A HANDFUL OF BLUEBERRIES

 

MONDAY

 

I found a baby bird today!  I was in the yard fixing the tire on my bike and I kind of saw it out the corner of my eye.  I watched for a little while to see what was going on, but it just sat there.  I didn't know if it was hurt or anything, but when it started peeping and coming towards me I got a little scared.  I remembered Miss Fitch telling us about birds last year in science class.  She got her friend Colleen to come and talk to us.  Colleen is a wildlife rehabilitator and she brought along slides to show us so we could learn about wild animals and what rehabilitators do.  It was pretty cool! Anyway, Colleen said a lot of times people pick up baby birds when they shouldn't.  When they have all their feathers, they usually leave the nest and sometimes it takes a few days for them to learn to fly.  Their parents come down and feed them.  Colleen said it was always better to watch and wait for a while, to see if the parents are around.  I remembered that just in time.  I stayed outside and waited for a while but there were no other birds around, not even in the trees or at the feeders by the garage.

 

Colleen told our class that when a baby bird really is in trouble, we should get an adult to help. I thought hard about what else she'd told us.  She said we should very gently lift the baby and put it into a box.  The box should be big enough to hold it comfortably, and we should put a clean folded towel in it… one that has no holes or ravels.  The box needs to have air but not holes where the bird can see through.  I ran into the house and got the box my new runners came in and found a towel, and then I went back out.  The baby bird was still right there, peeping.  It didn't even try to run away when it saw me.  It opened its mouth really, really wide.  Its mouth was kind of purply-pink inside.  I remembered that was called a gape, and the baby was gaping for food!  I felt pretty sorry for it, and I forgot to feel afraid.  I picked it up very carefully and put it in the box.  Then, I put the lid on, just like Colleen said.

 

I took the bird into the house and tried to remember what to do next.  I thought maybe I should feed the bird because it hadn't eaten for a long time.  Maybe it was thirsty too!  Then, I remembered.   I could almost hear Colleen's voice in my mind.  She said "Never put water in a bird's mouth.  They can inhale it and get pneumonia.  Don't feed a baby bird because the correct diet is very important.  When you find a baby bird and you are sure that it is in trouble, put it in a box, take it indoors to a safe, quiet place and call a wildlife rehabilitator."

 

I went to my room and looked through my school stuff.  Colleen had given us a handout with her name and phone number on it.  She'd told us we could call her if we ever needed help with a wild animal.  YES!  I found it. My mom would have been surprised!  She likes to say my room is such a mess, an elephant could get lost in it.

 

I went to the phone and dialed, and when Colleen answered I told her who I was and what had happened.  She asked me some questions, like had I seen the parents, was the bird bleeding, did both its wings look the same, was it standing on both legs, were its eyes open or closed.   I told her how I'd watched and waited for a long time.  I told her I didn't see any blood, and both its wings looked the same, only every time it saw me it would kind of pump them up and down and open its mouth.  I said it was standing on both of its legs and yes, its eyes were open.  I said it had feathers but in a few spots it had funny feathers, like quills or something… and it didn't have what you'd call a tail.  It was a grayish colour, it had a little mask like Zorro… and its gape was purplish pink.

 

Colleen told me I was very observant!  She said the bird sounded like a nestling cedar waxwing. She said that when a little bird pumps its wings up and down and gaped, it is pleading.  That means it's asking for food.   She asked me to watch the spot from the window for another hour and if the parents still hadn't come back, we should bring the bird to her place.

 

When mom came in from the garden, I told her what had happened.   She got the binoculars and said, "Come on, Pete, let's go outside and see if we can find a nest."  We'd just started for the spot where I'd found the bird when my dad drove up.  Mom told him what was going on, and he said he was going to walk around the other side of the property to see if he could find any cedar waxwings in the trees or other babies anywhere.  We must have looked forever.  My stomach was growling because I was getting so hungry, but that just reminded me of how that little bird must feel.  We saw three chickadees, a robin, some goldfinches and a nuthatch, but none of us saw cedar waxwings. 

 

My dad said maybe we should head over to Colleen's house with the bird, so we got the box and left.

 

We were surprised when we saw Colleen's place.  Her property is pretty big, like ours, and behind the house and at the sides there are a lot of cages.  She told us that the ones at the back are called flight cages and they are used for birds.  On one side, there are cages for small mammals like rabbits and squirrels.  She has a building that she calls her clinic.  That's where we went.  She took the bird out of the box and examined it, and then she put it in a big cage.  We answered her questions and she wrote everything down.  She said the bird was a nestling cedar waxwing, but it was very close to fledging.  When I asked her what that meant, she said that it was almost ready to leave the next, and that was called fledging.  It didn't seem to be injured, but she'd look at it really well after she got our information.  She said it would be okay if I called the next day, and she'd be able to tell me more.

