{"id":2461,"date":"2014-06-09T14:08:04","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T18:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/?p=2461"},"modified":"2014-06-09T14:08:04","modified_gmt":"2014-06-09T18:08:04","slug":"bird-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2014\/06\/bird-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"Bird Rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was bicycling through the wilds of Roane County, ambling up this ridge<\/a>, when I spotted an object in the road ahead.\u00a0 At first I thought it was a leaf, but as I approached I saw that it was slowly moving, not blowing across the lane, on legs.<\/p>\n

I had happened across a very young bird (unknown species) who was not long removed from the nest.\u00a0 Its wings weren’t developed enough for it to fly, and it was walking\/hopping in a directionless lost manner on the road.\u00a0 It\u00a0 barely moved when I rolled up to it on my bike, indicating that it was not yet aware of its surroundings.<\/p>\n

Although the traffic on this road is not heavy (there was no vehicles in sight when I stopped) I knew that the outlook for this chick was not good if I left it there.\u00a0 A few minutes on the road would be enough to do it in.<\/p>\n

So I stopped the bike to “rescue” it.\u00a0 The only problem is that I am not a good animal handler.\u00a0 At all.\u00a0 I have difficulty holding and treating my cat, when necessary.\u00a0 Here we’re dealing with a wild animal.<\/p>\n

I was able to grab the chick easily enough–as I said, it seemed stunned.\u00a0 But issues arose when I picked it up.\u00a0 I didn’t want to squeeze it too hard and harm it, so I grasped it loosely.\u00a0 Sudden it started fluttering and escaped my grasp, flopping to the ground near the center lines.<\/p>\n

I felt exposed standing in the road, holding my bike while trying to corral this bird.\u00a0 At any time a pickup truck could come barreling around the corner, creating an incident.<\/p>\n

No time to dally, I caught the chick again.\u00a0 I held it more firmly this time, but started to feel insecure again when it began wiggling.\u00a0 So I quickly took a couple steps toward the edge of the road and tossed it into the vegetation several feet away.<\/p>\n

My pitch would not have won me a spot as a zookeeper, but I suspect the bird survived the involuntary flight intact.\u00a0 Definitely less traumatic than falling from a nest.<\/p>\n

My “rescue” came none too soon; a few seconds later a couple pickup trucks rounded the turn below and zoomed by.\u00a0 The first one barely allowed me any space as it passed.\u00a0 Suffice it to say the bird wouldn’t have been offered any.<\/p>\n

Did I save the chick?\u00a0 We’ll never know.\u00a0 I’d like to think I made a difference.\u00a0 But frankly, in that state, mired in vegetation, the odds of its survival didn’t seem good.\u00a0 I heard chirping nearby–possibly the mother?\u00a0 If so, perhaps she would help it.\u00a0 Otherwise, who knows.<\/p>\n

I do know what its fate would have been if it remained on the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I was bicycling through the wilds of Roane County, ambling up this ridge, when I spotted an object in the road ahead.\u00a0 At first I thought it was a leaf, but as I approached I saw that it was slowly moving, not blowing across the lane, on legs. I had happened across a very […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2461"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2464,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2461\/revisions\/2464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}