Meet Windham!
by Bren Lundborg
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Windham, covered in oil and struggling to stand before her first bath. |
The next morning, although she was standing, she was shaking and weak, clearly struggling to keep herself up. Most of her toes curled underfoot. This indicated to rehabilitation staff that she likely had some neurological damage, which may have several potential causes. She may have ingested some of the oil and been suffering from toxicity. The wounds around her pelvis were in the area where nerves from the spinal cord branch out to the legs, and may also have been causing limb issues. To complicate matters, Cooper’s hawks often fly into windows while chasing other birds, so Windham may also have had some previous head or spinal trauma that had led to her current condition. Over the next 10 days, she continued to receive supportive care, including fluids, pain medications and antibiotics for her wounds, as well as twice-daily hand feedings until she began eating on her own. During that time, it took two more baths to get her clean, and several more sessions of cleaning and removing dead tissue from her wounds to allow them to heal quickly and properly. After five days of care, she was standing on her own, but her foot posture was still not improving. We taped flat “shoes” to her feet and began physical therapy to help improve her posture and foot use.
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Windham being bathed. Several tubs of soap and rinses were used to get rid of the oil.
The hood over her eyes serves to reduce stress during these procedures.
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“Awesome!” I responded (again, this is normally a very bad thing). It was not a powerful grab, and my coworker was unharmed, but the incident showed that Windham’s strength was improving. After almost a month of physical therapy, her feet were finally strong enough to end physical therapy.
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Windham clean and dry after several days of care. |
Unfortunately, when we brought Windham out to the flight cage, the results were very disappointing. She was only able to glide down from her perch and was not able to get any lift when leaving the ground. It seemed that her neurological damage had also affected her wings. She was unable to extend her wings fully, and even after a long period of rehabilitation and continued exercise, she never regained the ability to fly well. Additionally, we suspected because of her behavior she had some persistent brain damage. A falconer I know aptly described Cooper’s hawks as “bonkers”, as they will throw themselves into a wall or ceiling to try to get away as soon as they see you. However, Windham would sit still on her perch and allow staff to walk up and place food right on her feet. When Windham was stressed, her left foot would clench uncontrollably, a persistent neurological defect from her injuries. Because of these conditions, we made the decision that she was non-releasable.
Windham has now taken up residence for the winter in our broad-winged hawk enclosure. The broad-winged hawks spend the winter indoors because in the wild they would be wintering down in Central America. Windham settled down quickly, even eating on the first night in her strange new setting. She has undergone her first molt into adult plumage, and her eyes have begun to turn from their juvenile yellow color to the fierce red of a mature Cooper’s hawk. While we also have a male Cooper’s hawk, we cannot house them together for the male’s safety. Windham is over one-and-a-half times his size, and females have evolved to hunt birds that are often similar in size to male Cooper’s hawks. In the wild, males must approach females cautiously, and may often present them with a gift of food and wait for them to accept it before coming near. Life is dangerous for Cooper’s hawks, male and female alike, and while Windham may not return to her wild lifestyle, she will continue to inspire and educate people for years to come.