Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Jane: Bird rescue

The other day, the boys and the kitty and I were in the backyard. The birds--especially a couple of robins--were setting up a ruckus. "It's because of the kitty," I pointed out.

Then we noticed the kitty had spotted something and was going into stalking mode. I looked, and saw a robin fledgling sitting in one of the links of our chain-link fence. Its wing was a bit caught on the fence and it opened its mouth wide when it saw me! The parents were in the nearby trees, still going on about the situation.

I reached in and gently freed the little bird. It moved to my hand, and sat there for a while, its wiry feet clinging around my finger. Then it took off and flew to the garage roof, and on to the bushes in the alley. The parents followed it.

I took Mitzi inside; she was annoyed with that.

The next day I heard another ruckus, this time dominated by jays, but everyone else was chiming in. Usually that's a sign that someone has spotted a hawk or an owl, both of which live in the neighborhood. I looked around but didn't see it. The boys have been hearing owls at night, though--barred owls. We hear the usual "who cooks for you who cooks for you" call often. At night we also get Halloween noises--screeches, gobbling, and all sorts of odd sounds from them!

1 comment:

Ken said...

That's a nice story about saving the robin. I don't think we have any blue jays here any more. You used to see them every once and awhile, but I read that the West Nile Virus had affected them. We do have blue birds, which is a nice flash of blue at the suet feeder.