Tuesday 7 July 2009

Some you win, some you lose.

There's nothing like suddenly coming to the rescue of a wild creature to take your mind off your lonely little existence!

I awoke two mornings ago thinking that the birds were unusually loud this morning! As I reached the kitchen, rubbing my eyes and reaching for the kettle, there it was again, the loud chirp, chirp, chirp of a bird very close by! Yep, one of the cats had brought in a baby bird that was yelling its head off from behind my TV. I threw a tea-towel over it as it hopped over to the sofa and took it outside so that it's mum could do her bit and feed it. For three long hours I watched from behind the curtains, with the window ajar, listening to the chirp, chirp, chirp; not one bird replied or went near the little thing. He had almost all his feathers, except for the tail, so could hop, skip and flutter, but not fly properly. I got dressed and went outside, again with the tea-towel, brought him in, put him in a box with the tea-towel that he now thought of as his, and then dug up some worms and fed him. I spent nearly all day digging over my dry soil, trying to find worms and small slugs. By evening I was knackered, so at 8.30 pm drew the curtains in his room, said 'night, night' and was in bed by nine. I awoke at 5.30 am, dressed and rushed out to get some more worms, remembering that 'the early bird gets the worm'. As I rushed in with them in a pot, I thought that I'd not heard his chirping and thought perhaps he'd died. Sure enough, he was lying on his back with stiff little legs in the air! I'd failed!

Then this morning I awoke to find my elderly cat Banjo holding vigil next to the TV stand. Oh not again! There was a tiny mouse huddled in the corner. Mice I can deal with! I fetched the humane mouse trap, put in some low-fat Edam cheese, a few broken crackers (low fat and gluten free), and a few chopped nuts. Removing the cat from the room I went to have breakfast. Sure enough, within just minutes the mouse was in the trap munching away. At last, success! I released the little creature down the lane and under a hedge... with the cheese etc. It felt good to have saved a creature. I just hope that I wasn't responsible for the demise of the baby bird... perhaps I overfed it? Perhaps they were the wrong sort of worms? Or, perhaps it had injuries that I didn't know about?

Some you win... and some you lose. I did my best, but still feel that I've failed.

2 comments:

Bernard said...

Hi Jenny,
You did well, but a lot of birds die of shock and there is nothing you can do.
However if that happens again..try cat food instead of worms. I know that sounds strange but...I sometimes feed my cats outside by the back door. The blackbirds come down later and eat the 'leftovers'.
A couple of months I had a mother bird taking bits and feeding he two little ones who were standing alongside.
I posted some pictures on my blog.
If you are interested they are here
http://tracker-bar.blogspot.com/2009/04/if-i-were-blackbird.html
and here
http://tracker-bar.blogspot.com/2009/05/oh-no-he-isnt-oh-yes-he-is.html
Cheers....Bernard

JennyB said...

Thank you Bernard... I shall sort out the 'Felix' next time. And I have just spent half an hour reading through some of your blog posts... what a talented person you are, and with a sense of humour too... rare in so many these days!