Some bird advice
This morning we awoke to treacherous storms. One thing about working with birds, is that you cannot work in the rain. The birds aren't active, you can't flush them from their nests because then their eggs or babies will get cold and wet, and it seems like about 90% of the equipment we use isn't waterproof. So when it rains, we get to sleep in past 5am. Another major bonus is that we get to watch morning television, with obvious favourites like 'live with regis and kelly'. What could be more enjoyable?
This morning, Kelly and Regis were entertaining us with some witty banter, and Kelly mentions that she has a new friend. She has named it Tweety, or something equally inspired. She then brings out a box, and inside is a baby American Robin. She explains to us that it has fallen from its nest, and can't fly, so she is taking care of it. She has deduced that it can't fly, because if it could, it would have flown back up to the nest after 'falling out'. And she is doing an excellent job of caring for it, by trying to feed it bread with milk. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Every migratory bird's dream.
What my favourite talk show host failed to realize, was that this Robin was at least 12 days old... right around the age when they fledge naturally. For the first day or two after leaving the nest, songbirds are generally pathetic at flying, and can easily be caught by hand. Also, once a bird leaves the nest, it never looks back. A baby bird going back to the nest after leaving would be like us crawling back into our mother's womb after she's given birth to us. The imagery is a little different, but the likelihood of the two things happening is about the same. Birds usually continue feeding their babies for around 3 or 4 weeks after they've left the nest. Even when birds do leave nests prematurely, the parents still keep feeding them unless they're dead. So basically, what Kelly Ripa did, was she took a fledged Robin away from its parents, which were going to feed it delicious insects, caterpillars, worms, etc... she then brought it onto live t.v. and tried feeding it soggy bread, with no recognition of the fact that a wild bird is not the same as a domestic pet. The bird must not have been eating because it just wasn't hungry...
At the end of the show, they had a bird update. Some wildlife service branch had called up the show and told them that they would take the Robin, as it was a federally protected species. This makes the robin sound quite important, but actually all migratory songbirds are federally protected. It is very clearly written into the Migratory Bird Act that one should not take babies away from their parents and bring them onto live t.v..
Brad tried to contact Kelly via e-mail to let her know how she unnecessarily killed that bird, but was only able to find a section on their website where you can ask Regis and Kelly a question (max 300 characters long), which they may answer during a monthly Q&A segment of the show. I imagine this section is meant more for asking Kelly what type of hair conditioner she uses, and asking Regis where he gets his ties from, than for pointing out to them that they are evil, evil people. There is also no discussion board for the show, but I felt this topic should be discussed. People like Kelly need to be stopped.
IMHO, I think that today's segment proved that Kelly Ripa is one of the three dumbest people alive. Or is she? Do I only think that what Kelly did was horrifying because everyone that I live, work, and socialize with would know better? What would someone who doesn't know much about birds, but has average or above average intelligence (such as yourself) do if they saw a baby bird hopping on the ground underneath a nest? Last year when I lived at a bird observatory (where people go to LOOK at birds), people would bring in baby birds expecting us to feed and care for them. My only advice for them was to take the bird back to where they found it, and hope that the parents were still looking for them. Anyway, I really just hope that no one out there ever follows Kelly's example. In anything. Ever.
This morning, Kelly and Regis were entertaining us with some witty banter, and Kelly mentions that she has a new friend. She has named it Tweety, or something equally inspired. She then brings out a box, and inside is a baby American Robin. She explains to us that it has fallen from its nest, and can't fly, so she is taking care of it. She has deduced that it can't fly, because if it could, it would have flown back up to the nest after 'falling out'. And she is doing an excellent job of caring for it, by trying to feed it bread with milk. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Every migratory bird's dream.
What my favourite talk show host failed to realize, was that this Robin was at least 12 days old... right around the age when they fledge naturally. For the first day or two after leaving the nest, songbirds are generally pathetic at flying, and can easily be caught by hand. Also, once a bird leaves the nest, it never looks back. A baby bird going back to the nest after leaving would be like us crawling back into our mother's womb after she's given birth to us. The imagery is a little different, but the likelihood of the two things happening is about the same. Birds usually continue feeding their babies for around 3 or 4 weeks after they've left the nest. Even when birds do leave nests prematurely, the parents still keep feeding them unless they're dead. So basically, what Kelly Ripa did, was she took a fledged Robin away from its parents, which were going to feed it delicious insects, caterpillars, worms, etc... she then brought it onto live t.v. and tried feeding it soggy bread, with no recognition of the fact that a wild bird is not the same as a domestic pet. The bird must not have been eating because it just wasn't hungry...
At the end of the show, they had a bird update. Some wildlife service branch had called up the show and told them that they would take the Robin, as it was a federally protected species. This makes the robin sound quite important, but actually all migratory songbirds are federally protected. It is very clearly written into the Migratory Bird Act that one should not take babies away from their parents and bring them onto live t.v..
Brad tried to contact Kelly via e-mail to let her know how she unnecessarily killed that bird, but was only able to find a section on their website where you can ask Regis and Kelly a question (max 300 characters long), which they may answer during a monthly Q&A segment of the show. I imagine this section is meant more for asking Kelly what type of hair conditioner she uses, and asking Regis where he gets his ties from, than for pointing out to them that they are evil, evil people. There is also no discussion board for the show, but I felt this topic should be discussed. People like Kelly need to be stopped.
IMHO, I think that today's segment proved that Kelly Ripa is one of the three dumbest people alive. Or is she? Do I only think that what Kelly did was horrifying because everyone that I live, work, and socialize with would know better? What would someone who doesn't know much about birds, but has average or above average intelligence (such as yourself) do if they saw a baby bird hopping on the ground underneath a nest? Last year when I lived at a bird observatory (where people go to LOOK at birds), people would bring in baby birds expecting us to feed and care for them. My only advice for them was to take the bird back to where they found it, and hope that the parents were still looking for them. Anyway, I really just hope that no one out there ever follows Kelly's example. In anything. Ever.