Over the last few weeks, we’ve received our first swan patients of the season! During the summer we typically admit a few cygnets, but adult swans don’t seem to come in until migration starts. Over the winter we’ll see anywhere from a few to as many as 20 adult Trumpeter Swans come into WRC.

The adult (white, left) has a fractured wing due to a gunshot and low-level lead poisoning.  The juvenile (grey, right) is thought to have accidentally flown into a building and has bilateral shoulder fractures.  Read all about the adult swan’s story in our new Case Studies web page!

Remember the post from a week ago about the leucistic nighthawks we admitted? (scroll down for post) Turns out that they were actually Sennett’s nighthawks: a subspecies of the Common Nighthawk uncommonly found in this region. Many thanks to Bob Russell of USFWS for the heads-up in identifying the birds.

In fact, when I took the one specimen we had over to the UMN’s ecology building for their scientific collection, I learned that it’s most likely the only Sennett’s specimen that the UMN has; and their collection is from around the world dating back to the early 1870s!

Here’s Jennifer Menken of the UMN’s Bell Museum with the nighthawk specimen drawer:

The bird will be tagged showing when and where it was found (Springfield, Minn.), its sex, contents of its stomach and all sorts of other fascinating info:

As an organization we’re fortunate to be a part of the “big picture” and to help scientists record species and conduct studies on the specimens we salvage. Although this bird died, the wealth of information it will provide to scientists will live on for generations. NOTE: this Sennett’s died from seizures, the other needed to be euthanized due to severe fractures. We do not ever euthanize an animal purely for specimen purposes.

And, for those of you who have never seen a nighthawk fly, here’s a video of a release from a couple weeks ago by our Avian Nursery Coordinator Jessika Madison-Kennedy.

We see quite a few leucistic birds at WRC. These are birds that have either a paler overall coloring than typical of the species, or that have what is oftentimes mistakenly called “partial-albinism.” So, a robin with a white head, or a mallard with white wings.

Leucism is a genetic condition, much like albinism, the difference being that a true albino will have absolutely no pigments, whereas leucistic animals have some coloration somewhere on their bodies, in the case of all white birds it’s usually their legs, beak and eyes.

We had not one, but two leucistic Common Nighthawks come through WRC this fall. Amazing. The overall pale coloration gives us a chance to see the incredible detailing in their feathers:

The back view shows that the bird still retains normal coloration on its tail:

Many thanks to vet Leslie Reed for taking such detailed photos!