Baby Bird Update
So earlier this week we trapped two Robin fledglings that were being attacked by Grackles. Per the instructions of a bird rescue person, we put them under an upturned laundry basket.
One of the little fledglings is rather spicy, and I call it Beelzebub. So B got the heck out of the basket all by itself and spent the next day or so keeping close, taking up temporary residence in the undercarriage of a flatbed parked with the auto-detailer that shares our property line. It spend it's time flying circles around the basket, where its sibling was residing.
This little one I was calling Luna, because it behaved like Luna Lovegood, a little spacey and very relaxed. Quite happy it was to hang out in its little basket, showing no desire to leave, and quite enjoying the enclosure. So it spent from about 7pm on the 18th until about 2pm on the 20th in the basket. That afternoon, we noticed a lot fewer Grackles in the yard; they had grown quite bored with tormenting the fledglings and were moving on, thankfully.
We cut a hole in the bottom edge of the basket and pushed the opening into the cedars, so the little gipper had a safe place to wander and explore because I told my wife I was worried that it wouldn't learn to Robin if it stayed under the basket.
We sat back on the deck, teas in hand, to see what would happen. For about 30 minutes, nothing happened, and then we saw the fluffy little bird emerge from the cedars. It wandered around a bit, then just kind of sat in one place in the backyard doing nothing. After about an hour, the Robining genes kicked on, and it started pecking for bugs and hopping around. We lost sight of it and hoped for the best because there are a lot of cats in our area.
The next day, there was Luna, hopping around, stretching its little wings and fluttering but not really flying. By the end of the day, it was fluttering up to the bottom branches of the cedars.
As of today, I have not yet seen any Robins in the backyard, and we had a good rain, so there should be a breakfast buffet crawling around in the grass. My hope is that they're all OK because I haven't heard noises from any bigger birds.
And that's all I've got for now! As you were!