Introducing Corvid Isle Sanctuary Residents
Jon Snow is an adult hooded crow. He came to us just recently in June 2024. Jon Snow is a wild local crow and the male partner of a local territory holding pair residing not far from our sanctuary. Jon Snow was most likely hit by a car on a single track road close to where we live. By chance, our neighbour discovered Jon Snow on the verge of the road and tried to secure him. Unfortunately, Jon Snow managed to escape despite being injured, bleeding and flightless. He disappeared and went into hiding into our local woods.
We thoroughly searched the area several times. However, we were unable to locate him. We knew that due to his severe injuries he might not survive for very long. At this time we could only hope that we would have a chance to catch him in time. Having said that, we were also certain that Jon Snow would stay in the area, nearby his family, which did visit us every morning to collect their food share from our wild bird feeders.
Three days later we eventually managed to locate and catch Jon Snow. We found that he had suffered an open comminuted fracture of his left wing. Unfortunately, the wound became infected and to make things worse he had also collected dozens of ticks around both of his eyes. Due to his wing injury, Jon Snow had no choice than to find shelter in high grass and underneath shrubs and bushes. That is where he most likely collected the large amount of ticks. It took several sessions to remove all of them, but Jon Snow was very trusting and compliant, and made it as easy as it could possibly get for us to treat him.
The wing fracture and joint infection took a while to heal, but eventually did so very well. Sadly, despite all efforts, Jon Snow is unreleasable due to a permanent nerve injury affecting his wing. Luckily, he has settled in very well into our communal mixed species aviary. To our surprise and joy, he formed an unexpected close interspecies friendship with another recent admission from earlier this year, an adult female jackdaw we had called Arya.
Amazingly, Jon Snow’s wild partner managed very well to get on with her parental duties. She successfully raised and supported all of their three youngsters. They have meanwhile joined a local group, which has made their home not far from us on local fields spending their nights in the tall pine trees of our local woods. To our delight, the group does visit us regularly, which allows us to remain part of their lives too.
Support our Corvid Isle Sanctuary
Corvid Isle is a small non-for-profit organisation and corvid sanctuary (License Number MAU 016710) based in the Scottish Highlands. We are entirely self-funded and are relying on the kind support from members of the public. Please follow the links below to find out how you can support us. Thank you.