The fallen
(Copied and pasted from my deviantArt posting of the following picture.)
This summer I am helping to feed feral cats and kittens in an abandoned house in my neighborhood, in an effort to a) keep them well-nourished and b) get them a little used to humans so we can catch them for spay/neuter.
Yesterday I was walking by the house and saw in the sun a crow fledgling. He was laying down and looked distressed, so I moved him to the shade, using a plastic bag to cover my hands. After a few minutes he revived and began to hop around the yard. I felt horrible about leaving him there, but his parents were up in the tree cawing loudly, and he wasn't injured. The Audubon Society does not recommend removing fledgling birds from where you found them unless they are obviously ill or injured, and the parents do not seem to be anywhere around. This was not the case for this little fellow, he seemed ultimately happy and healthy. Much as I wanted to protect him from the kittens in the yard, I knew that if I saved him from kittens he would still be exposed to other dangers. I left him in the yard, making sure to leave plenty of food for the kittens so they would not try to hunt him.
Today I walked past the house and found the baby crow dead on the sidewalk. I examined him as much as I could without touching him directly; no bite wounds or blood, so it wasn't the cats or the stray dogs that roam the neighborhood. However he was outside of the fence, when yesterday he had been firmly inside of it. My only thoughts are that 1) he crawled through the chain link and died of natural causes there on the sidewalk or 2) this was not the fledgling from yesterday, and instead was a different one who had the misfortune to fall out of the nest onto a concrete sidewalk instead of a leaf-littered yard. I did not see any live or dead fledglings in the yard, though, so I am not sure what to think.
Poor little fellow. On the one hand I feel I should've saved him somehow; on the other hand, I know that he would have difficulty living a normal crow life if he had been prematurely captured by humans and raised in a wildlife rehabilitation facility. Ultimately... there are a multitude of crows in the world, and the death of one fledgling, in the face of the others out there, is insignificant.
But I will remember him regardless.
The top two photographs are from yesterday when he was alive; the bottom three are from when I found him this afternoon.
This summer I am helping to feed feral cats and kittens in an abandoned house in my neighborhood, in an effort to a) keep them well-nourished and b) get them a little used to humans so we can catch them for spay/neuter.
Yesterday I was walking by the house and saw in the sun a crow fledgling. He was laying down and looked distressed, so I moved him to the shade, using a plastic bag to cover my hands. After a few minutes he revived and began to hop around the yard. I felt horrible about leaving him there, but his parents were up in the tree cawing loudly, and he wasn't injured. The Audubon Society does not recommend removing fledgling birds from where you found them unless they are obviously ill or injured, and the parents do not seem to be anywhere around. This was not the case for this little fellow, he seemed ultimately happy and healthy. Much as I wanted to protect him from the kittens in the yard, I knew that if I saved him from kittens he would still be exposed to other dangers. I left him in the yard, making sure to leave plenty of food for the kittens so they would not try to hunt him.
Today I walked past the house and found the baby crow dead on the sidewalk. I examined him as much as I could without touching him directly; no bite wounds or blood, so it wasn't the cats or the stray dogs that roam the neighborhood. However he was outside of the fence, when yesterday he had been firmly inside of it. My only thoughts are that 1) he crawled through the chain link and died of natural causes there on the sidewalk or 2) this was not the fledgling from yesterday, and instead was a different one who had the misfortune to fall out of the nest onto a concrete sidewalk instead of a leaf-littered yard. I did not see any live or dead fledglings in the yard, though, so I am not sure what to think.
Poor little fellow. On the one hand I feel I should've saved him somehow; on the other hand, I know that he would have difficulty living a normal crow life if he had been prematurely captured by humans and raised in a wildlife rehabilitation facility. Ultimately... there are a multitude of crows in the world, and the death of one fledgling, in the face of the others out there, is insignificant.
But I will remember him regardless.
The top two photographs are from yesterday when he was alive; the bottom three are from when I found him this afternoon.