No Cats for the Sake of the Baby Birds

…Yesterday, my husband and I were in a very busy parking lot of a Power Centre, he was installing a new starter in our car cause it totally died so we had to keep it there til yesterday when he finally fixed it. (Yay).
To get to the point, I was bored and just hanging around and decided to walk to Winners and while I was approaching, just under an abandoned HMV, I seen a baby bird on the road where it was quite busy with cars driving in and out of the complex. It had its mouth open wide as if it was waiting to be fed by its mother…I panicked and ran over, put my sleeves over my hands and scooped it up.
I walked it over to the sidewalk and put the little guy down. It was a sweet little birdy in TOTAL ugly duckling stage..it let me pets it’s little head and body. It was really ratty looking, almost old & haggard looking but it was in an awkward phase growing into its feathers. I looked above and their was a “For Lease” banner where the (not so bright) mother had decided to put her nest, all concrete and shopping center below. I seen the mother and she kept bringing bugs and worms to I assume the other babies in the nest.

I didn’t know what to do.

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I walked back to the car to tell my husband who was working & sweating away in the heat, and on my way back to check on the little guy, I literally watched another baby bird fall to the road. I ran over and had to grab that one off the road and put him or her with it’s sibling. I am not used to handling birds, so this was TOTALLY out of my comfort zone, but I couldn’t let it just stay on the road and no one else seemed to notice or care. I went to into Winners to look in the phonebook and called the City, they transferred me to a Bird Sanctuary which was closed, I than called the Humane Society and they don’t handle birds or wildlife, no help avail whatsoever….arrrggghhhh…

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I come back and ANOTHER bird was on the road!!!!!! I have to go over again and scoop up the poor helpless little one and put it with it’s siblings. Okay, this is getting a little nutty, I’m going between pacing franticly to petting and consoling the little baby birds. If it was around trees and grass I wouldn’t of been so concerned but it was the location, in the middle of a concrete jungle. I didn’t want to take them away cause I knew their mother was there. I decided to go home once the car was fixed (YAY!!, Thanks Steve, You are Amazing!!) and do some research. I found out from a bunch of different sites that I should leave it by it’s mother and that as long as they were not injured they should be okay. They are at the time in a young bird’s life where they fall from the nest and need to learn to fly and fend for themselves, they are called “Fledglings”. It’s just a really bad place for them to be falling from a nest. I am glad I was there to rescue them from the road but I hope and pray to God that they are okay. I’m torn on the way I feel…I want to go back and see how they are, but on the other hand I’m so scared they will be dead or something and I will feel responsible.
Anyhoo…sorry that is my long winded story, I apologize for all the words, but I felt like telling my little story.

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P.S- That is my first post in FOREVER that has not included Cats, but I didn’t think it was appropriate as you can see why.

P.P.S- I stopped taking photos when the third one joined the group of falling birdies, I felt like I was exploiting them or something.

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9 comments:

murky sapphire said...

Those pics are darling! It's so hard to walk away from an animal when you know you can't help, isn't it? The only way I get through it is to pray and to remind myself that all God's wonderful creatures are equipped with everything they need to survive...without my help. And then I have to MAKE myself let go and stop worrying!

the spectator said...

It's so hard to know what to do in that sort of situation. But you did all the right things.

We had something similar happen last Summer. A family of crows had nested in our next door neighbour's gum tree. Unfortunately, Baby Crow, as we christened him, did not have a happy ending. Poor Baby Crow.

Marsi @ The Cottage Cheese said...

They ARE ok, because of you! Not knowing is being able to 100% believe (have faith) that they are ok. Your photos are amazing! Brought a little tear to my eye. You know, when my little birds left the nest on my front porch spring year, they still looked at lot like this - kind of bald and a bit ugly. These little guys are probably ready to fly. Perhaps Mama was nudging them from the nest to tell them "it's time".

The Curious Cat said...

Oh dear! What a predicament! I think you did all you could - you gave them a fighting chance -which they would not have had left on the road...their guardian angel for a time...They are very cute... The Girl wrote an entry on rescuing ducks recently... You should check it out... http://leaving-the-seat-up.blogspot.com/2010/05/duck-rescue-2009.html

notRuairi said...

That's a lovely post. Like a fairy tale. I did the same thing once but with spiders. Well, ok, one spider, but he was having extreme trouble getting back to his web.

drollgirl said...

girl, i LoVE THIS POST!

you are such a good person for trying to do right by these little chicks!!!

and i LOVE your pictures!!! 10 stars! fan-farking-tastic!!!

p.s. i hope they are ok, too, and i am not even a big fan of birds!

Love Meow said...

What a great post. The photos are amazing.

A bird landed on my deck and was stuck there for hours. My cats got really excited over the little visitor, though they were blocked by the windows. The bird was like the ones you saw trying to learn to fly but fell. At first I was worried about it until later I saw its dad flying over to him to feed him. After a few hours, I couldn't see the bird any more except a few droppings it left on the deck :).

LenoreNeverM♡re said...

It's heartbreaking...
I'm intrigued to what happened to them now...
Bird flew against my glass windows, some broke their necks, some I helped to nursed it back from the shock/impact!~sobs*

Asylum Dolly said...

Awww! Poor little birdies! You are such a nice person for helping them ♥. I've saved little baby birds before too. Even to the point of chewing up fruit and feeding it to them in the hope that it will mimic the regurgitated food that their mums would give them. Serious! I luvs birds.
I know it's hard wondering if they are ok, but at least you did SOMETHING, which is a lot more than many would. I gotz my fingers crossed for the little bubs!