A Little Birdie Told Me

Today started off relatively normal, I was just hanging around, doing this and that. And wondering in the garden hanging up clothes as well as looking for the cherries. Suddenly, there was this awful lot of squawking and Sonny came running towards me with a wee bird in his mouth!

I was so shocked I don't really know what to do. So I ran at him and shouted "DROP IT!" Being the giant poof he really is, Sonny dropped it and ran away. So that is why he didn't come for lunch. He was busy hunting! HMPH! Anyway, the poor bird was lying there on it's side breathing rather heavily and I was just waiting for it to fly away until I realized that it was just a chick (AWWWW!) and that it couldn't fly even if it wanted to. I must admit I was so afraid of touching it at first I really gingerly poked it.

And jumped out of my skin when it squawked. So, I did what any squeamish girl would do. I used the poop scoop shovel to pick it up. And put it in a little corner while I finish hanging up the clothes. Then went up to it and realized it was probably hungry. You know the way you see in documentaries, when the baby chicks want to be fed and they will point their beaks up and squeak whenever their parents fly over?

Well as it turns out, it is not only when their parents come. It's whenever anything at all comes directly over it's head into it's view. All I did was to lift up my hand to try to lift it and it opened it's mouth and squealed. At that point in time, I really didn't want to looked around in the bushes for any creepy crawlies to feed it. So I fed it the next best thing that is in the garden. Cherries. It went down pretty well. And I realized that chicks can run really fast too.

Had a hard time picking it up, and then whenever I did, I went in with it perched on my finger and put it into a paint tray. Fed it more cherries and a teeny bit of grape, and then gave it some water till it wouldn't open it's mouth anymore. Then I called Auntie H and she said to put it into a box with cloth and newspaper. That I did. After running around the utility room for about 5 minutes after the chick. It was pretty quiet by then. And I stroked it to sleep.

Then did I start on my lunch. Here is my lunch!And here is the chick.To cut the long story short, we called the Wildlife Sanctuary in Newcastle and the woman came down to pick the bird up. Then we learned that it was a blackbird. And that the Wildlife Sanctuary is closing this year due to lack of funding and help. The woman just can't take it anymore. She is paying for the wildlife out of her own pocket, and once she had to take four, FOUR cleaning jobs on top of her own job and looking after the animals just to be able to afford to nurse them.

It was a sad story. Anyway, pretty sad to lose the little fellow. I was starting to have images in my head about a little bird following my around wherever I go and perching on my shoulder. But it has to be returned to the wild and that is that. It's parents have long stopped calling for their lost child, but the woman thinks they'll come back again. Poor things.

Interesting day all in all and I'm so proud of myself for finally picking it up. The cats would have got it if I left it running among the lavender around the apple tree. No darling, lavender smell nice but they don't protect you.

"My belief is that what comes across on the television is a capture of my enthusiasm and my passion for wildlife." -Steve Irwin (nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an iconic Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist. I still miss watching him on TV)