the emergency du jour
God forbid a day pass without some sort of crisis, right? LOL Today, it was a baby bird emergency.A mother robin built a nest over the back porch light. To keep from disturbing her, I haven't even been using the back door. If I need to fill the bird feeders int eh back yard or hang clothes, I go out the front & all the way around the house. (See how nice I am!)
But today, when I went outside, I happened to notice the nest wasn't there anymore. Odd, since even after birds leave, the nests tend to remain, right? Then I noticed that it had fallen...& worse, the baby robins had fallen out.
Oh, lord, it was horrible. The poor little things have no feathers, their eyes aren't open, they aren't even old enough to peep yet. And there they were--three of them--lying on the ground. One was still alive...I'm sure of it because it was trying to cry, even though it wasn't making any noise. The other two...I'm not so confident about.
I quick scooped them up & tried to keep them warm, & thankfully I have a friend who does wildlife rehab, so I immediately called her to find out what to do. (I've been known to bring birds & mice & bunnies & all kinds of things into the house to take care of until they can be released, but these baby birds were just a little too young for my know-how.) She said to put them back in the nest, put the nest back where it had been, & see if the mama bird came back. If it didn't return in an hour, then I should bring the babies to her & she'd put them in the incubator to see what could be done.
So that's what I did. And the mother did come back, almost right away. Whew. Sigh of relief, right? Well, we'll see. I'm really worried about them. I don't know how hurt they were by the fall, if the mother bird will reject them because she either smells me on them or senses that they're hurt, etc. But I sure hope they all make it!
Right now, I'm leaving them completely alone. The mother is out there, so she's at least keeping them warm. My friend said she'd stop by later--around dusk, when the mother should take off to feed before coming back to sit with the babies all night long--& she'll check on them. If any of them are dead, they'll need to be taken out before...well, you know. But I really, really hope they're all okay. I do not want to deal with dead baby birds. :-((((((
I'll keep you posted.