 

I couldn't stop thinking about the baby bird all night.  I remembered how it opened its mouth for food, and it made me feel sad.  My mom said not to worry.  She said that Colleen would have fed it by now.  My mom and dad must have felt worried too, because they kept looking for cedar waxwings until it was dark.  They didn't see any.

 

TUESDAY

 

After breakfast, my mom and I went outside again and looked around.  We still didn't see waxwings, not one baby or one adult.  How had that baby come to be in our yard?  It was a mystery.  We filled the bird feeders and the birdbath for the chickadees and finches, and then we went inside.  Mom said I could phone Colleen and ask how the bird was doing today.

 

Colleen told me that the bird seemed to be in pretty good shape.   She told me he was going to be just fine and that she'd be able to let him go in a few weeks or less, as soon as he was eating well on his own and able to fly well.  I told her I was really glad that she was there to help animals, and she told me she was really glad I was there too! 

 

SATURDAY

 

Colleen called me today to tell me about the cedar waxwing.  He was getting better and bigger all the time and she was trying to get him to feed himself.  She asked me if I'd do her a favor.  I said of COURSE I would!  I was really excited… I wanted to help the bird.  She told me that he'd be more eager to eat if there were berries on his plate that he might recognize… she said his mom would have been feeding him a whole lot of berries from our yard. Colleen had lots of animals to take care of that day, and she said it would be a real help to her if I could find some berries.  She gave me a list of what I might find at our place.  I went to my mom and told her what Colleen had asked me to do.  The only problem was that I didn't know what most of those berries looked like!  My mom went into the house and brought out her book on native plants and trees and stuff, and she said she'd like to help me.  We took some little plastic bags and we went around our yard.  We got some berries from our mountain ash tree and some dogwood berries from the bushes.  Then, we went into the woods and found pin cherries and wild cranberries.  On the ground, deeper in the woods where there the spruce and pine trees open onto kind of rocky ground, I found a huge patch of blueberry bushes.  There weren't many berries left and they were pretty dried out, but I picked a handful or two.

 

When we dropped the stuff off at her house Colleen thanked us.  She said she hoped that would do the trick and that the little bird would start eating on his own.

 

TUESDAY 

We saw Colleen at the store today and she was pretty happy.  She said the little bird was eating up a storm, and his favourite things were blueberries!  I hoped she had enough, because all the dried blueberries were gone now.  She said she'd gotten some frozen ones and he seemed to like those too, but not as much as the ones I'd picked for him. She said that he'd be going out into a flight cage in a few days so that his wings could grow stronger and he could learn to fly properly.  She said that it wouldn't be long after that before he was ready to go.  She told us that she had two more cedar waxwings around the same age as ours, and that they'd be happy together. I was really glad.  I thought he must have missed being around other waxwings.

 

It was about ten days later that Colleen called again.  My mother answered the phone.  She came outside and got me out of the tree where I have my fort.  She told me to hurry because Colleen had a surprise for us! 

 

When we got to her house, Colleen was whispering and being very quiet.  She told us to look around, and then we saw them!  There were cedar waxwings all over the place.  She said it was perfect.  The three babies in the flight cage were self-feeding and flying strongly, and she thought it was a good time to release them.  Mom and I went to sit on the back step while Colleen went into the flight cage.  She left the doors open behind her and in a couple of minutes the three birds shot out of the cage.  It happened so fast that it was kind of disappointing.  They landed in a big elm tree near the house. 

 

Colleen came and sat with us, and we watched for a while.  I'm glad we did, because it wasn't disappointing after that.  The adult birds and their babies were flying from tree to tree, and then we saw a few land in the elm tree.  The three birds crept a little closer to the wild ones, and after about ten minutes, they all flew away.  It felt SO good to see our baby where he belonged, finally!

 

It was just that kind of a moment, if you know what I mean… when everything seems perfect. Then, Colleen looked at me and she said, "Thanks, Pete.  Today couldn't have happened without you."  I felt really embarrassed.  I told her "heck, all I had to offer was a handful of blueberries."  She was quiet for a moment. Then, she said, "No, Pete… what you offered that little bird was a lot more. You did everything that was right to do for him.  You didn't think of yourself.  You didn't hurt him by doing the wrong things.  You didn't play with him for your own pleasure.  You used a lot of common sense, and without you, he wouldn't have had a chance.  You gave him a SECOND chance.  That's no handful of blueberries, Pete.  That's a hand full of hope."