Tuft's & tail-less squirrels.

The big fat squirrel with the injured tail is doing just fine! His tail looks better with each day. Today, it took me a minute to distinguish between him with his newly shortened tail, and that of one of our tangle-tail gang that was released this past summer with an equally shortened tail..... its not as bloody and swollen at the end anymore like it was here.

This lucky screech regained it's freedom Wednesday night. It was found in a fireplace a couple weeks back and Mary got it to Tufts. Aside from being a little starved and dehydrated, it was fine. Tufts fattened it up and Mary and I drove out to the neighborhood it was found in and it ever so silently disappeared into the night.

After releasing the screech we promptly headed out to Tufts again.....this time with a red tail rescued by Maureen on the MBTA tracks in Billerica. She didn't fare so well unfortunately. The right wing and both legs broken in several places, along with wounds on the abdomen and feet left no alternative but for them to euthanize it. It's a pretty good guess it was probably hit by the train while hunting in the open area of the tracks.

On a more positive note....our barred owl from Bedford is still doing well. I checked in on him after our annual WRAM conference at Tufts last Saturday. As I said before the humerus was fractured and pinned, but it turns out the radius was also broken (now splinted) and the shoulder injured. He'll be recovering for a while from those injuries, but should do fine. We'll know more after the pins and splints come off and we see how well he is able to fly.

The excessive snow this season is taking it's toll on the hawks and especially the owls. They are not finding enough prey and as a result they are starving and freezing.....and a little more careless when chasing what little prey they do find across roads! Tufts is overrun with them! It's like baby season up there instead of the off season! We've managed to squeeze a few very balmy days out of mother nature over these last couple weeks....a lot of snow has melted and more critters are re-emerging to take advantage of it. Lets hope it's enough to give the owl's a reprieve and get them through the rest of the winter!