Death following me around (1 Viewer)

Hi Darrenom,
Thanks for letting us know of the outcome of the swans. It seems an amazing coincidence that these two should die on the same night given that down at Slimbridge and other places, the swans, ducks and geese sit out on the ice at night for hours at a time. I suppose if they were very old and both milar age then perhaps it was a combination of factors which caused them to succomb.

I've just been reading thru this thread and have one point to add. I experience frequent window hits with the smaller birds. Last winter a red-bellied woodpecker was stunned by a window hit. I went out and picked him up and took him inside and sat and held him for 15 mins or so (fearing shock) He was blinking and finally scratching at my hands so I put him back outside on a table in the sun and watched him wake up for 2 hrs!!
I later contacted Audubon and their advice was to put the bird in a box with holes for air and close it up for 2 hrs. After that it will either be ready to fly or will have succumbed.

I've run across animals hit by cars, but not quite departed from this world. In those cases, I acted. Much more merciful than the lingering suffering, crippled flopping around, etc. I hate it, though, everytime it happens.

I did find a bird in park one morning that I thought might be rehabbed. I think a cat had got it sometime during the night. A robin. The poor guy was too injured to fly. So, he'd run a bit in the grass to get away from me and my dog.

I couldn't leave him there. I went home, got a box, and scooped him up. I found a wildlife rehabber willing to try and give him a hand. I dropped him off, left a donation, and waited.

The robin didn't make it. He died after a day or so, despite some antibiotics they gave to him. Cat saliva is highly infectious to birds, and often fatal in puncture wounds.

Too bad. I felt better that his last hours were spent in a warm and safe place, however, instead of being mangled by someone's dog or providing sport for children.