Spoonbill Injury Update!

Well…we went over to the salt marsh early this evening hoping the injured spoonbill might show up for low tide and he sure did!

The good news is that he seems to be doing well. He was actively feeding and flying as normal which was an encouraging sign.

The bad news is that he did suffer a significant gash on the front area of his neck but we’re hopeful it will heal and spoonie will be back to 100% soon.

It also appeared that he may have given himself a bit of a bath and washed some of the dried blood off his feathers which was also good too see.

We thought he looked great for all he must have been through and we will continue to stay on top of our pink friend’s progress!

Spoonbill Evening in the Salt Marsh

Spoonbill Evening in the Salt Marsh

Spoonbill Evening in the Salt Marsh

Spoonbill Evening in the Salt Marsh

Spoonbill Evening in the Salt Marsh

29 thoughts on “Spoonbill Injury Update!”

    • It is good news that he appears to be eating normally. That’s the real concern, if they can’t feed they get weak and then the end comes soon after.
      We can not figure out why no friends have arrived. This was the first July in five years we had no spoonbills at all and certainly in August there should be several. This whole year though has been very odd for wildlife in general here.

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    • We were happy he seemed to be rolling with it and going about his regular routine. We suspect he got into an argument with another bird and my first inclination would be to blame a blue heron.

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    • Thanks very much for checking in on the update. We will likely head over later to see if he is still around and hope he is still active and is eating well. If he decides to leave we may never know.

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    • There was some consideration given to possible treatment from a bird rehab center but at this point he would be impossible to catch which in many ways is good news. We plan to look for him again later today.

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    • We saw him again this morning and he still looks active and alert. He took off while I was watching him and flew way far out in the salt marsh. Don’t think he would have done that if he was in a weakened state. Thunderstorms rolling through now and we wonder if this weather will send him off.
      My guess would be a blue heron got him but could have been almost anything I suppose.

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  13. Could have been another bird such as a heron absolutely. But, the spoonie seems to be taking it in stride. A few years ago there was an injured Great Blue Heron I saw at our local rookery. It appeared to have a hole up high in its neck from which something that looked like the tongue hung out. It was disturbing to see and with the aggressive feeding behavior, I’d wondered if it was injured by its own chicks. But, I don’t really know and didn’t see the same bird the following year that I could recognize. Like your spoonbill, it just did continue on getting fish and feeding young and doing what it needed to do despite the wound.

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  14. Hey Phil,
    So glad to hear of “Spoonie’s” progress. Thanks for the updates… lots of people are wishing him all the best and he seems to be well on his way. BTW, I love that last photo in this series, Phil! It is truly outstanding the way the vibrant pink stands out from the beautiful shades of green! Excellent photo! Would you mind sharing your camera settings on that one?
    Cheers,
    Mick

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  15. Great to hear the Spoonie’s progress and that he is doing ok. I wonder what happened??? The point is he is eating and flying which means that hes progressing ok, and hope that he gets better and better, too bad you cant catch him and help him, but I know thats impossible….keep us updated, it is disturbing that the one spoonie that did come got hurt……maybe more will be on their way, or, they just went somewhere else…Beautiful pictures of him..

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