Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Oakland-ish
Posts: 6032

I don't know what it is but all my life I have taken care of birds in need.

I would guess, that so far i have seen to about 20-30 birds. birds that fly into windows, that get caught by a cat, that are poisoned and left to die. some i have nursed back to health, others have not made it. a bird once flew into my aprtment and i caught it and set it free and i will never forget the feeling of this tiny bird taking flight from my hands, the tickle of feathers against skin. I have dreamed of birds and i have one dream that was so vivid in terms of color and imagery that i will share it with no one, it is sort of a sacred dream i guess.

i have no special feeling for birds, as in i am particularly fond of them so that would explain my connection. I just know that they come to me, or i come to them when they are in need.

some notable birds were the red tailed hawk that i rescued at the age of 7 or so, it had a damaged wing and could not fly more than a few feet. i named him Goblin and my father built him a cage and he stayed with me until he died, maybe about a year. i think it was too much for him to be lame and cooped up in a cage, although i set him free from time to time and fed him bits of raw meat.

about 8 years ago i helped relocate a canada goose and her babies. i watched them jump off a two storey building and hit the pavement and toddle off. of course there was no where but more pavement for them to toddle to so my boyfriend and i loaded them up and drove them to a park.

yesterday i was driving home from a visit with my father over in eastern BC. i was in a desert type area near Osoyoos, and i was rounding a turn on the highway when something caught my eye...a bird, flopping on the center of the highway. i drove about a quarter mile before i had a spot where i could pull over and turn around, then i went back and went to see the bird. he was still on the highway and trying to get off, fluttering helplessly. as i bent down to pick him up he got scared and opened his beak like he was going to bite me, but he didn't and i scooped him up and took him to the roadside. i got a cardboard box out of the van (my dad had given me a few boxes of books, i dumped them on the seat) and i put the bird inside. I drove towards town trying to figure out what to do with him. it was past 6 so i figured it was going to be hard to find anything open in a small town, let alone a place to take an injured bird.

I decided to go to the RCMP station and was fortunate enough to talk to a young officer, Clint, who was quite willing to take the bird and get it some help. i knew of a wildlife care facility here in vancouver, but that was hours away and i didn't think he would make it. also didn't want to take him out of his habitat.

Clint and I checked over the bird, saw a bit of blood, but he looked fine other than the wing. we both figured he was a hawk. it was small and fit easily into my hands. Clint got my name and number and promised to let me know how it worked out.

He phoned tonight. he had taken the bird to an owl rehab hospital, and they checked it over and found its wing was damaged irrepairably where it joins the body. They decided to put it down.

it was an American Kestral, which is the smallest falcon. the one i found had red feathered spots near it's eyes. it was an amazing bird.

here is a pic of an american kestral




i am sorry the bird didn't make it, but i am not upset by it. i'm glad it wasn't squashed all over the pavement by a truck. I am happy that i got to hold it and look into its eyes so close up. i feel good that it lost its fear of me and let me help. i liked scooping it up and feeling its feathers and talking to it. and without making this too sappy, i'm just glad that it will be in my memories of this trip.

i sat for the whole week in my dad's den watching a pair of hummingbirds feed and play right outside the window. I saw a hawk land on a tree in the back yard. I watched an owl swoop down and grab a mouse off the highway on my way there in the middle of the night.

i sent an e-mail to a friend a few days ago and the subject was the title of this thread.

birds. i have a feeling that i will continue to meet a lot of them in my life.

Last edited by Inky on 05-25-2002 at 08:35 AM

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location: where the buses don't run
Posts: 1002

Yesterday when I got to work, I punched in, came back outside to head down to my building, and I saw this little bird sitting right by the door. I stood and looked at him for a while, and as I got closer to him, realized he couldn't fly yet. I went inside and told my mother and another one of my coworkers (who both have the same weakness for baby animals that I do and I knew they'd love to see it), and we came back outside and looked at it some more and talked to it. After about five minutes, we decided we had to get it out of the parking lot for obvious reasons. My other coworker tried to pick it up, and it started running on its little legs. We eventually chased it into the wilderness where it would be safe from cars and hopefully that stray cat that hangs around.

Such a small thing, but I was happy for the rest of the day.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Van Diemen's Land.
Posts: 3607

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 444

I once saved a bat.

