OT - Need Baby Bird Help

[Joe Carthy]

"Doug Brown" wrote in news:n4SdnbuVQf71DGXWnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Doug Brown, YOU are a sign of wrong things in society.

[handyman]

I'll second that !!!

Or to say it without holding back. He's a heartless greedy asshole who serves no purpose in society. If everyone was like him, this society and the world would have been destroyed years ago.

[Stormin Mormon]

Now, that's a good use of resources.

[Stormin Mormon]

If people spent this much energy on baby humans, the world would be a better place. It does seem like a waste of energy for one bird.

[aemeijers]

People relate to ONE creature or human in distress. They can see it and hear it, or if reported in the media, imagine doing so. When it is hundreds or thousands in distress, not so much. People just can't wrap their heads around it. That is why charities like 'save the children', et al, spotlight ONE kid in the ad.

Pretty much every time the media reports on a person in distress, the checks and offers start rolling in. But when they report on a large problem that will take an ongoing effort to solve, not.

[The Daring Dufas]

It would be a good teaching experience for children about compassion. Weird, murderous SOB's often get their start by abusing and killing small animals.

TDD

[dadiOH]

No, not caring is assinine(sic) and a sign of one of the many things wrong in our society.

[norminn]

I know people who truly care more about animals than they do humans. Let 'em. It's a free country. The humane societies do great work, and have volunteers of all kinds. West Florida has a bird sanctuary that rescues and rehabs thousands of birds, including bald eagles. When birds cannot be returned to the wild, they use them for "educational" exhibits. There is nothing "educational" about a crippled bird in a cage...a good photo would be as educational. I really hate that practice, but that's me. The sanctuary relies on volunteers and does good work to undo harm done by humans...a lot of trash in the gulf ends up harming animals and it is impossible to go anywhere along the shore and not see human junk.

If the right-to-life folks quit picketing clinics and staging marches, they might have time to use in helping children. How 'bout people on death row who are proven innocent...guess when yer larger than a teabag yer right-to-life goes away.

[dadiOH]

Baby birds won't grow up to screw up the world.

[dadiOH]

LOL.

We have raised a bunch of baby Muscovy ducks that were orphaned for one reason or another... 29 all told, over the last four years.

The most at one time was this past 12 months, one group of 6, another of 16 that were a month younger. Once they were big enough to go outside they did, returning to a walled garden at night where they slept on a lanai. Can you imagine the quantity of poop that 22 ducks can expel overnight??? I had to buy a pressure washer. _____________

All our ducks eventually left for an area across the lake I call "Ducktown". The females are good fliers at about 3 months, most left by the time they were 4 months old though one stayed more than a year. The males are a bit slower at flying, generally leave between 7 and 11 months. One stayed almost 3 years (he was in love with my wife but hated the dog). Several come back from time to time; at the moment, 3 from last summer do, sometimes bringing other wild ducks with them.

Ducks are neat critters.

[Colbyt]

Pardon the top posting but I want to keep continuity.

Baby humans are the woman's "choice".

Sadly many of those who lament this poor bird would abort without thought.

That I think says more about the state of modern society than anything else.

Colbyt

[notbob]

Caring or not caring is not the same as doing what's best for the bird.

Earlier this Spring, we had a very young owl crash into one of our windows and knock it self senseless. I heard the loud thunk on the window and knew what it was and went out onto our deck in investigate. Sure enough, a little owl was sitting upright on the deck, but barely moving and all hunkered down like it was roosting. I came back inside and watched it through the window, all the while considering my options.

What should I do? Bring it in and attempt to nurse it back to health? Take it to an animal shelter? Just wait and see? I waited about 5 mins more and went back out on the deck. The owl had not moved, but was still upright and could move it's head around. I went back inside and began to search the internet for information on how to grab/handle a bird without harming it. About 5 mins later, I went back out onto the deck to check the bird. It looked up at me, immediately jumped up, and flew away to a tree about 50 yards away, apparently no worse the wear for its mishap. Whew!

Sometimes it's better to let nature take its course.

nb

[The Daring Dufas]

You're a real quack!

TDD

[norminn]

dadiOH wrote: clipped

They are shit machines :o) Some waterfronts are overpopulated because people feed them year around....same with geese and gulls. They become pests. When we fish from our dock, there may not be a bird in sight when we go out...get the hook baited and in the water and great blue heron and egrets show up. They are real beggars and wait around for free meals. Gulls are nasty ... they can divebomb and grab a cookie from a toddler's hand without touching the hand. Had a gull swoop down and steal the hot dog out of the bun I was holding one day at the beach. They don't call them "laughing gulls" for nothing :o)

[Nate Nagel]

???

A baby bird that's fallen out of the nest is pretty much dead already no matter what you do to/for it, unless you're a trained professional. Heck, the parents might have smelled something "wrong" and pushed it out. There's nothing wrong with trying to help it out, but the poor little guy is most likely toast.

nate

[Nate Nagel]

It's possible to care and feel compassion and still take a realistic attitude toward the whole thing. Which is a better use of resources, spending one's time and energy on a baby bird, or, say, volunteering at a job retraining program for the underprivileged?

Obviously, there's not a single "right" answer to that question, but the sad truth is that you can't fix everything, no matter how hard you try.

nate

[notbob]

Last I heard, bird crap never polluted entire watersheds, birds never overfished the oceans, and birds have not generally destroyed the environment to a point beyond reclamation. Oh, and birds do not force people to feed them, nor have birds over hunted humans to extinction. You need to get your basic cause/effect facts straight.

nb

[norminn]

clipped

The "smell" thing might be more urban legend than fact. There is a bald eagle nest in my area, in residential area. Animal group had an orphan eagle and placed it in this nest that had an adult pair with two hatchlings. As the story goes, the adult pair will take an orphan into their nest and raise it, but will push out a weaker baby. Ultimately, the whole nest was destroyed - too big for the tree, I believe - and haven't heard more about the outcome.

[norminn]

I had my cause/effect facts straight. Sorry to offend :o) Mentioned it because I don't like interfering with animals natural feeding and migration, unless they all migrate to my back yard :o)

At my previous Florida residence, I had wooded lots on two sides - saw gopher tortoises, burrowing owls, possum, raccoons, fox, hawks, scorpions, 8" centipede thingys, snakes...didn't feed any of them.

[Stormin Mormon]

Naah, they just squirt poop on my truck.

OK if I come over, and poop on your truck?