I've been back from Knysna for five days now and I've been working at getting stuff sorted around the house, Spring cleaning with vigor.
I've sorted through and cleaned out about 8 toolboxes, sorted and boxed up items no longer in use, fixed the weed-eater which I didn't know was broken until today, cleaned up the gardens and did some deep cleaning in each of the rooms too. It's been busy, productive and it's felt fantastic to get things ticked off long lists.
Last night while making dinner, I was alerted to StarBeam being very interested in something next to the back door step. My first thought was "he's found the velvet spider and is harassing it" - but I was wrong. He was looking at and pointing at (and thinking about pawing at) a little fledgling Laughing Dove. It was a bit windy last night so it was probably downed by a gust and ended up huddled in this corner.
My conservation colleagues used to tease me that you knew it was Spring when I was carrying a baby bird with me everywhere (sometimes multiples of them). I was the go-to person for raising wild baby birds so needless to say - I've raised a lot of them - some from hatchlings and others that were fledglings. Seed eaters, insect eaters, meat eaters. Water birds, ground birds, sky birds.
On average a young bird out of the nest will probably be suffering from stress and shock. Many of them don't make it. My personal experience is that if it's kept overnight in a warm, dark, secure place and it survives the night, it will probably be ok. If they can fly, then first prize is they are released back where they were found so their parents can find them and feed them etc. When they are tiny and they cannot be put back into their nests - then they need to be hand reared.
Honestly, the pragmatic, logical me was not too impressed with the idea of having to raise a fledgling now - Laughing Doves are far more difficult to feed than insect eating baby birds - but the conservation spirit in me excitedly scooped up the baby bird, took it inside and called Lory so she could see it. After explaining to her that this was not a pet bird, nor was it going to become a pet bird, we put it into a cardboard box fitted with a hot water bottle at the bottom and she volunteered one of her old baby blankets to keep it warm and snug through the night.
The box was then placed in a cupboard and I explained to Lory that this WILD bird might not survive the night. She listened and nodded with understanding that letting it sleep and have the shock wear off would be the best chance of the bird surviving and us being able to either release it or get it to a rehab center in the morning.
On waking she was overjoyed to find that the little bird was ok and quite alert. I briefly checked it over and satisfied that it wasn't suffering from any injuries, I let Lory talk to it for a short moment before we took it to the back yard and placed it in a tree. We kept the dog (StarBeam) and cats (Oghma and Snowball) inside for a good while so the bird could call it's parents without fear of being caught by any of them.
It was nice spring weather too, about 23 degrees, with some clouds. Not super scorching hot which provided cool weather for the bird to go find it's place in the world and an even better opportunity for me to do more sorting and cleaning up outside.
A few hours of relocating a wood pile, then I got to mowing and trimming the side garden. This took me a large portion of the day, but it looked much better afterwards.
While pulling out weeds along the wall, I suddenly realized I was weeding around a tortoise. It looks like a Parrot Beaked Tortoise but that's going more on it's colouration than it's scute pattern and I haven't double checked it in a field guide so could very well be wrong.
"Lory... come look what I found" - of course she was overjoyed at this discovery and took the whole head of lettuce out of the fridge for said tortoise - which didn't like the idea of lettuce at all.
I have no idea how this tortoise ended up in the garden, I certainly didn't put it in there and it's illegal to relocate or keep these reptiles without a permit in the Western Cape, so this tortoise is probably going to have to go back to a natural area soon. All I can say is that I am relieved that she was in a good hiding place when I was using the lawn mower.
It felt like Spring today. Now my feet and hands are sore and I'm ready for bed. Tomorrow is bound to be another interesting day.
Image are my own unless otherwise stated.
