very rusty, but still have sharp points, enough to hook a bird. So the bird would have had a rusty lure stuck in its tongue. I used to fish...as a longtime Alaskan it is kinda in our blood to eat fish. But I don't now. 

Trout have extraordinarily sensitive mouths, way more sensitive than humans. They live through their mouths - feeling their food and picking out what they want. So imagine the pain - yes fish have pain studies show - of getting a lure hooked into your lips and then because you have a bony structure and the hook cannot just pull out, you are forced to fight for your life, getting pulled all over the place by hook in the most sensitive part of your body. Projecting? You bet. Fish have feelings. So do birds. 

The antiquated and unsophisticated philosophy of Descarte and Bacon which founded our ridiculous notions that animals could not feel is as old, as it is...well old. 

Anyway, back to Grace.

Here are some current shots of her....showing off her impressive beauty, and that of the Deschutes River. 

Enjoy