Sunday, 2 October 2011

Friday and Saturday and baby bird

It was Friday and I had returned home from a shopping trip and noticed that the rubbish bins where still on the nature strip. A number of crows, magpies and minors were making a racket and I assumed something had fallen out when the truck emptied the bins.

I went to investigate, I noticed a very young honeyeater bird on the wet footpath and it looked like it had a broken wing and broken neck and an injured head.  It appeared to have been attacked by the larger birds and the mother and father honeyeaters were squawking and flying backwards and forwards trying to fend off the attackers.  I picked up the helpless little bird and took it inside and wrapped it in a soft warm cloth and nursed it until it's feathers were dry and then placed it in a cardboard box to allow it to recover.

I needed to leave the house again and as I drove up the road I realised OMG I left the cat inside and horrible images of cat v bird were appearing in my head and I was not able to return as there was a train to catch. On my return all was well, the bird was still alive and the cat was napping in his favourite spot, phew.

Perched in the tree in the front of our house was the mother bird keeping vigil and the father bird was flying about and occasionally squawking. That evening I herd a thud on the large window in the family room and I looked outside there were the mother and father honeyeaters flying about, they appeared frantic.

On Saturday morning, it was still drizzling and the baby honeyeater had perked up somewhat so I thought I would see if it could be released however it really struggled and became entangled in some bushes.  I noticed the mother and father honeyeater in the tree making sounds to the baby.  I had to retrieve the bird as it was too helpless. I made another attempt about lunchtime and the baby honeyeater flew about 2 metres and all the time mother and father honeyeater were not far away.  I made a third attempt on Saturday evening the weather had improved and it was sunny. Junior was protesting as I retrieved it from it's makeshift home which I thought was a positive sign. 

I released the little honeyeater, it flew but did not make it to the tree, it sat on the lawn looking exhausted it continued to struggle and flew on to the front of a car parked on the nature strip. Once again he was picked up and put in the tree this time.  It jumped from branch to branch but I could see its balance was not good and it was having trouble clinging onto the branches, all the time being watched by the parents who kept flying away and coming back expecting the baby to follow. Finally, the father bird came up to junior who had managed to jump to a high branch and squawked at him, then it appeared as though he pecked him, then they both took off with junior flapping madly at the rear.  I stood there holding my breath hoping the baby bird would make it. 
Mum, dad and baby were last seen flying towards a large gum tree in the distance :) 
 Poor little Honeyeater
 His first attempt at joing mum and dad but still too weak
Honeyeater propped on the path after attempting to release him

 Father arriving to see what was going on
  Mother was always close by and could see what was going on.

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