I got Hazel out of the mews this morning to weigh her and she kept closing one eye. No, she wasn't winking at me in some strange kestrel mating ritual. She kept moving her head to the side and shrugging her wing like she was trying to wipe her eye. She also stuck her tongue out as if she wanted to lick her eye clear. The closing of the eye wasn't a blink, it was more like a slow closing almost like it was involuntary. I put her away for the day and checked on her when I got home and she was still doing the one eye thing. Not as bad as in the morning and she'd keep it open when she was actively looking at something. But when she relaxed, her eye would slowly close up again. My only guess is that she banged her eye last night while thrashing around in her mews. She still does that. I think it's because the light bulb throws light outside the mews and she can see through the bars to where it's lit up and wants to get there. So tonight I draped a dark cloth over the bars and she's much calmer than she's been before. My sponsor tends to agree with me on the cause of the eye problem. In 50 years he hasn't had a bird with an eye problem like that so we'll just watch it for a few days and hope it clears up.
It must not be too bad a problem because she grabbed another baggie today without too much trouble. Her weight was a little high but I wanted her to get used to knowing that's her food source. Hopefully Friday she'll be at a better weight and her eye will be back to normal and we'll try another baggie.
Edit:
I just checked up on Hazel. She's banging against the door bars again. I think I'm going to have to just close off the opening so she's not distracted by something to latch on to.
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