REHAB

Last Friday, we found a baby bird, about 1 week old, laying at the door to the quonset hut. It obviously fell or was pushed out of it's nest, some 20 feet up in the door, although we have looked and looked to find the nest, to no avail. We have tried this before, without luck, but had no choice but to try it again. We put the bird in a box, with some dry mowed prairie grass and covered the box and left it in the "Q". The next morning the poor thing was about froze to death. So we quickly got online and searched for info on "rehabbing nestlings". There IS some info out there although most tell you to "don't mess with Mother Nature". We weren't just gonna let the poor thing die. We put it in a box, with my drafting table light over the box and have been using a McDonald's coffee stirrer, feeding it soaked dry dog food for a week and you know, the little guy is growing and thriving. It is interesting to see what comes with a bird naturally, like lifting it's butt over the edge of the bowl he sits in to take a poop, so as not to dirty the nest. We were amazed. I downloaded a "birdsong" CD, and we play it for the bird. You are supposed to make sure it hears the sounds of birds as it grows, well, we tried that outside, but it was too windy and too many predators around. We have a gang of rogue bluejays, that literally terrorize the woods and farm...I watch them scare other birds away from their nest, no doubt to get close to other babies or eggs. So far, so good on this baby blackbird. It is neat to see him begin preening. I say 'Him", but did you know that it is impossible to tell the sex of a bird without DNA or probing inside the bird for it's organs? And of course, if it lays an egg...so far, it has been a true learning adventure.