I was at a hockey game (AHL's now-defunct Beast of New Haven), and a bat got inside and was flying back and forth. A janitor grabbed a broom and I saw him trying to swat the thing. Before I could say anything, he nailed it, and it crumpled to the floor. He raised his broom up to deliver the killing blow, and I intervened, quite vocally Im afraid. I ended up barking at the janitor and a few of the people who'd gathered to watch, got them to give me a cardboard box, and raced back home to my friend who was a vet's assistant. Being a late hour and all, all she could tell me was to take it to a shelter, which I did.

Compassion Punkte for j00, Gravity.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

The middle of the road is where i got my noisy and ornery housemate, Roadkill the bird. I've raised more baby birds than I can count. I like birds, yet I am also jealous of them cause the little bastards can fly.

-m

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sedona, Arizona
Posts: 18823

They are also known as Sparrow hawks although, as you said, they are in the falcon family.
About ten years ago, I was brought 5 baby kestrels that had been abandoned by their mother when the nest was accidently knocked down by some construction workers.
It was a busy summer keeping those monsters fed.
*snip out 20 paragraphs of descriptions of feeding every two hours and little bastards shitting on the walls, etc, etc*
I know what you felt regarding the release. Awesome watching them circle away.
They didn't go far though, the first month or so, they hung out and mooched food off of me. I would go out every day and they would start screaming at me as I released mice into the yard. None ever got away.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: library
Posts: 19562

Hahahahaha

wonderaz, that reminds me of 'bird'. Bird was a scrubjay that my brother found orphaned and lost and raised. At his adulthood release, he did the same, hung around the house mooching food. Thankfully he was only a jay so a peanut or a sunflower seed would suffice. Unfortunately he didn't discriminate in who he begged from, so visitors to the house would find themselves confronted by an agry seeming jaybird screaming at them when they approached the front. Beware of dog? No, beware the damn bird, he'll drive you apeshit till you cough up a cracker or something.

He had a very strange quirk that I didn't quite understand, an intense passion for cigarrete butts. After smoking one day, I crushed out my fag, tossed it in my can. I then observed Bird, alighting atop the can, retrieving the butt and leaving with it. I shortly realized that the can never got full. Shortly there after he became aggressive about it, snatching the butts from my hand before I could put them in the can and even trying to steal the ones I was still smoking. Picture a short, skinny long-haired teen and a scrub jay playing tug 'o' war with a lit cigarette, the teen cursing 'fucking bird, be patient!' and the bird screaming loudly it's displeasure at having its addiction denied.

Well after a while Bird wandered off, and we saw him no more, until one day he returned home. It appeared he'd been attacked by a cat, and was bleeding, missing a lot of feathers and couldn't fly.

We took bird back in, nursed him back to good health and when his feathers regrew(they regrew white!) we released him again. He continued to hang about the house for a few more months, and then disappeared again. I saw him once more about a year later, the large white patch on his wing making him easy to identify, I coaxed him close with a bread crust, but he'd been on his own long enough and was a feral creature. After that, I never saw him again.

-m

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Oakland-ish
Posts: 6032

cool stories fellas

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Registered: Dec 2001
Location:
Posts: 188

poo little birdy

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 5131

good thread guys

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Registered: Jun 2002
Location: Tulsa
Posts: 179

We have raised 8 bluejays, 4 sparrows, a martin, 2 quail, 4 parakeets, one sparrow hawk, and a squirrel.

Our first Sparrow was the most memorable and was even a feature story in the local newspaper. Other than the birdshit that we would have to clean up all over the house, it was a great experience. She loved landing in your hair of shoulder, but her favorite spot was on your extended finger, right by your mouth. If you would show her your teeth than she'd clean them for you!
Her only downfall was she liked being in the floor to tease the cats. Guess my brother didn't see her and she got stepped on! Sad day!

The quail that we nursed back to health was two that my dad had wounded on a recent hunting trip. Don't ask me why he didn't go ahead and kill them, he just didn't! Anyway, the parakeet that we had at the time loved bossing them around. If they didn't do what she wanted, she'd just bite their legs until they did!

The parakeet hated the sparrow hawk though! That hawk always had her in her sights! The little bitch never tried to boss the hawk.

