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Just prior to this first shot she’d been facing to my left but here she glanced back at the base of the outhouse.<\/p>\n
It almost looks like she has a crossed bill but she doesn’t. In other shots of her I could see that she had lots of blood and vole bits on the left side of her bill and that’s what we’re seeing here. Thankfully she’s apparently eating well.<\/p>\n
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I could tell from her demeanor that she’d probably spotted potential prey so my burst began with this photo. Her injured leg\/foot is her left one. All we can see of that foot here is the talon on her hallux (rear toe). Keep an eye on her left foot and hallux as we progress through the series. I think how she uses and doesn’t use them prior to and during takeoff is relevant to her injury.<\/p>\n
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Notice that as she turned her body to face the vole she kept her feet in place which resulted in a cross-legged posture that she…<\/p>\n
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maintained even after…<\/p>\n
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she had turned…<\/p>\n
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almost…<\/p>\n
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180\u00b0.<\/p>\n
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Have you been noticing that she kept the tip of her left hallux talon off of the perch throughout the process? In a few photos it was close to touching the perch but I don’t believe it ever actually did. Even in this shot where she’d raised her uninjured foot and had most of her weight on the front three toes of her injured foot she kept her hallux entirely off of the perch.<\/p>\n
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Finally, she’s ready to take off after the vole. Here she’s about to push off with both her uninjured right leg and the front three toes of her injured left foot\/leg.<\/p>\n
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Airborne.<\/p>\n
I can’t be sure but I believe she captured the vole at the base of the outhouse. When she landed in a nearby tree, presumably with the vole, she landed on a branch that was largely hidden by the tree’s central trunk so I couldn’t see her very well. She struggled with her wings quite a bit while she was landing but that makes sense. Imagine using your only good foot to grasp the vole while trying to land.<\/p>\n
A few of my own observations that may or may not be accurate or even relevant:<\/p>\n
- \n
- It may seem like it took her a long time to take off but remember it took less than 2 seconds. I believe her hesitancy was due to two things – her injury made her awkward and a little slower than usual and the vole was probably only visible part of the time (lots of vegetation at the base of the outhouse) so she may have been trying to decide if it was worth it to make the attempt.<\/li>\n
- Based on this series I’m beginning to believe that the injury may be to the hallux on her left foot rather than to her leg.<\/li>\n
- Compared to my initial observations of her I believe her injury has improved noticeably but to what degree is one of my two primary questions. The first time I photographed her she couldn’t put any weight on her left foot – none at all. The other question is – will she ever heal completely? I have my doubts but I’m no expert.\u00a0 According to feedback from several very experienced rehabbers the eventual development of bumblefoot<\/a><\/span><\/span> on her good foot is the big worry but apparently it hasn’t developed yet and I don’t know how long it usually takes.<\/li>\n
- Here’s the relevant timeline: I first documented her injury on December 8 but she’d been seen capturing voles despite her obviously injured foot\/leg for at least a week prior to that. Here’s the link to my original blog post about this injured red-tail<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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At the beginning of this marathon post I suggested that I might have a possible explanation for how she was injured.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nReaders will likely remember that last month I documented a vicious 13 minute fight between two red-tailed hawks. The fight occurred on November 5 and the combatants were two immature red-tails (both had light colored eyes). The hawk with the injured leg is also an immature bird and the fight occurred in the same general area where the injured hawk has been seen many times in recent weeks by myself and others.<\/p>\n
During that 13 minute fight, in the air and on the ground, the weapon of choice for both birds was their talons rather than their beaks. So I really have to wonder if the injured hawk was one of the two birds in the fight and that’s how the injury occurred.<\/p>\n
It goes without saying that many other explanations are possible but stranger things have happened than me photographing the fight that caused the injury and then photographing the injured bird in the same area weeks later.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Note: Here’s the links to my two posts documenting the fight – Part I<\/a><\/span><\/span> and Part 2<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Plus a possible explanation for how she was injured.<\/p>\n
- Here’s the relevant timeline: I first documented her injury on December 8 but she’d been seen capturing voles despite her obviously injured foot\/leg for at least a week prior to that. Here’s the link to my original blog post about this injured red-tail<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n