A Life Saved

I got back from my walk this afternoon to find a juvenile Cedar Waxwing just sitting on the downstairs patio -- the apparent victim of a collision with this dining room window.Believe it or not, despite what the birds are seeing on this window, there are surprisingly few window strikes here and those that have occurred are almost never fatal. I think the fact that the tree is so close to the window helps to keep the birds from hitting at full speed.

Anyway, as soon as I saw this little bird, I put the butterfly net over him to make sure I could rescue him. He didn't resist the net at all and I was easily able to scoop him up and give him a quick physical examination which revealed no obvious trauma or broken bones. His loud squawks indicated he was pretty aware of his situation, so I was confident that he wasn't injured seriously.

I admitted him to St. Alegria for a short convalescent period.
After about 10 minutes in the warm, dark and safe confines of St. Alegria, juvenile Cedar Waxwing was ready to be released.

After opening my hand, this youngster quickly winged his way to the top of the nearest evergreen tree. There are plenty of Cedar Waxwings hanging around the backyard this time of year, so hopefully he'll be reunited with his family soon. And just maybe, he learned a valuable lesson about staying away from my dining room window!

Hummingbird Rescue

Such a busy, birdy time of year! I had to do a hummingbird rescue yesterday afternoon too. I was going to the house to get my camera to take pictures of the bluebird babies when I noticed the body of a poor little hummingbird laying on the back patio. I knew it must have hit the dining room window above. The poor little squirt was conscious, but obviously disoriented (as you can see by the tip of his little tongue sticking out the end of his beak). I carefully picked him up and gave him to Mr. Johnson to hold for a few seconds while I ran to fetch one of the nectar feeders and a box to put him in.
I took him carefully from Mr. Johnson and held him while I dipped his beak into the nectar, hoping he'd take a little sip and that would help to energize him.

Then it was back into Mr. Johnson's hand for a few more seconds while I lined the carboard box with a towel and placed the little hummingbird inside.

After that I just closed the lid and left him in the basement. Hopefully a few minutes in the dark and calm environment would revive him. And sure enough, it did. After less than 10 minutes, Mr. Johnson reported that there was some angry buzzing and bumps coming from inside the box. We took the box outside and carefully opened the lid........out buzzed this little hummingbird straight into the sky and apparently completely recovered from his window collision. YAY!! Another birdy saved!

They're such neat little birds and I'm so thankful that we came upon this little hummer at just the right time and were able to save his life. I'm also glad he didn't have any serious injuries that would have prevented him from being released again.

Window Collision

I saw this big smudge on my basement sliding glass door last week and when I looked a little bit closer I realized it was from a bird collision. I walked outside to check for a lifeless body on the patio, but could find no evidence of an injured bird, no feathers, no blood. Looks like a cardinal, don't you think? There are still quite a few juvenile cardinals hanging around the backyard and there's a feeder just above the patio where the cardinals like to eat. I'm wondering whether a surprise visit from the Cooper's hawk startled the birds at the feeder and this poor cardinal crashed into the window in its rush to escape.


On a totally unrelated note, there has been lots of migration activity here in just the last few days, in fact I just looked out the dining room window and spotted a male American Redstart in the oak tree. (Yard bird #49 for 2009 and a first for the backyard too!) Anyway, when I take Sophie out for her night-time potty breaks, I can hear hundreds of little birdies peeping in the sky overhead, no matter what time of night: 8:30, 12:30, even 4:00 when we get up. It's so amazing that they can fly at night like that. So, while I'm getting ready for work, Mr. Johnson always takes Sophie for another walk and I asked him when he got back, "did you hear all those little birds peeping?" His response? "No." Then when I got to work this morning (at 5:15) I could still hear them while I was walking in from the parking lot. I asked one of the guys who was walking in at the same time, "can you hear those little birds peeping above us?" He looked at me really strangely and also responded, "no." Then I asked my office mate when she got in (of course she already thinks I'm pretty strange) and she laughed as she also said "no." So have any of you heard the little birds peeping at night?? I hope someone says yes because people are starting to look at me like I'm some kind of kook!!