Bird Rescue
Early morning, on the day of his birthday party, Ro found this bird sitting very still on our deck. My google-fu told me that it was a Western Tanager, a non-native bird whose migration path barely touches Austin. Convinced that it needed attention before it (a) died from its unknown sickness, or (b) got eaten by my dogs, and therefore (a) died, we packed it up and took it to Wildlife Management.
It was very docile as I grabbed it with a towel and lowered it into the shoe box. I petted it and it seemed to perk up, eyes wide open (probably freaked out completely). We made the 30 minute drive to the east end of town. “What do you have here?”, she (wildlife person) said. “Can I pet it before we leave?”, Ro said. “Sure!”, I said. Opened the box, and boom! It flew away. The wildlife lady was very understanding of my rookie mistake, and tried to tell me it was probably just sore from a window strike. Deflated, we went home. And what do I see, but a clump of yellow and black feathers plastered on my dining window! It *was* a window strike. Birdy wasn’t sick! All’s well that ends well. Ro got a lesson in gently rescuing birds. We both got a lesson in not opening a bird box!