Thursday, July 30, 2009

Bird rescue

I woke up this morning to a very violent summer storm (later heard we had winds up to 80 mph in the DFW area) and when the sun finally came up, I noticed a bird laying in our backyard near the bushes against our back fence. It was an adult grackle. At first, I thought it had sustained head and back injuries, because you could see skin. But it was just very, very wet and when it dried out, I couldn't see any noticeable injuries. It spent the entire day either in the bushes or just in the grass, never venturing very far. My next thought was broken wing(s). But as I found out later, it was able to somewhat get off the ground. It is obviously injured - I just don't know how.

I called a bird rescue center in the DFW area and they said to bring it in. By the time I called them, it was too late to make it out there, so I'll have to go tomorrow morning. So I had to try to capture it to keep it safe during the night. I followed the instructions of the rescue center (a box with a towel in the bottom, a dish of water, a dish of cat food, holes for air) and attempted (with limited help from C) to throw a towel over it and get it in the box. After numerous failed attempts - fluttering away, C running away when it moved because "it's gonna peck me" getting in the bushes, etc - I finally wore it down and got it in the box.

It's on the back porch, where it will not be as hot as the garage and where I think it will be safe from any neighborhood cats or nocturnal critters. I hope my efforts will not have been in vain. I'll update tomorrow....

1 comment:

Stephanie said...

Well?! Did he make it through the night?