In the past month, we have had an influx of juvenile raptors here at the VINS rehabilitation center, and I wanted to share some snapshots!
The two youngsters to the left came in to VINS together after their nest was cut down by an unsuspecting logger. The kind man was very surprised by what came down with the tree he was working on and got the three nest mates to help very quickly. Unfortunately the tree landed on one of the young broad-winged hawks and caused spinal damage too severe to save the bird. These two, however are looking great and with a few more weeks of care should be ready to go back to the wild.
The fierce-looking bird to the right is a juvenile northern goshawk who came in after being found in a yard. Goshawks are accipiters, or bird-chasing hawks, who are built for speed! This little guy was probably chasing lunch and crashed into a window or the side of a building and was stunned. This type of hawk is also notoriously high-strung in captivity, so we are trying to speed his recovery along to get him back out in the wild as soon as possible.
We are also currently housing two juvenile American kestrels. One of the kestrels, a male, is looking great, you can see him below in his outdoor enclosure, working on his flight muscles and re-adjusting to the Vermont weather.
Pretty soon he should be back on the wing chasing birds and bugs for his dinner!
Here at VINS we care for about 500 injured and orphaned birds each year, and these are only a few of the over 230 we have treated in 2011 alone. If you want to find out how you can help up take care of these youngsters, as well as the other hundreds of birds we will treat, visit www.vinsweb.org or come visit us for more information!