Baby Birds Lessons

The yard is full of  baby bird song now.  Well, it’s actually not song, but begging calls.   You’ve probably seen the young crows  following right behind a parent, squatting and fluffing like a helpless nestling and making a whiny, kid sound.  That’s the only way I can describe it.  “C’mon Mom, feed me, I’m dying here.”   The patient parent pokes some nutritious bug or seed into the gaping mouth, probably hoping for some quiet.

The flock of twenty or so young red-winged blackbirds are feeling their oats, flying and singing across the yard, pretty heedless of any danger.   Yesterday I heard a loud clunk, the sound I’ve come to know means bird-window collision.  Sure enough, below my big window (which is well-marked for bird safety by the way) lay a stunned young red-wing.   Wings and tail open and flush with the ground, head extended and eyes open.  Didn’t look good.  I gently picked him up and met no resistance.  Really stunned, maybe too hurt to make it. But there was tone in his neck- his head didn’t flop down, and both legs quickly pulled back when I touched his feet.

I put him into a dark, well-ventilated box in a quiet corner of the garage and hoped for the best.  When I checked in a half an hour, he was hopping ready to get out of there and back to his pals.  He flew straight and true for the feeder for a catch-up snack. He was lucky.  Window collisions kill millions of birds a year.   It’s easy to prevent too.   I like to hang a long string of colored glass beads in each window.  It gives birds perspective and they then ‘see’ the glass.   Most of them anyway.  Youngsters are a different deal.  You have to be looking where you’re going for it to work.   Kids.

The osprey parents have a new fledgling, and both parents and youngster cheep noisily as they circle the lake.  Such a fierce, majestic bird, and they cheep like a songbird.   The youngster’s new wings haven’t developed all the muscles he will need for migration and he needs flight time.   But again, like most adolescents, he wants to hang out  -- in the nearest tree, watching the parents work for a living.   He perched happily this morning and one of the adults came flying in from behind and bumped him right off the branch.  Fly, baby. 

Hairy woodpeckers live in our area, but they’re heard much more often than seen.  They have a high, descending kind of laughing call, called a ‘whinny’.  The hairy woodpecker couple have a fledgling too, and one parent brings him to our suet feeder early mornings.  Hairys have a beautiful red cap on their head,  complimenting a black and white body.  The youngster hasn’t feathered in with adult feathers and is sort of a graphite gray.   He had a lesson in getting suet from a feeder.  Parent would reach in and peck off a succulent bit, then turn and face the baby, who clearly thought it was his.  But no, parent ate it, looking pointedly at the baby then the suet.   Baby wasn’t happy.  All this time parent had willingly fed him, what’s the deal?  After many, many tries, the youngster reluctantly went for his own suet.   I can imagine a bubble over the parent’s head saying something like “Finally!”

And of course, all of the ducks have grown into beautiful, fully-feathered adults.  The three light colored ducks are still just that: mallard-ish, but with a pale tan undertone instead of brown.  They’re beautiful and I hope to see them back next year.  They’ll be easy to identify.

So life carries on.  This was a good year for the birds,  with many successful broods.  There are so many more I haven’t mentioned. The golden clouds of goldfinches sailing from holly tree to shore pine, singing, singing.  The new spotted towhee learning to hop and feed.   Life is good.   

How to Wash a Dirty Bird

It was the morning after a dark and stormy night.  At the Wildlife Center, a new, bedraggled duck had been brought in for care.  This was a surf scoter, more commonly known as a sea duck.  These are big, burly, heavily feathered ducks that thrive in the open sea, effortlessly riding the huge swells.   They breed and nest on the far northern tundra and winter in our bays. 

They sport a bright orange and white bill that seems to start at the top of the bird’s head, black body and white eye.   Lovely orange feet complete the ensemble.

This guy was found in the Hammond boat basin. He was wet to the skin – never a good thing for a water bird – thin and weak.  It still took some skilled acrobatics from a sea kayak to nab him in a net.

He now sat in a warm, well-ventilated cardboard box, towel wrapped around him.  He looked kind of like an exhausted boxer after a tough bout.  Often we have no idea how a bird becomes ill and compromised- they are simply rescued and brought to the Center.   This one got into some chemicals somewhere in the water that caused his feathers to lose their waterproofing.  That’s all it takes.  Icy water getting through to skin causes hypothermia, which inhibits feeding which leads to weakness and death, unless a rescue happens.

So, how to clean a sea bird.

Gather two plastic pans- think shallow kitty litter boxes.  Fill them both with hot water and add LOTS of Dawn liquid dish soap to one.   The label tells the truth: it’s the best thing to use for de-oiling birds.   Put enough liquid soap in to make the water ‘slimy’ to your fingers.  Find at least one more person to help.  Gently but firmly place the duck in the first pan and  hold him as still as possible.  The helper  then scrub, scrub, scrubs.  Fingers massage feathers down to skin everywhere on the bird.  You can imagine that the duck, at this point, thinks his life is over.  We work as quickly as possible, but we’re not done yet.  Wash and scrub more.   Put the bird gently into the water-only pan and rinse with a strong stream of warm water, getting into all the hidden spots, like way under the wings and tail.  Run the water against the feather grain until the feathers feel squeaky clean.  Then…..do it all again – rinse and fill the first pan with more hot water and Dawn and start over.  More dirt and oil will appear like magic.  Birds can hold a lot of contaminants in their feathers.  Another rinse and you have an exhausted but clean bird.

Gently but quickly dry him with warm towels and place him gently in an enclosure that is dim and quiet.  If the bird is shivering, a hair dryer on low speed can be aimed into the enclosure.   We check on the washed birds but try not to disturb them until they are able to regain their equilibrium.   These are sturdy guys and unless there’s underlying illness or trauma, they’ll be ready for a nice fish dinner in a few hours.   This washing process doesn’t waterproof the bird. The bird does that.  Not just ducks either.  Each feather needs to be ‘zipped’ closed  by careful preening, and oil from an oil gland on the bird’s backside is used as a final finish.  But the feathers must be clean in order for this to be possible.

Our scoter did well and was soon doing his ‘threat’ posturing when we opened his door.  This consists of a lowered, extended head, weaving back and forth and an open bill.   Not too scary but hey, it’s all he’s got, and we like spunk in our birds.

A week or so later we watched with big smiles as he was released into Young’s Bay.  He fluffed his now clean and waterproofed feathers and immediately dove down long and far.  We wished him well and went back to the Center to wash down another bird or two.