Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Little Bird

                                                         Orange Crowned Warbler

Harv and I were just outside the Wheelhouse restaurant in Bandon and there on the sidewalk was a little dead bird.  A beautiful Anna's Hummingbird.  I picked him up and he was still warm.  The accident had just happened!  It was easy to figure out the cause of death.  The window just above his body (a vacant business with very clean windows) had little feathers stuck to it, and a spot of blood.  Another victim of Widow Strike Death.  

Amazingly, the whole scenario was repeated just a half hour later in my own back yard!  This time it was a little Orange-crowned warbler, stunned and crouching in the grass.  We watched over him for a few hours, but it was getting dark, and I was worried about predators in the night.  The only option seemed to be overnight protection in a little box, so I scooped him up, and just to be sure, we called Free Flight for assistance.  Nancy called us right back, and agreed with the plan to keep him safe overnight in a shoe box with holes cut out for air, and in a warm place.  Nancy said he wouldn't be eating at night anyway, and this would give him a chance to safely recover.  The hard part was the warning to keep the lid closed to avoid stressing him out.

I didn't sleep well at all.  I kept getting up to see if the area was warm enough, and to see if he "needed anything."  I put my ear to the box, but didn't hear a sound.

At sunrise I worried it might still be too cold to release him, but other birds were singing in the trees nearby, so I took the box outside for the release.  Alas, my friend was dead.  Oh, my heartache.

So, the next day I researched window strikes, and set off to the hardware store to order provisions so this doesn't happen again.  I got those gel stickers for the windows, and three streamer wind socks.