Nine days ago we got side tracked on the way down the driveway. An afternoon of errand running got waylaid by a small bird hopping and trying to quickly flap her way off the road in front of the car.
We stopped, gathered her up and detoured to the local antique shop where days before I was coveting a pretty birdcage (I just needed a good excuse… and suddenly I had one!).
All errands cancelled, bird in the new birdcage, we quickly realized that our plan to singlehandedly help her back to health was probably a bad one. She kept trying to fly, but would land on her back and have a hard time flipping over.
If I was going to prevent her from dying in the night, flat on her back, I was going to get NO sleep….and then what?
After some quick recon with friends and vets, we headed to the Tufts Wildlife Clinic which is about 35 minutes south of our house near Worcester, MA. The Tufts Wildlife clinic helps injured wild animals and operates on donations from the public. I had no idea such a wonderful place existed until we dropped her off.
She (did I mention we named her Betsy?) is making progress after spending a couple days in wing wraps but the vets report that she still has a shoulder droop that they are watching.
We are eagerly waiting to hear about her further progress….fingers crossed. But during our first report we learned that she is a fledgling bluebird and that ‘she’ is actually a ‘he’.
So we have a bluebird boy named Betsy.
Did you know that bluebirds are one of the best bird friends a gardener can ask for? Betsy and her (err, I mean his) little family can keep my garden seriously pest free.
Until we found him, I didn’t realize we had bluebirds and given their status as a ‘declining species’ (but apparently coming back) I am desperate to get him back and help him to thrive.
Do you have bluebirds where you live?
I’ve noticed something about blue colored birds. They really like to eat off my blueberry bush. In fact when I chase birds off my berries….it is almost exclusively a flutter of blue wings. Coincidence? (probably) Or some sort of wild kingdom Veruca Salt sort of story. Hmmm…
While we wait to hear about how Betsy is progressing, and hoping that we will get to release him back into our garden soon, we’ve got our eye on all things bluebirds. I thought you might enjoy some of our inspiration too.
Images:
Top – Our Besty – by rochelle greayer on instagram.
Full grown male Blue bird from National Geographic.
Blue bird art by Valentina Ramos
Coloring sheets from 50 Birds (download uncolored here)
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