Sunday, February 03, 2008

Bird In Distress


Not long after I spotted the ospreys I mentioned a few minutes ago, I came across this little tern. Stumbled across is more like it, because I almost stepped on him. He didn't fly away so I knelt down to take a few pictures. It worried me that he wasn't flying or walking away like these guys normally do, so when I was done shooting, I walked over to him. Something was wrong because I was able to pick him up. His wings and feet seemed to be in good shape, he just didn't seem to have any energy. I took him over to the lighthouse and found a park ranger, but we weren't able to get hold of anybody due to the Super Bowl starting in a few minutes. I put the guy back on the beach where I found him and checked on him a few times later. He seemed to be a little better, walking around instead of just laying there. The park ranger assured me that she would check on him in the morning. I feel bad that there wasn't anything more I could do for the guy. The two shots below aren't typical of the way he was behaving, so don't look at them and think he was broken. Those are after I set him back on the beach and before he got his bearings. But even in the picture above, you can look at his eye and tell something's not quite right...

2 comments:

  1. Ernie, I know how you feel about that poor critter.

    I had a baby bird wash out of the nest after a bad storm. I found him on the ground while mowing. He was in bad shape. I didn't know what to do with him.

    A neighbor told me of a vet that would be able to care for him. The vet said that if I had tried to put the bird back into the nest the mom would have pushed him out again.

    Never did find out how he did. You have a good heart to care for that little guy the way you did.

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  2. Maybe it was the bird flu virus?

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