After a few exhausting days of vet visits, leg checks, and bandage changes, we are spending some time enjoying the sun and a bath in between PT sessions and lots of rest. In a week or so we'll have a better idea how his bones are healing. 🪶 #wildliferehab

I've had to be creative with enrichment for this crane, who has to spend a lot of time prone while recovering from surgery. On top of more typical options, I let him watch Norwegian slow TV today which he seemed to enjoy. He can watch or not and chose to watch, so apparently its crane-approved. 📺

Crane #6, a colt who survived being hit by a car and multiple surgeries, is now with us for PT and recovery. The resiliency of these young birds is astounding. Let's see if we can get you walking again!

𓅥 Ctrl+C 𓅥 Ctrl+V Ctrl+V Ctrl+V Stiltchild & Co.

When you accidently use the Hose of Summoning while trying to do chores. ✨️The Hose of Summoning✨️ (Common Wondrous Item) This battered garden hose hums with faint chaos energy. Casts Summon Emu. Roll d20 to determine # of emus that instantly materialize into the middle of whatever you are doing.

Burdock patrol 🐐

To continue with the 'perfectly normal days' theme of this week, I have reached the peak Conservation Cryptid status of my career. A feature of Uglymom and our work with sandhill cranes in Popsci! www.popsci.com/environment/...

Costumed ‘Ugly Mom’ helps orphaned sandhill cranes

Puppets, mirrors, and elaborate costumes all help keep orphaned birds from getting attached to humans.

popsci.com

Sometimes you have a normal day. Sometimes you have an 'explaining to an orthopedic surgeon what a chicken diaper is and how to make one for a prone crane post-leg surgery to keep it clean' kind of day. (Photos courtesy of RPAW and Dr. Jess of a poor hit-by-car kid who will soon be here for care).

The wild turkey mob is growing so fast! When they're a bit older, more self sufficient and can be released, local wild moms adopt them. We can't let them try when chicks are younger since one mom can't take care of so many babies at once, but they're happy to take the teens and show them the ropes

Crane colts go through a lot of funny growth spurts as they rapidly go from teeny to tall in a matter of months. Our littlest chick is rocking some funny 'ear hair' today as real head feathers start to replace fluffy baby down. Its feet are about two sizes too big today, too. 🪶

Crane #4 was found wandering through suburban yards, visiting homes and incessantly calling for its parents. Extensive searches to find the family failed, and since the bird kept wandering into busy roads and won't make it alone at this age, it was brought to us for rehabilitation and release. 🪶

For more than a decade we've been at major war with burdock in our pastures. It's a horrible, horrible plant. We finally caved and borrowed goats from a friend. I don't want goats (they can get out of everything) but am desperate. They certainly do an impressive job on the weeds!

Tried to get a nice photo of some of our new peachicks, but got photobombed by geese. It's always the geese or the turkeys, if I crouch down with a camera they materialize out of nowhere to take up the frame.

In case your day needs a little break to watch a crane drinking water, looking exactly like a dunking/drinking bird toy, Stiltchild's got you covered. 🪶

Mbala, watching our farm get progressively taken over by cranes while he tries to assemble massive aviaries (where we could really use the other kind of crane).

Twonks@twonks.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Cranes

This noodle of a dog, he has such a hard life. Knows no comfort, poor thing.

Stiltchild and Crane #3 are giant already, starting to look like actual birds (as opposed to a randomly assembled collection of birdish parts) 🪶

🦈 Chomp! Emus knock giant inflatable shark sprinkler onto unsuspecting ducklings. Emus unrepentant. (Don't worry, no ducklings were harmed!)

Newest crane enjoying a bath! 🪶

Could your Sunday use more emus in it? Enjoy the utter chaos of giant birds playing in a shark sprinkler, come join our livestream! 🪶 twitch.tv/thefoxloft

It's a good thing we finally got a trailer to haul the peacocks.

Orphan crane #3 joined us today. It's severely malnourished and underweight from having been alone for at least two weeks (cranes are basically glued to their parents' sides for the first nine+ months, never on their own). We will see what we can do to get it back on track!

This is what happens when you choose the ‘budget-friendly’ lawn service. He had eggcellent references. I remain dubious.

From when we arrived to today, we're doing so much better now! So much more robust and active, starting to grow like a weed after a super rough start. (Bonus, hazards of working here include regular bathroom rerouting since sometimes it's bathroom eagles, sometimes it's bathroom cranebabies.)

The original Stiltchild: Gangly? Yes. Graceful? Not yet. Tall? By lunchtime. An inch a day growth rate is crazy to witness, every time I look there's more feathers, more leg, more bird. 🪶

How was your weekend? Here, "Let's get dressed up for Saturday night" means pretending to be a 6-foot bird so an orphaned baby doesn’t imprint on humans. Just normal weekend stuff. (Uglymom glow up! Equally as sweltering when slogging in 110 degree heat index, but better than a torn bedsheet) 🪶

Working to stabilize this teeny tiny crane colt (just hatched, the size of a small apple) sent to us for care from the big center in the cities. Cranes are very dedicated, loving parents so orphans are quite rare, but we're now the only place in state taking them so tis very busy crane-time. 🪶

Yolo the baby king vulture has the cutest freckles going on. 🪶 It takes king vultures 5-6 years to go from baby to full color glow-up, and during that time there's a constant transition of in between stages. Its so fun to see him evolve!

Those little chicken wing nubs have a long way to go before they're a 7 foot wingspan ready for migration 🪶 Learn more about the story of Stiltchild and Ugly Mom! www.patreon.com/foxfeather/p...

Thank you to everyone who has sent items from our Wildlife Wishlist for Stiltchild, our mini armada of wild turkey poults, and other birds coming in for care! 🎁 Many items are on sale today if you're so inclined to send a gift to the birds 🪶 : www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/...