posted on July 18, 2001 11:34:04 AM new
Remember that cute little mailbox I bought from you a while back? Well, every trash day for several weeks now, I've been meaning to throw away the priority box it was shipped in, swearing each week that I forget that I'll remember next time I get gas to toss it then. It's been riding around in the back floorboard of my car forever now.
Well, today I went by my dad's place to get my mail and there was a hurt baby bird near the sidewalk. It has a hurt wing. I picked the bird up and was looking in the car for anything to put it in until I could get home. The only thing in my car that I could put the bird in was your box. It's as if it was meant to be there for this occasion.
I have a pet store a block from my place and I got it some bedding and bird food. It's munching down on the food now. I am highly optimistic that the little guy will make it and get to go back into the wild in a few weeks once it heals.
All those peanuts you put in the box were still there and made a perfect, comfortable nest for him until he got to my place.
And to everyone else reading this, this is exactly why you need to use lots of peanuts for all your merchandise
edited to fix typo
[ edited by tiggressoflove on Jul 18, 2001 11:38 AM ]
posted on July 19, 2001 09:23:34 AM new
(breathlessly) .......we just had baby birds hatch out!!
I have been building and buying birdhouses for years (30+) and nevernevernever had birds stoop to living in my crummy houses. I had resigned myself to viewing birdhouses as decorative only. So, I moved to the northwest a year ago. This place is over-run with birds! Birds singing, calling, fighting, actually USING the birdbath, gobbling up birdseed until now I buy it in 40lb sacks! I'm in heaven! Reminds me of when I was a kid in Napa, California, birds everywhere but we took them for granted.
So, as I gardened I put up a few birdhouses out front, and as I gardened out back I put a shallow windowbox up to the kitchen window. Guess where some little sparrow decided was ideal for her nest? In my windowbox squished right between the white lobelia and white johnny-jump-ups. (I also planted white dianthus, and strawberries.)
It is such a tiny nest! You could just fit a golf ball into the little scoop. Yesterday the baby birds hatched!!! Four out of the five eggs. They look like chewed bubble gum with fuzzy black mold. They don't make any sound (yet). You can't see them from outside as it's too high but I can see them from the kitchen sink, ok, I gotta stand on a chair, but I can see 'em good and the parents don't seem to mind.
My Dad was teasing me they don't like my birdhouses....... I told him "that's a FLAT birdhouse!"
So sorry about your little bird tiggress, it is sad to have even one little creature die. I am monopolizing your thread but did so want to share our baby birds. I applaude you for trying and not just leaving it to die. My sis and I found a young blue jay out front a month or so ago....... it was fully feathered and old enough to fly but couldn't. I set up with food and water and a towel and didn't go near it so it could feel safe but it was dead next day. Either sick or injured. I try not to interfer with 'nature' but that does not include ignoring suffering. We had a magpie live once after my daughter nursed it for a week or so, then released it. Close up they are incredibly beautiful.
posted on July 19, 2001 01:51:03 PM new
Try not to feel too awfully bad... I've raised several baby birds...but they've never been injured. Your little one no doubt had some internal injuries that didn't show.
I tried with a hawk we found by the side of the road once...he'd apparently been nicked by a car. He lived for about 3 days...then died. It was awful. I know how lousy you feel...
Still. You did your best...can't do more than that. Good for you...
