Backyard wildlife

We had a bird emergency last weekend. (No, sadly, Ike the parrot has not been seen since Thanksgiving Day 2008). We have a number of bird feeders hanging from a post in the backyard. They are always well-attended by all kinds of birds, and, of course, by squirrels. Occasionally the squirrels manage to knock the feeders to the ground – which happened last Saturday with the copper one – a long cylindrical shape. I know I should have gone out to pick it up, but laziness prevailed. On Sunday morning I glanced out the back window and saw flapping wings, but couldn’t really see a bird – and all the feeders were empty. I’m not sure why/how, but I knew immediately that a bird had crawled in the feeder on the ground and got stuck (no, don’t be afraid to read on, the story has a happy ending). I knew he could haven’t been there long as 1) the dogs would have raised hell, and 2) if it were too hot/too long, he (she?) would be dead. So, we headed on a rescue mission. It was a beautiful dove, and it was indeed in sad shape – didn’t seem really hurt, but exhausted and unable to fly. Tony had to take all the screws out of the feeder to get him out. We got a cage that we had constructed to protect the tomatoes from the deer (yeah, right, like THAT worked), and put the dove, along with some water and food, under the cage for some protection. I dripped water on his beak to get some moisture into him – I could tell it was working because he was swallowing. But still very weak – I was fairly certain he wouldn’t make it. We covered the top part of the cage with weighted cardboard to keep the heat down, and left him alone. After an hour, he didn’t really seem much better – acting drowsy (sorry, must resort to anthropomorphisms for description). We decided to give him another hour, then reevaluate. Well, at the end of the determined hour he was much more responsive. Tony put a thick branch in the “cage” so he could have a perch if he wanted. We decided at that point that he would recover, and that he could spend the night in the garage if need be. Next trip out, he was on the perch, and as Tony approached he squeezed through the bars of the cage and vigorously flew away.

Don’t you just love stories with happy endings? They’re so few and far between…