Cold Weather Effect on Birds
Yesterday when the temperatures really started to dip, the education birds at the Raptor Center were really feeling it. I was feeding one of the peregrines who is in general a very good eater, but yesterday she ate hard and fast. She even picked every tiny red mushy crumb that was left on my glove.When I was putting her back out, I saw a house sparrow fly into the golden eagle mew. The eagle was sitting on her pedestal perch and there were a few pieces of rat just under the perch. The house sparrow flew over and started pecking off bits of rat to eat. The eagle didn't seem to mind a bit and sparrow looked to be savoring the raw rat. Mmmmm, protein.
I don't think I've put in a job update. I still have the coolest job on the planet! Thanks to the advice of friends and the support of NBB I am freelancing full time. I can't believe how well it's working. I can officially call myself a writer now--which is SO weird because I loathed it in high school and college and I need lots of editing. Boy, I can still remember being in Mrs. Strange's freshman writing class and thinking "How can someone make a living doing this without killing themselves?"
I'm not just writing, I'm doing some consulting which is sending me to Alabama next week and to Cape May Autumn Weekend at the end of the month--whoot. I've never been to Cape May and am so excited to go--plus I get see some of my peeps like WildBird on the Fly. Another fun project I just landed is that I will be guest hosting Showcase Minnesota on Monday. Normally, I am a guest but one of the hosts is taking the day off and I get to fill in for him. I'm so excited and a tad nervous, I've watched the teleprompter but I've never read it out loud on air before. Plus, I'll be wearing an ear piece that will have all the crew talking back in forth while I'm interviewing. Normally, I just hear people asking questions, I hope I don't get too distracted.
Oh well, at worst it should make for an interesting blog entry. I tell ya', I'm always so surprised at where life takes me.
posted by birdchick at 11:46 AM
11 Comments:
I was in quite a spot tonight and could have used your help! We had a parent come by to pick up soccer raffle tickets and a bird flew in to our house. The guest thought it was our bird because he was flying close to the front porch and all. We closed him off in to a bedroom area and tried to guide him out the windows, which we finally did, but I’m so concerned about him because he was so scared and so tired out from flying away from us. He started getting so tired and I thought I should just grab him, but I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not! Anyway, any thoughts???
Holy Cow! That does sound like quite an adventure!
When a bird is indoors and freaking out, the best thing to do is to turn off all the lights and opend the windows or doors to the outside, the birds go right for it.
If it's dark outside, that makes it tough to get the bird out. If the bird is tired out I'm sure it found a place to roost and wil rest until it regains its strength. It is migration so maybe the bird flew in exhausted from its journey south?
The main thing it get the bird out as quickly as possibile without it damaging its feathers or injuring itself. You just do the best you can with what you got. Grabbing it is okay if that's the safest way to get it out.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Great advice! He did okay, he didn't hit much and did stop to rest in between, he hit the ceiling a few times, but not bad. The funniest thing was that once we got him on the ledge, we put the screen over it quickly so he couldn't come back in, but he kept trying to! Thanks for the advice! I love reading your blog and learning about birds!
Thanks for the compliment!
Any idea what kind of bird it was? That's odd that it kept trying to come in. Even if you don't know the id, can you describe the size, shape, colors?
What are you doing at The Autumn Weekend in Cape May?
You'll love it there - so beautiful and birdy.
I actually wanted to take a picture but my husband was freaking. I have NO idea what kind of bird, but he was about the size of a parakeet and made a similiar sound, He was brown, I actually have some feathers still in the house. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, he was so sweet and he just wanted outttta there!
Half work and half play.
To answer Laura's question, we're going to host a rave in our hotel room on one night. Another night, we'll raid Collier's before heading over to the Beanery and... well, we've got something special planned for Sharon.
Yes, my tongue is firmly in my cheek.
What you doin in Bama?
Yo, Amy, don't make it too "special". We're sharin' a room and I have a camera...and a blog...and a HUGE naughty streak...As Non Birding Bill reminds me, I am my own evil twin.
mark, I am doing some consulting on a project that I can't talk about too much at the moment, but as the company allows in the coming months I will be mentioning it quite a bit. It's a really cool product that will be ducky for the blog.
Wow, I'm secret agent birdchick. Kind of reminds me of when I worked at Universal Exports.
Cape May rocks.
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