My son Zak came in to the room at the weekend: “Dad, I need your help, there’s a bird in the house.”
He had, incidentally, made me this charming card for Father’s Day.
This female Blackbird had flown inside, through the house and then upstairs with our cat and Zak in hot pursuit. Zak managed to stop our cat but not before the bird had flown into the bedroom window. When I went in it was motionless on the floor and I feared the worst. As I approached though, there was movement and fluttering, then she was up on the windowsill. I took this photograph so that I could send it to HART Wildlife Rescue and call them for advice, but it was Sunday evening and the phones were unmanned. I managed to catch her, She didn’t like that at all, which I took as a good sign, and we took her outside and put her on a table. I guessed that she was somewhat concussed and she sat there for a while looking rather “What the hell just happened?”
Then she flew without difficulty to a garage roof. I watched her for a while as she still looked rather dazed. When I went back out later she had gone, so I hope she was ok. Subsequent advice from HART was that ideally, if a bird has flown hard into a window, she should be brought in and checked for neck and spinal injuries, but that if this was a glancing blow and she was flying well, I probably did the right thing and this was a good outcome.
Just a day earlier I had heard that a friend had taken in a Kestrel nestling found on the ground. He had been aware of the adults and their nest for some time. Then some 250 crows turned up (and were staying), and the parents had disappeared. Fearful that cats would get to it, he put it in a box and phoned round any number of rescues, but every one of them was full. Again I rang HART but we are jam-packed at the moment too. So, having taken advice, he is feeding chicken, leaving it in the box and quickly moving away so as to minimise the bird’s associating humans with food. Fingers firmly crossed. I gave him details of another couple of rescues to try too.
More lilies have flowered in the garden, see featured image and this gorgeous water lily which flowers every year.
Meanwhile, having spotted and purchased a couple of very pretty, wildlife-themed notebooks at a local market and having had a chat with the binder, I ordered six more from her. I think they are stunning. They are in my favoured, perforated A6 format. My problem with them is that they are too nice actually to use.
This is her website:
Hand Bound Books – Odd Bindings – Unique Books
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