Bird Rescuing

I don't have time to proof read this. I hope it's okay.

I was working on the stone project at the Galson's last Tuesday and saw a bird on the ground next to the porch. It wasn't moving so I had assumed that the bird was dead and continued to work. After putting three or four more stones in place I took a short break and suddenly noticed that the bird was actually moving. I remembered that birds were not supposed to be handled with hands and gloves should be worn. This was no problem because I needed gloves to work with the stone anyway. Beyond handling the bird with gloves I was not sure what to do.



I ended up calling Nirelle (household wife, not to be confused with housewife) at the island. I did not get her on the phone but I did get her sister-in-law Eva (Ed's wife; Ed is Allen's brother). Eva had asked if the bird had hit a window or not. She said that if a bird hit a window it. could be in shock from hitting it. Unfortunately the bird did not appear to be in shock. It was moving around in fright when I was handling it, and one of it's leg's appeared to be injured. Later upon further inspection I noticed that one of the bird's claws was able to grab a pencil, the other claw didn't seem to want to grab anything. The claw which did cling on to things was close to the bird's chest and the leg seemed as though it could move. The other leg was stretched out and didn't really move at all.



Eva's advice for me was to give it some sugar water. I think she said a quarter cup of water for a quarter teaspoon of sugar. I diluted the sugar even more then that and then tried to feed it to the bird. The bird regretably refused to drink my sugar water I had made for it. The next thing I tried to give to the bird for energy was bird seed which it also rejected. After the bird seed I tried to feed the bird a worm. This was particularly difficult for me because I had been saving all the worms that I found while I was digging by relocating them. It was tough to feed the bird a worm when it was alive and still wiggling for dear life. But in the end the bird rejected the worm too.



I wasn't sure what to do at this point. The bird rejected everything I tried to feed it. The next step that I took was to call Nirelle's daughter, Betsy. She also said that there was not much you could do for birds but recommeded that I call an animal rehabilitation service. So I then pulled out the phone book and looked up animal rehabilitation onle to find that there was no service mentioned in the book only animal control. I called animal control on the offchance that they would give me another number to call which they did. I then called the new number and a lady picked up the phone. She told me that she had too many cases for that night and asked if I could possible bring the bird by in the morning.



I agreed to her request but asked how I should keep the bird overnight. She instructed me to get a box and put paper towels in it and keep it in a dark, quiet place. I couldn't find a box so instead I grabbed a basket and put paper towels in it. This bothered me becuause I was also told not to use a particular material for the basket because the bird could get its tallons caught (I don't remember what specific material it was); why wouldn't the bird get it's tallons stuck in paper towels? So I also put some hay in the basket. I put my fingers in the center of the basket and spread them out towards the edges of the basket to make something similar to a next.



At this point it was getting pretty dark, so I didn't bother with putting the bird in a dark place. I then waited until morning to bring the bird into town. I woke up around 6 and figured it would only take me about 20 to 30 minuets to get ready and about 30 minutes to deliver the bird. This would then give me another 30 minutes to get back to work and I would half an hour early. Unfortunately on the directions that I had printed out There was a road listed called "Swamp Rd.". This road didn't really exist, it was simply call "Swamp Rd." by the locals. So while going there: I passed the road, figured I went to far and turned back, and didn't see it on the way back. Figuring I missed the road twice I decided to stop and ask a local about the road. They told me to go back from wense I came and it would be on the left. What they neglected to tell me was that the road was simply called swamp road by the locals and was actually called Peter something.

I ended up driving for another 30 minutes before I found the place. I had to ask another person for directions. He also gave me directions to Swamp Rd. and not Peter something but in his directions he directed me to the road I needed to be on in the end. I delivered the bird to the lady and drove back to work. I was 30 minutes late, not 30 minutes early.

Love
Thomas