Around January 22, 2025, a beautiful little falcon appeared, hanging around Jess' garage in Devola, Ohio. The bird couldn't fly much at all, but it managed to get atop a lawnchair, where it would perch, looking out at the wide fields stretching to the Muskingum River. At one point, Jess found it hiding in her garage. This went on for a few days. Jess knew something was wrong, so she asked her bird-loving friend Shelley what to do, and Shelley led her to me.
I went over, armed with leather gloves, a butterfly net, and a cat carrier, and swiftly had the female American kestrel in hand. A quick check revealed no broken bones, but she was flightless, so I looked closer and found some matted feathers and abrasions on the underside of her right wing. It turned out they were rakes in the flesh of the biceps and triceps, which would certainly impede flight. I put a snap-trapped mouse in the carrier with her and headed northwest, for Coshocton, where Airmid Place, a new home rehab center, is located. It was almost a two-hour drive. She was well worth it. A quick dropoff and turnaround and I was headed home again, a day spent for a good bird. She had eaten half the mouse by the time we got to Coshocton. That was a great sign! I could only imagine how hungry she was, after several days of immobility in the intense cold.
I was delighted to learn from Shane Pyle, proprietor, that her prognosis was excellent. He put her on antibiotics and pain medications and wrapped the injured wing.
The weeks ticked by and the kestrel's wing healed, was unwrapped, and she was transferred to a flight aviary to build her strength back. Finally I got a text from Shane that she'd be ready to go on Saturday, March 8. This time he met me halfway, for which I was grateful.
This little lady came in at 97 gm, and was going home at 118 gm. Shane said that he has to keep kestrels under about 130 gm or they'll be too fat to fly. I thought about my bats, Stella and Mirabel, who got too fat to fly, and what it took to get the weight off them and get them flying right. I never got a bat too fat again.
He loves kestrels and said it was an honor to keep her while she healed. I felt the same about being her driver! Driving Miss Weezie. (I named her in honor of my friend
Matt Mullenix's mother, a fiery and brilliant Louisiana lady-in-the-truest-sense who passed away in late February). Like a beautiful little bird, she is. And Matt is a world-renowned expert on falconry with the American kestrel. So.
I drove along the Muskingum, through the floodplain farm fields, past the old, old homes.
We got to Jess' home just before 11AM (not bad for leaving the house at 9!) She had assembled a nice little gaggle of excited kids who were waiting to see the release of the famous falcon.
Way back when I was a young rehabber a crowd like this crowding around a wild bird would have rattled me. Now I say, "Give the kids a look!" A small price for the kestrel to pay to get back her soundness and her life, and you never know whose life direction it might change.
Please pardon my release technique. I should have taken the carrier apart, in retrospect, and let her launch out of the top. Instead I had to clumsily dump her out. She didn't want to leave the safety of the dark carrier and kept scuttling way to the back when I tried to get her out. Who can blame her?
Real-time video by Jessica Black.
And now for the slow-motion video by Shila Wilson!
She circled three times and fetched up in a distant treeline, the lone tree on the right. Her flight was strong and beautiful. Weezie perched up there for about 15 minutes, surveying the fields she knows so well. Then, when we weren't watching, she vanished into the clear blue.
Here are some stills from Shila's video. Oh, is she lovely!
See ya! Thanks for the mice and the rides!
Deepest gratitude to Shane for healing, feeding and exercising this little jewel since late January, that she may arrow through the Devola skies again! If you'd like to contribute, here's
Airmid Place's website. Be sure to say it's for the kestrel!
0 comments:
Post a Comment