Alphabet Thursday - B is for Bird

Image found: www.zazzle.com

Spring is advancing upon us and soon the sound of young birds will be filling the air. But lets not forget the lead up to Spring and those birds still having to endure these harsh winter months, come rain, snow or shine.

I used to do some volunteer work with RSPB when I was younger and had more time to spare. It was a lot of fun, talking to people about birds in their gardens, the rare partially albanistic blackbirds they have spotted, what they do to help wildlife in their gardens, doing craft activities with the kids.

As it says on the tin the RSPB do, do a lot for birds but they also draw their attention to other aspects of nature, as they realise for survival all species play a bigger part to one another in regards to survival and environment. So the work they do isn't limited to just birds.

One big event they hold every year is the: BigGardenBirdWatch - which you can do right now (just follow the link)
All you have to do is observe the amount of birds that come into your garden for an hour. Just one hour to sit down and observe nature at its best and submit your results to them.
This is a huge wildlife survey to help collect data about species population around the UK, to compare if the populations of each species is stable or fluctuating.

Their website is useful giving you tips on things you can do to help the wildlife that lives in your back garden from insect housing to hedgehog habitats, from pondlife to feeding the birds.

Follow this link: makeahomeforwildlife

A few birds I've spotted:

Swans: beautiful, majestic creatures but can be dangerous when with young. Two of the saddest moments I remember regarding swans was, firstly, one of the swans down at our local pools got knocked over on the road and killed, its mate was there close to the spot it had passed away, for weeks morning the loss, until one day, it also got hit by a car. Sad ending all round but showed the truth behind the rumour that they mate for life.

Secondly, a mother swan was with its young in the river in Shrewsbury. Unfortunately, one had died. I was constantly lifting it's head out of the water, trying to bring it to life. That sad thing was that when we passed the same spot 3 hours later it was still trying to save its young one but to no avail. The compassion shown by these example swans is amazing. Truly a wonderful bird.

This video is amazing. Tangled swans asking humans for help.

  

Swan footprints in the snow.

Saw this kingfisher whilst staying on a friends canal boat. This was the best image I could get. I was at dusk, so fairly dark and the bird was between 8-10 metres away plus I was using a basic digital camera 8mp.

This beautiful video show the kingfisher 'fishing' in slow motion.

A buzzard on the telephone line

A Swallow we saw by the canal boat.

These are moorhen eggs seen by the pools in Brampton Bryan

Some of the many birds in Mum and Dads garden:

Beautiful song thrush

Chaffinch

Blackcap

Goldcrest

This is a fledgling Goldfinch, I found whilst walking Leo around Leominster Graveyard. It was soaked through and have trouble taking off. So we put it high up on a branch so at least it would have chance to dry off before a some other animal had chance to make it its dinner.  

A Robin that decided my bike was the perfect perch at the railway station.

Another cheeky Robin that flew into my mums house and had a wonder around her kitchen.

This is Eric. A blind baby sparrow we found. We rescued him from being set upon by a cat that had been eyeing him up. We kept him for as long as we could make his days comfortable but whatever deeper was wrong with him, sadly got the better of him.

This is Jack, he's a Jackdaw.

 Jack, was bought to us by Nath's Sister and my foster Sister. It looked like there was no hope for him as he was on the brink of death. I made no promises but would try my best.

I warmed him up by wrapping him in a towel and put a heat lamp in the box with him, the box was a large lawn mower box so it would get to hot for him, as we place him the other end of the box. After an hour or two, I gently watered him with a dropper. A mix of warm water, salt and sugar - only a little of sugar and salt in the water - creating an electrolyte mixture (rehydration mix). Rubbing the dropper against his beak allowing a drop of water to moisten his beak just enough to make him open it to take in some of the water. I only gave him a 1/4 of the dropper full. Then left him over night.

In the morning he was  still breathing but hadn't moved. I boiled up some eggs crushed these up with the shells, moistened some dog biscuits, bit of jelly dog food, added some of my chickens feed, oats and mealworm. I blended all of these together and a little added warm water with the salt and sugar. 

To fed him, I put a little into the end of the dropper, asked Nath to gently open his beak so I could get it into his mouth.  He swallowed the first lot. We repeated this a further 5 times then left him to settle.

Over the next few 1/2 hours, repeating this same process. By the third hour, he had perked up and even shook his head to get rid of the residue from his beak. The Jackdaw glare was starting to awaken.

After about the fourth hour he was really starting to move. I was able to examine him and realised that his wing was under developed on the one side, which explained why he was found at the side of the road. He was a fledgling but no quite there yet. Early flight disaster. Upon examining his feet, it seemed he hand no grip. Placing my finger between his claws, he made little effort to back his feet away or grip on. Hence the wonky walk. 

But things were looking up for Jack.

By the third day of him being hand fed and examined, that morning we heard the strangest noise. Jack had found his voice and was telling us it was feeding time.  I fed him by hand up until the fifth day and by the sixth I was making the mixture a lot stodgier and placing it on a plate for him to help himself. This worked but the mess he made was bad. Food flying everywhere in his bed, constantly had to change the newspaper - lucky we worked somewhere where we had access to plenty of it. But it was worth it. 

In regards to his feet, I gently opened and closed his bad foot to work the muscles and I also kept picking him up and holding him over his branches (see image) and getting him to grasp them. It started with Nath holding him and me closing his one bad foot around the branch, until he could do it himself. Luckily for Jack that was all he needed.

His wing was progressing nicely and he was able to flap up to places - like our bed, shouting at us a 6am for breakfast and to say hello. He loved having a bath, as being in his box made him dirty. We'd put him in a warm bowl of water in the bath and he'd have a wail of a time, jumping in and out, preening his feathers, getting himself all handsome.

 Jack was all better after two weeks.

After those two weeks, we then released him into Mum and Dads garden. Where is was safe from the road and any predators. He had run of the garden. With plenty of food, baths and branches to sleep on. He stayed with them for a week or so, then started venturing further a field to other people's gardens but always coming back at night. A group of Jackdaws, would appear on the telephone wires above the garden and yell at Jack. At first he wasn't bothered but then he joined them as was back as a wild Jackdaw once more. He still visits Mum and Dads garden with his new group but only to eat the fatballs.

Jack, the Jackdaw is now happy, wild and free.

Nathen's nephew holding Jack.