Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnewsk!king
From: king@cbnewsk.ATT.COM (joyce.l.king)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Great Horned Owl
Summary: starvation
Message-ID: <1216@cbnewsk.ATT.COM>
Date: 17 Oct 89 12:50:31 GMT
References: <1812@pbhyg.PacBell.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 50

In article <1812@pbhyg.PacBell.COM>, ead@PacBell.COM (Elizabeth A. Dykstra) writes:
> I had an experience last weekend that I would like to share with the net.
> 
> The happy ending to the story is that another Great Horned Owl residing at the
> reserve with severe feather damage will be receiving feather grafts from Hooter
> to replace wing feathers.  This is not as generous as we at the time thought;
> the reserve is interested in not sustaining the cost of an entire year of care
> for the live owl, until he can undergo a normal moult.  With the feather graft,
> While we feel that we "did the right thing", I'm not so sure that this is not
> experimental, and more for the benefit of knowing about how grafting can work,
> and save boarding expenses, rather than to save the life of the owl.  (The
> 
> By the way, we were told that death by starvation is not at all unusual for
> these birds.  How very sad.

Feather grafting is called "imping" (I'm not sure of the spelling).  It is not
experimental.  They cut the shaft of the old feather and surgically glue the
donor feather inside.  The donor feather lasts until the molt, when the new
feather comes in to replace the old shaft.

Please understand that the cost of an entire year of care for the live owl is
a very real problem.  But most rehab centers would not release a bird until
they were SURE it had a very good chance.  They aren't in the business of 
rehabilitating birds and then letting them go off to die.

Yes, starvation is a very real problem.  Yesterday I fed a young peregrine
falcon that was found sitting in the bushes, obviously starved and worn
out from migration.  Can you imagine the thrill I felt when it grabbed at
the chicken meat in my tweezers?  He's doing very well, and will be held for
only as long as it takes to be sure he is well and can hunt.  He seems to be
in good shape otherwise...no broken bones.  His beak is good and strong...
witness the bandage on my thumb.  I got careless.

Starvation is our biggest problem at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation
Center.  We found out recently, at an oil spill readiness seminar in Orlando,
that we have a much bigger problem with starvation than other Florida rehab
centers.  We are sure the reason is artificial water management in the Ever- 
glades that is causing the salinity of Florida Bay to go up and down like a
yo-yo and killing off the small fish and crustaceans that grow up there.

Man will limit his greed for wealth, or nature will limit it for him.  I am
convinced that these birds that are starving, in Florida and in California
and everywhere else, are like the canaries that miners used to carry into the
mines to detect deadly gases.  They are an early warning system detecting a
lack of food.  We best heed the warning, or we are most certainly going to
face starvation ourselves.   

Here I go on my soap box again.

Joyce Andrews King (from the Florida Keys via modern communications)