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Sunday adventure
Jul. 12th, 2009 08:52 pmWell, it's not like I had anything productive to otherwise do with my Sunday evening ...
I was walking home from doing my walking exercise in the subdivision behind my apt. complex late this afternoon when a commotion made me turn off my music player and look around. The tree right in front of me, in the yard of the couple who let me cut through to go walking, was shaking, and I heard a *thumping* as something shook loose. A baby mourning dove fell to the grass literally at my feet! The little guy tucked his wings around him and sank his head in, trying to make himself small. Another noise, and another baby bird fell not far away. Suddenly, an adult dove and another bird (don't know if it was a dove too) fell-flew out of the tree and started fighting in the ditch, then across the street in another yard. A couple of minutes later, more tiny gray feathers floated down out of the tree, making me wonder if there was another adult or baby still up there, something happening to it.
I waited around for about 5 minutes for something else to happen, wondering if maybe the parents were just "teaching" the babies to fly, but I finally was able to locate the second baby on the ground and found the side of its head bloodied, and it pulling in its dying breaths. (Thank heavens it didn't take much longer to die. I really didn't want to have to bash its head in with a rock.)
So, I figured out there was no way the non-injured baby could get back in his old nest, nor would I want to put him there. I picked it up in my shirt and took it home, put it in a little box with some old leaves under it, and called![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gryphons_lair. She advised me to call a wildlife rehab specialist, which I was able to find a list of through the state DNR website. Luckily, the first woman I called turned out to be a licensed avian rehabilitator. She was 30 miles away, so I changed and drove Will (ah, fanfic, LOL - metalkatt and I came up with "dove" as a nickname for Will Turner in something we wrote a few years ago, and she figured it would be a good name for the baby mourning dove) to his new home.
This woman has about 50 birds, both releasable and nonreleasable - including mundane robins, doves, etc., as well as less mundane birds of prey such as owls, redtailed hawks and even a peregrine falcon. She's been doing avian rehab for 50 years and had very nice cage houses for the birds. She even had another baby dove Will could share a little container with, so he wouldn't feel alone. (I decided I'm going to do a story on the place for one of the publications for which I write, so I'll be seeing her again.)
( Anyway, here are some photos under the cut, for your perusal and pleasure )
I was walking home from doing my walking exercise in the subdivision behind my apt. complex late this afternoon when a commotion made me turn off my music player and look around. The tree right in front of me, in the yard of the couple who let me cut through to go walking, was shaking, and I heard a *thumping* as something shook loose. A baby mourning dove fell to the grass literally at my feet! The little guy tucked his wings around him and sank his head in, trying to make himself small. Another noise, and another baby bird fell not far away. Suddenly, an adult dove and another bird (don't know if it was a dove too) fell-flew out of the tree and started fighting in the ditch, then across the street in another yard. A couple of minutes later, more tiny gray feathers floated down out of the tree, making me wonder if there was another adult or baby still up there, something happening to it.
I waited around for about 5 minutes for something else to happen, wondering if maybe the parents were just "teaching" the babies to fly, but I finally was able to locate the second baby on the ground and found the side of its head bloodied, and it pulling in its dying breaths. (Thank heavens it didn't take much longer to die. I really didn't want to have to bash its head in with a rock.)
So, I figured out there was no way the non-injured baby could get back in his old nest, nor would I want to put him there. I picked it up in my shirt and took it home, put it in a little box with some old leaves under it, and called
gryphons_lair. She advised me to call a wildlife rehab specialist, which I was able to find a list of through the state DNR website. Luckily, the first woman I called turned out to be a licensed avian rehabilitator. She was 30 miles away, so I changed and drove Will (ah, fanfic, LOL - metalkatt and I came up with "dove" as a nickname for Will Turner in something we wrote a few years ago, and she figured it would be a good name for the baby mourning dove) to his new home.This woman has about 50 birds, both releasable and nonreleasable - including mundane robins, doves, etc., as well as less mundane birds of prey such as owls, redtailed hawks and even a peregrine falcon. She's been doing avian rehab for 50 years and had very nice cage houses for the birds. She even had another baby dove Will could share a little container with, so he wouldn't feel alone. (I decided I'm going to do a story on the place for one of the publications for which I write, so I'll be seeing her again.)
( Anyway, here are some photos under the cut, for your perusal and pleasure )
