It was near the end of March and I was heading to Penny’s (the rehabber) house in south St. Pete to pick up some osprey. I got into a little traffic jam waiting for peacocks to cross the street before her house. These birds are everywhere now.
Heading back to Tampa, it looked like I was going to be driving through a storm.
I made it to the Raptor Center with 2 osprey that were going to be released. They had come in injured and both were going home. I didn’t even open the boxes to get a pic. Someone else was picking them up from the Raptor Center and taking them to central Florida (near Lakeland) to be released.
A few days later I got the text that there was a baby duck that had been brought into the emergency vet office. I picked it up along with the screech owl below that had been brought in and drove them to the Raptor Center in Brandon.
Nancy was checking the owl’s crop to see how skinny it was. It was pretty malnourished but should be okay once she got it eating again.
April started off with me picking up a tiny baby blue jay at the emergency vet and taking it to the Raptor Center. What a mouth!
Later that week I took a barred owl with an injured eye and a screech owl with an injured nose from the Raptor Center to Moccasin Lake Nature Park where another rehabber works out of. Barbara was going to take the barred owl to a vet that works with wildlife the next day. They wanted to make sure his eye would be okay long term. The screech owl was going to rehab at the park where other injured screech owls were living.
Moccasin Lake Park has a raptor sanctuary where permanently injured birds reside. While I was there I was able to spend some time in the hospital room. This little screech owl had the cutest little hum.
This red shoulder hawk had an injured eye and feet. He had just come back from the vet. He was going to be getting well here at the hospital.
The park also has some great hiking trails and a turtle pond. It’s a little bit of nature in the middle of Clearwater and right off of a busy road.
Wild peacocks roam the park here as well and this guy was admiring himself in someone’s bumper.
Some of the permanently injured birds here include a kestral and a swallow tail kite.
The above eagle is missing any eye so he’s always looking to one side.
These two live here. One is blind in one eye and the other is missing a wing. You can hear them having a conversation with the volunteer.
I stopped by the nearby Safety Harbor fishing pier before heading home. It was a beautiful afternoon and not hot yet.
A few days later the barred owl with the injured eye made the trip back to the Raptor Center. The vet had cleared his eye and after a few more days of Nancy putting drops in it the owl will be released.
