A million times I tried to rescue baby birds as I was growing up. A nest of young starlings fell through the chimney when I was a young adult, and I tried to save them, even. They ALWAYS die.
First time I ever "saved" a young bird was a few years ago --- a baby robin whose feathers weren't developed enough to fly. He was all the time hungry, and very receptive to being fed water-soaked mushy cat food with an eye dropper.
I LOOOOVED having my own 'piece of nature' trusting me, sitting on my finger, etc. One day, I came home from work, and a robin dive-bombed me from our roof. I thought it was his angry mother, and 'duck-and-covered' in fright. But, there he sat, looking at me eagerly -- it was our PET robin asking to be fed again.
Within the week he had apparently frightened a young neighbor boy with a similarly aggressive interest in being fed. The neighbor boy took a brick and smashed our robin dead. Another young neighbor boy witnessed the event, and knew that was "our" robin, so he came and told us...
Moral of the story, you don't fail a wild animal when you don't "take care" of them because they need to know that people are 'the enemy.'
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timeasmymeasure
Raising something from the wild
Date: 2006-02-26 08:30 pm (UTC)First time I ever "saved" a young bird was a few years ago --- a baby robin whose feathers weren't developed enough to fly. He was all the time hungry, and very receptive to being fed water-soaked mushy cat food with an eye dropper.
I LOOOOVED having my own 'piece of nature' trusting me, sitting on my finger, etc. One day, I came home from work, and a robin dive-bombed me from our roof. I thought it was his angry mother, and 'duck-and-covered' in fright. But, there he sat, looking at me eagerly -- it was our PET robin asking to be fed again.
Within the week he had apparently frightened a young neighbor boy with a similarly aggressive interest in being fed. The neighbor boy took a brick and smashed our robin dead. Another young neighbor boy witnessed the event, and knew that was "our" robin, so he came and told us...
Moral of the story, you don't fail a wild animal when you don't "take care" of them because they need to know that people are 'the enemy.'