Blue jays were probably the funniest. If we got them as babies, then they were real friendly. We could take them outside and let them fly for awhile. When they got tired, they'd come land on you shoulder and go back into the house with you.

Did I mention we had like 3 cats during this whole time. Although they watched the birds intently, we never lost one to a cat!

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: I don't fukn' know!
Posts: 5137

My mother used to tend blue bird boxes at one of the metro parks in columbus. What was required is to keep an eye on the boxes, and make sure that anything but a house finch nested in it. (boxes were designed for blue birds, which are moderatly endangered in ohio but other birds nested there as well).

House finches were brought over from england to make the white people feel more at home. They can (and do) nest anywhere and everywhere... as long as they have a hole big enough for them, they will nest there and breed. Blue birds nest in a pactictular kind of enviorment, a cavity around 4-7 feet off the ground, & has to be wood (won't nest in metal or plastic containers). The finches are one of the reasons that blue birds are endangered, because they take up their nest sites.

so

what my mom would do when she spotted a finch nesting in the box, is 1st she destroyed the nest. If that didn't deter them, she'd place a small trap inside the box, so when the finch went in the hole he'd lock himself in.

Then, she'd kill it.

House Finches are the only bird species I know of that you can kill like this. They are like piegons, only smaller.

She tried various methods that her other volunteers used. She tried putting them in plastic bags to suffocate them. The little bastards would appear dead, but then she'd open the bag and they'd fly away.

One guy she knew would just grab them and rip off their little heads. She wasn't comfortable with that.

So she'd let them starve to death in the little boxes. They have high metabolisms so that happened fairly quickly, she said.

ah the joy of species management

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Oakland-ish
Posts: 6032

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: Lat: 43° 42' 0 N, Long: 79° 34' 0 W
Posts: 2820

When I was about six, I found a robin's egg that fell out of a next. It wasn't cracked, so I put it in a box, and kept it close to me for about a week. My parents never realized what I was doing for the first little bit. Eventually, I guess they felt sorry for me, and they told me that the bird was dead inside. I was not a happy camper.

I guess where I'm located, very rarely do I get "close" to nature. In both Toronto and K-town I get to see a lot of squirrels. Toronto has raccoons and skunks, K-town has a ton of stray cats. I'm guessing that there are two reasons for this. 1. Cats escape student houses, never to be found again. 2. the Ghetto has more food/garbage laying around than most other places.

There was a big grey cat that was particularly friendly, and didn't seem to have fleas, although it was somewhat dirty. I let it into my house. I had a hell of a time getting it out again!

My friend and I once saw a pigeon that appeared to be hurt. We watched it for about... god... fifteen minutes. We asked people what they thought... but nobody knew what to tell us. We were about to go across the street to a hotel to get a box to "save" it, when it suddenly flew onto the restaurant door, and just sat there... almost falling off... neck turned to face us. We felt a bit stupid when we realized it was actually fine... Sometimes being a useless good sumaritan can be, uh, useless.

At least it's a good memory

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: California
Posts: 4252

Inky, The Kestrel is my favorite bird.

We have them here in the desert. I rescued a baby raven last year and my niece put it in her aviary until it could fly. It still hangs out at their house.

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 17889

I spotted a kestral when I was working in Dallas near the Trinity River bottoms. Dad said they're not too common. Out at his place on the Brazos there are a ton of red-tails and periodically a bald eagle or two. He could tell you more about that. He keeps field guides and binoculars at the ready all the time.

He should also tell about his pet red-tail sometime.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location:
Posts: 5131

My grandma used to make hummingbird pie.
I think it was really mincemeat.
nevermind.....

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: California
Posts: 4252

quote:

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Originally posted by BnB
My grandma used to make hummingbird pie.
I think it was really mincemeat.
nevermind.....

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Beyond Mason-Dixon Line
Posts: 16165

quote:

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Originally posted by Dog Breath
Mincemeat is made from humming birds, why do you think it tastes like humming birds?

I suppose someone told you Catsup is made from tomatoes too!

Pfft!

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: MadCo
Posts: 1801

*whew* I thought this was a new variant on 'Unicorn Heart.'

Thanks God

Melesse

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