Weekend Of and For The Birds- Part 1

The weekend of the birds began on Thursday evening @7:00 P.M. on 7/11/2019. Two of my neighbors and myself were sitting on my back porch talking when we heard my neighbor's boxer barking. The boxer lives two doors up from me in a fenced yard. Then we heard a bird screaming for its life. The boxer was pouncing at the bird (not on the bird) and he grabbed it in his mouth a threw it up in the air. He either wanted to play with the bird or maybe he thought it was a squeaky toy. One neighbor ran to the fence to distract the boxer while I ran to the front door and explained what was happening. The boxer was put inside and the bird, a fledgling robin, hopped through the fence to my next door neighbor's yard. The poor robin was petrified and wouldn't stop his "help me" chirp. It began to rain and we stayed in the yard to make sure the fledgling was in a safe place. It was in the middle of cement steps but it was the safest place in that yard. We finally left, hoping that the mother robin would come to take care of it. My next door neighbor, Sal came home at 9:00 P.M. and I explained the situation to him.

Friday, Sal told me that no adult robins had claimed the fledgling and when he saw a stray cat, Sal had no choice but to take the fledgling in. Mind you, it never stopped crying so Sal was also worried that it may have had injuries, not to mention how hungry the bird must be. Sal has helped sick and orphaned birds his whole life so he knew exactly what to do.

Hercules happy and content in Sal's hand.

Amazingly, the fledgling didn't have any wounds, just traumatized and famished. Two days of rest and being feed worms and berries and he was a happy, calm bird. The 3rd day, Sal brought the robin outside, every hour on the hour putting it in the grass and on tree branches, but it still didn't know how to fly. Sal named the fledgling 'Hercules' because of everything he went through and survived.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

All photos are my own.

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