After winter past and the snow melted, the birds which survived didn`t had problems in searching for food. In March-April we received fewer phone calls than in the previous period. A total of 15 bird lovers from 9 localities asked for our help to treat the weakened or injured birds found by them. The number of injured birds was much higher than the number of weakened ones.
Besides the birds we had from the beginning of the period (3 Common Buzzards, 1 Saker Falcon, 1 Sparrowhawk) in March and April 11 more birds arrived to the Rehabilitation Centre, of which 4 were released and 4 perished. There were 6 surgical interventions (two wing fractures and four leg fractures).
At the end of the period we had 8 birds: 1 Saker Falcon, 2 Common Buzzards, 1 Little Owl, 1 Sparowhawk, 2 Common Kestrels and 1 Tawny Owl.
The following bird species were treated in March and April 2012:
- Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) – 6 individuals
- Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) – 2 individuals
- Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) – 1 individual
- Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) – 3 individuals
- Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) – 1 individual
- Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) – 1 individual
- Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) – 1 individual
- Little Owl (Athene noctua) – 1 individual
- Scops Owl (Otus scops) – 1 individual
The case of March
On 19.03.2012 a Common Buzzard was brought from Oradea to the centre, which was diagnosed with a leg fracture. However, we didn`t observe anything unusual in the way it moved. After it regained its powers, a surgical intervention convinced us that there was a fraction indeed, which had already healed by the time the bird arrived to us, so we released it on 06.05.2012. We present this case to draw attention to the fast healing ability of birds.
The case of April
On 23.04.2012 Alina Balci called us from Bucharest, saying that a small-sized owl she found had injuries and it couldn’t fly. With the help of the colleagues from the Romanian Ornithological Society, the bird (a Scops Owl) arrived to the Rehabilitation Centre on 26.04.2012. We realised that it had a few lesions around its eyes and wings, but after two days we released it. This is an interesting case because Scops Owl is a migrating species, spending the winter in Africa and it is hard to observe during its spring migration. This was the first Scops Owl in our Rehabilitation Centre.
We would like to thank those who asked for our help and special thanks to veterinarian Levente Borka for his fast and invaluable help.
In the name of the Rehabilitation Centre,
Róbert Zeitz