My plans for yesterday were to go in to the office, work, and come home, but those got upended on Wednesday evening. I was at the barn, and just about to leave, when I remembered I should top-up horsey’s water bucket. He had enough to last through the night, but I figured he’d appreciate the extra.
As I went to fill it, I had to step over a dead baby bird on the ground. Ew! As I filled his bucket, I glanced over at the bird, and noticed it moving - turns out it wasn’t dead after all. I thought about leaving it, but figured I should try my best to give it a fighting chance, so I picked it up, put it in a cardboard box, drove to the nearest gas station, and started calling wildlife rehabbers.
Of course, all the wildlife rehabbers were closed. So I drove home with the bird (which was moving around far more than I would have expected!), and did what all the websites say to do: put it in a slightly larger box with a towel, and put a heated pad under the box to keep it warm. I then locked it in my bathroom so the cats couldn’t get at it. I even stayed up way too late to make sure it got enough warmth (our heat pad turns off automatically after a certain period of time).
Amazingly, it survived the night and even chirped a bit at me and opened its mouth to beg for food the next morning!
I called a lot of rehabbers - it’s busy season and a lot were full, so I had trouble, but I finally found one who agreed to take it. Only thing - they were 1-1/2 hours drive away from me. So the newly-named Edgar and I got into the car, and I hauled him up there. Dropped him off along with a donation to hopefully to cover his rehab costs and then some. I hope he makes it. It’s just one silly little baby bird, but he was so feisty and fighting so hard. I’ll see if I can get an update from the rehab in a week or so.
