First I’d like to say Sorry for neglecting this place for so long. I didn’t really have anything to say. Yeah my car got broken into, all of my electronics stolen, and now all of my electronics replaced but there was nothing that I really felt like writing (typing) down. But yesterday something interesting happened.

As I was walking back in from a run I saw a little tiny bird on the ground on its side. It seemed as though it had flown into a window and injured its leg or something. In any case it was lying on its side barely moving. I stood their wondering what the hell I should do about it. This was a big question for me because I tried to save a bird once, it was a baby bird (chick?) that had gotten caught in my parents sprinklers. I don’t even know if I was successful. I left it outside the next morning after it had been dried off and the bird’s mother, or father I guess, came back and was bringing it food. I think it was what would be called a fledgling bird. This means that it was on the ground learning to fly when it unfortunately got caught in my sprinklers and got REALLY frightened. So I left it outside that morning and watched it for a while,  when I came back it was gone. My parents’ neighborhood has a lot of cats so I wasn’t sure if it had gotten eaten or not. But I saw no signs of a struggle so I like to think it learned to fly and is off eating worms and what not today. But I am really not sure.

So back to this bird from yesterday. As I looked at it laying on its side I wondered if I wanted to be responsible for this little life. After 30 seconds of contemplating and staring at this tiny bird I decided to try to take care of it. So I gently picked it up and brought it inside. Picking up a bird is much harder than you might think, especially a small one. As soon as you start to put even a little pressure on its sides you feel how fragile it is. One wrong move or a just a little too much pressure and you could crush it. Or at least that’s what it feels like, I really have no idea how fragile these tiny birds are and I have no desire to test it.

But anyways I gently picked it up, and walked into my building holding it in the palm of my hand. It was looking around but not trying to escape. I placed it in a small open box. The picture below is where I put it. I called a veterinary hospital and told them that I would take it in after this meeting that I had. In case you didn’t know, it is ILLEGAL to try and treat an injured wild bird on your own. You must take it a wildlife rehabilitation center to be taken care of. Whatever state you live in (in the US I don’t know about other countries) will have wildlife rehabilitation centers where you can take the bird.

So as you can see the box was left open, I figured the bird could barely move, it can’t fly out. I was wrong. This guy heals FAST! when I got home to take the little guy to the hospital I was greeted by an empty box! After 15 minutes of searching in my tiny apartment I found that the bird had gotten out and was hiding behind my HTPC (Home Theater PC). And when I tried to pick it up and put it back in the box I discovered it could fly! Quite a shock, since when I found it it could barely move. But when it landed I saw that its leg was still injured so we carefully caught it and put it back in the box. I then prepared a larger box for it and partially covered the top. Just a a small hole, a bit smaller than the size of the bird, for ventilation and light.

By the time I had caught the bird again and prepared this larger box it had passed the time where I could take it to the Veterinary Hospital in Renton, I live in Bellevue. So I decided I would take it in this morning (Sept 1st 2011). When I woke up Crystal said the bird is making a lot of noise. So I went to check the box and it was empty again! the bird had somehow gotten through the little hole and was up at the top of the window. I carefully caught it again and put it back in the big box.

At this point I was faced with a decision. Was I helping it or hurting it by holding it captive until the Veterinary Hospital opened at 9am. The birds right leg still seemed to be a little injured but it was now VERY mobile compared to when I had found it. It seemed to have 90% healed overnight. I closed the box and partially covered the hole on the top and contemplated my next action.

I turned to Google for guidance. I looked online and found that when a bird hits a window it can be stunned for a while. I think that is what happened to this bird. It seems as though it is best to leave the bird where you found it covered by a box until it recovers. This was not possible in this situation because the bird was on the ground near the side entrance to my building, leaving it there would probably have been the wrong decision.

Because of this new information, little guy/girl’s unhappiness in the box, and the fact that it seemed to have healed so much overnight, I decided that holding it captive for 3-4 more hours and then driving it 15 miles away to Renton would not be the best thing for it. Who knows? it might have a bunch of friends living right outside of my apartment building I didn’t want to separate it from it’s friends for now reason.

I took it back to where I found it and opened the box. As my hands came close to it to lift it out of the box, it flew out on its own and landed on a small branch of a tree nearby. It seemed much happier there than inside of my box…