Birdies
Last Friday the robins nest I had been watching for the last week fell. Three baby chicks were sitting in/around a pretty much demolished nest. The silly parents had built the nest on the fire alarm lights in the breezeway of the second floor. When the nest fell, it was two feet from someone's front door and by a top stair. Not a good location due to the foot traffic. Especially when the middle aged Asian man walked out his front door and stepped at on part of the nest without even looking to see what he stepped on. Ugh.
After a few hours of trial and error (one being two of the chicks falling out of the nest in the new location) I decided to get a hanging planter to put the old nest in. That worked. As of Monday, two of the three chicks were alive and looking well fed. They're getting bigger too. Very quickly. The parents actually have a better view of them from the tree now.
Things Learned:
*Calling animal control and bird/wild life rescues in an emergency will not yield immediate nor satisfactory results. At least for Northern Virginia.
*Most birds do not abandon their chicks if people handle them. If you hover around the nest and the parents don't feel safe, THEN they will abandon the nest.
*Watching parent birds feed their babies worms is not cute.
*Baby birds have HUGE cloaca and are capable of very large poos. Anywhere. On anything. Or anyone.
*When a baby bird is hungry keep your fingers away from the nest and his/her head. It doesn't hurt. It's just awkward when you have to remove your hand from the chick's mouth and it looks up at you like, "What the F*** are you doing? I'm hungry."
The little birds are rapidly approaching fledgling stage. By the end of the week they should be able to hop out of the nest and start flying attempts. Then, I'll get to see mommy and daddy robin teach the tykes how to find worms on the ground!
After a few hours of trial and error (one being two of the chicks falling out of the nest in the new location) I decided to get a hanging planter to put the old nest in. That worked. As of Monday, two of the three chicks were alive and looking well fed. They're getting bigger too. Very quickly. The parents actually have a better view of them from the tree now.
Things Learned:
*Calling animal control and bird/wild life rescues in an emergency will not yield immediate nor satisfactory results. At least for Northern Virginia.
*Most birds do not abandon their chicks if people handle them. If you hover around the nest and the parents don't feel safe, THEN they will abandon the nest.
*Watching parent birds feed their babies worms is not cute.
*Baby birds have HUGE cloaca and are capable of very large poos. Anywhere. On anything. Or anyone.
*When a baby bird is hungry keep your fingers away from the nest and his/her head. It doesn't hurt. It's just awkward when you have to remove your hand from the chick's mouth and it looks up at you like, "What the F*** are you doing? I'm hungry."
The little birds are rapidly approaching fledgling stage. By the end of the week they should be able to hop out of the nest and start flying attempts. Then, I'll get to see mommy and daddy robin teach the tykes how to find worms on the ground!