So, we have a break in the big city life that I usually describe. A tiny little bird lay on the patio outside the garage apartment in my backyard, and in lieu of The Dog eating it, we picked it up with an old tee-shirt and debated what to do. We looked up and noticed a nest practically perched on the edge of a light fixture, and on closer inspection, saw the two little birds, above, nestled together, there. The whole thing was kind of nasty, to tell you the truth. The little bird had clearly either fallen out or been pushed out by its siblings or Medea, its mother. What to do? We called over Big Strong Manly Neighbor, who inspected the surroundings and agreed that putting the baby back in the nest would probably be futile. I almost don't want to type out what we decided because it seems like heart of darkness material, particularly for those of us who aren't comfortable with -- ahem -- the natural world. We left the little bird in the tee-shirt, on top of an ivy-covered wall that is often frequented by The Neighbors' cats.
I'm going to listen to this, but what would you have done?
Oh Elizabeth. Jessie got a call from Vergil today telling her about how their beloved, sweet cat had brought home a bird not-quite-dead and that he, Vergil, had had to finish the killing job and how traumatized he was.
ReplyDeleteNature is cruel and sometimes makes us be as well in order to be compassionate.
Nature is a sometimes cruel pragmatist. Bad for the bird. Good for the cat---but I have to say that I hate the idea of housecats being let out to prey on song birds and then going home to their plate of Fancy Feast. In places full of feral cats, it seems right that cats kill their dinner, but not here in L.A. In the heart of the city. And yesterday that poor mountain lion....it's all out of whack.
ReplyDeleteWe have a bird rescue society here where they care for birds that are injured or need help. I've taken a few birds to them, birds that like to eat berries and drunkenly fly into windows.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working at the food bank, years ago, we came across a nest of baby mice. The mother had left them and none of use could bring ourselves to kill them. I set them outside in the wintertime to freeze to death. I knew it would kill them but I couldn't smash their little heads in.
We found two little babies fallen into the grass from the nests in the metal rods of our clothes hanger. They were already dead or I would have put them back in the pipe & hoped for the best.
ReplyDeleteBut people get attacked by rabid raccoons so nature is not all babies and butterflies.
I'd like to think that life is all sweetness and light for little birds but it's not. Even bird life can be hard.
ReplyDeleteIt ain't a Disney movie out there. As evidenced by the post I put up tonight too - bird themes abound.
I have no idea what I would have done with your little bird, but I don't think there is a right or wrong here, just the reality of life
I might have taken it to a vet.and let them deal with it. Or I might have left it just as you did. I tell myself that nature takes care of itself when I get too crazy about these things. Annon Jo
ReplyDeleteWe live on 51 mostly wild acres and our number 1rule here is to stay out of the food chain. After the Grand Prix fire ravaged the hills, and most of our property, a small fox showed up on our patio with his back leg grotesqly burned, hanging by a thin ligament. My first reaction was to scoop him up in a blanket and take him to a rescue. I realized that, at best, he would be put down, worst, he would end up on a cage at the nature center. With tears in my eyes I went back inside and wished him peace as he limped away. The fire distressed all of the wild life and the baby coyotes had to eat too. You did the right thing. BTW, I love your blog. Been lurking for awhile.
ReplyDeleteI have to go with Laura on this one. The blessing of living in a more wild area is that it is beautiful and free. I feel invited into the natural world and realize that I'm only a guest. I have to respect the rules of the home even if they make me uncomfortable. That said, I would totally punch a bear in the face if I had to but a little birdie would probably get ignored totally because I simply didn't want to watch that part of the nature show. If I was back in West Hollywood I probably would have made myself and my entire family nuts trying to figure out what to do. You did the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI was just going to add something about how we had a long series of bird deaths. Then I realized it was exactly this week last year. Dying birds we ignore but dead birds get the royal send off. I linked to the bird funeral we had! West Hollywood girl in the Country...
ReplyDeleteI remember vividly,about 12 years ago, being out on a run, shortly after losing a friend to leukemia. There is that damn leukemia theme in my life again. Anyway, I was running along and there, as I briefly looked down was a beautiful butterfly, just wings folded out perfectly, dead on the sidewalk. I ran past but then stopped and circled back. Gently picked him up and placed him on the nearby concrete wall. Seemed to be the right thing to do. not sure why that moment has stayed so profoundly with me. Strange, no?
ReplyDeleteHere, with your little bird, you did what you thought was best. How could that be wrong?
I probably would have put it back in the nest, because even if that's a futile action, it would make me feel better -- like I gave the bird a chance. But that's probably more for me than the bird.
ReplyDeleteOr I would have called wildlife rescue.
But as my parents used to say, "Not all of the XXX could survive, or we'd be drowning in XXX!" (With XXX in this case being, obviously, birds.)
i have a really traumatic, horrible baby bird experience so i can't re-open this issue without needing therapy. So, i now i have my fingers in my ears singing "lalalalalla" reeeallly loud and pretending baby bird got adopted into a loving family and is living happily ever after! :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, we found a baby bird and kept it in a shoebox feeding it out of an eyedropper - my Mom wrote and illustrated a little children's story for us from that experience - "Peep."
ReplyDeleteNow that I'm a mom myself, I think of my Mom as superhero. Me? - probably not. In our neighborhood it would be crows and not cats. Ick.
we've buried two birds in the last two months. one, a dove, flew directly into our open garage while my daughter and i were doing laundry, hit its head on the window, bounced off and onto the floor, and died in my hands. the other was a tiny, beautiful yellow bird that hit the living room window so hard it died instantly. i opened the front door to see its broken little body on the porch. i overreacted, i know, but somehow their deaths seemed, at the time, to represent all the senseless suffering in the world...
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