We have had some new patients admitted to our center recently: a little screech owl who was hit by a car and sustained severe trauma to his right eye. Unfortunately the eye could not be saved, but he seems to be adapting to this disability quite well. He is now hunting live prey and we hope to release him back into the wilds very soon.
We recently admitted an adult turkey vulture who was also hit by a car which caused trauma to her right wrist area. She was very thin and weak when brought to Wings of Wonder. The exam revealed no fractures so we suspected she had either a sprain or pulled tendons to that wrist. She recovered nicely, gained plenty of weight with her free meals offered daily and was released back into the wild on May 9th. She flew off and soared above the Wings of Wonder flight pens for quite some time before heading off. We like to believe she was "thanking" us for helping her out and showing us just how strong and healthy she was. She was a sweet patient and we wish her well with this much deserved return to freedom. In March we admitted an adult Bald Eagle from the Wexford County Landfill. This eagle was sick, her feet were covered with hard crusty black "gunk" and she had multiple wounds on both feet. She recovered from her illness and after repeated foot soaks and foot bandaging we were finally able to remove the black gunk. Some of her foot wounds did become infected which required rounds of antibiotics and daily foot soaks and medical treatments. The infections have now cleared up and her feet are looking so much better. This eagle was banded by the US Fish & Wildlife Service when she was a young chick. I ran a trace on her band numbers and learned that she was hatched in Michigan 12 years ago. She has a previous injury to her right eye, which is totally blind. This gal has certainly tangled with much in her 12 years of life. We hope to schedule her release within the next 4-6 weeks so stay tuned if you wish to attend this great event!
On April 12th we released a beautiful Great Horned Owl into the woods near Omena, Michigan. This owl was found alongside the road and most likely had been hit by a car during the night or early morning hours. The collision had left the owl with a serious head injury. His rehabilitation at Wings of Wonder went smoothly and before too long he was ready to go back home. The following pictures were taken by Meggen Watt during the release.
Several of our education ambassador raptors are busy fostering orphaned babies. Sage, our older Great Horned Owl is fostering 2 chicks and our screech owls Gilda and Arlo are fostering 3 little babies. The little American kestrel admitted to "WOW" last august is recovering nicely. He had flown over the methane burner at Glens Land Fill near Maple City. The flame had completely burned off all of his wing and tail feathers. He is now beginning his molt to replace these damaged feathers. If all goes well we hope to release him sometime this summer.
As always I give huge thanks to each of you for your continued support and generosity.
We could not continue this work without your commitment to WOW.
Let the journey continue..........forever onward!
Rebecca, Thank you for all you and your husband do. It was such an honor to have spend time with you. i am looking forward to learning more about rehabilitaiton and what I can do to help the raptors. I couldn't have asked for a better teacher. I wanted to thank you so much for everything you do and to let you know how much you have inspired me. God Bless
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