Re: Birds and Beads

OOOOOH, Honey!!! Poor you! What a thing to have happen.! I would have tried a wildlife rehabilitation center, if that's something you could find... here in the Willamette valley we have a LOT of wildlife, and several very capable rehab centers... To have cared for the "birdlet" properly, at the very least you would have had to know what KIND of bird it was... so you'd know what it eats...

perhaps you could have dropped it off at the vet's?

b

If it helps, the Audobon Society is a great place to check in with about sick or hurt birds, if you have one in your area.

How cool.

I wish I had known what to do. Oh well. Such is life, I suppose.

Rachel T. Damn right I'm good in bed. I can sleep for days. ;)

I don't think there are any close here.

Hard to say. There are a lot of different kinds of birds that seem to like this yard. I do think that there are "rival" birds. Every so often, you can here them making noise. I once found 4 little ones that had obviously been pushed out by another bird.

I really hate picking up dead animals.

They were closed.

Rachel T. Damn right I'm good in bed. I can sleep for days. ;)

I'll have to find out where one is. Just in case I run across another one. (doubtful, though)

Rachel T. Damn right I'm good in bed. I can sleep for days. ;)

Ah ha. I'll have to check what's left of the local mall. If not there, there's Foy's Halloween store. I completely forgot about them.

Rachel T. Damn right I'm good in bed. I can sleep for days. ;)

OK. Now we need to hear the buffalo story...

And on the subject of bird rescue, I understand the impulse to give new life a chance, but I also realize that some young animals of every generation...don't make it to maturity. It isn't always a comfortable or comforting thought, depending on how attached you are to a particular individual creature who dies, but it seems to me that ultimately life and death are all one process, not two separate ones in competition with each other.

I just ate a chicken breast, and I expect that chicken wanted to live just as much as your little bird did, but instead it got turned into my brunch, and I get to have the food-energy I need for my own survival for a while...

So, was the chicken destroyed? Or has it been transformed into what animates -me-?

Deirdre

Story? No real story to it. Around the corner from where my mom used to live, there was a house that had 2 buffalo in the yard. No kidding. Big, furry necked buffalo just like the ones that roam wild.

I would hear people talk about it and didn't believe it until I saw them for myself.

I don't think they're there anymore. I would hope not. Just didn't seem right. I have no idea why these people had them. But it's true. I'll have to remember to go by and see if they are there. If they are, I'll take pictures! lol

Rachel T. Damn right I'm good in bed. I can sleep for days. ;)

Yu never know... every five-six years, I encounter a birdie that needs help. Some birds, they won't take; house sparrows and starlings, for instance. Even so, they're an awesome resource and can tell you how to take care of a birdie, even if it's one they won't take in.

Maybe they did a rescue on the buffalo when they were young. Maybe they just wanted to attract the attention of the neighborhood. ;-)

Like you, I hope they now have room to roam and aren't still penned up.

Deirdre

We "took in" a baby bird once, I think it was a blackbird. Well, it wasn't a

*baby* baby, it had all its feathers but was still chubby-baby-looking. Some friends dropped me off at home and mum met me in the car park and showed me the bird which she had just found (it obviously wasn't just waiting for mummy-bird to come back or mum wouldn't have picked it up). We kept it safe in my old hamster cage but (as we suspected) the shock was too much and it died during the night.

my partner grew up in delta junction alaska, where the buffalo roamed. one day they went outside to go to school and EEK, there were several buffalo huddled up against the trailer to get warm.

they didn't have to go to school that day

On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 1:04:03 -0400, BethF wrote (in message ):

Arrrgh. Thank God I live in the 'burbs. I'd freak at all that nature. Do Buffalo eat people? DD still laughs at me when I wouldn't touch the cow at the petting zoo, for fear it would bite me. (Didja ever see the teeth on those things?!)

Since I'm up, I feel a story coming on.

My sister has a vacation home just north of "You Can't Get There From Here, NH" Highways cannot reach it, and there is a total of one paved road in the town. I can drive from my house to Quebec in less time than it takes to get to her place, because highways don't go that far in the woods. It's probably the only place on Earth where MacDonald's is more than a two hour drive away, and the kids are far more familiar with venison burgers than a Happy Meal.

Deer probably outnumber people by a million to one. She loves it. I do not: the idea that I couldn't reach a doctor if I needed one, or couldn't go out to dinner, or shop, or that winter lasts nine months a year makes me twitch. (Or as they say, "ten months of winter and two months of mighty poor sledding.") When I asked if they had high speed Internet access, the locals looked at me like I have three heads: Didn't they just tell me they have cable? All 12 channels of cable, including the TV Guide, local access and Home Shopping.

My town has two area codes and heaven only knows how many phone numbers. This place has one exchange, no cell phone access (too far away), and it is possible for a person to know every phone number of every resident in town. Assuming they have a phone - otherwise you call a neighbor, who might be ten miles away, who will get in his truck and drive there with the message.

Seriously, it's lovely to look at, and very peaceful; but if I had a bad asthma attack or another heart attack or anything that required urgent medical attention, they might as well start digging a grave. The nearest doctor or dentist is two hours drive away, and if people have medical emergencies they are usually medivaced out using helicopters. (That takes about two hours as well)

One day, My sister, DD and I decided to go for a ride to see if we could find a moose. I've never seen a real moose before, and Sister tells me that they come to the sides of the road for salt. (Porcupines, too) She pointed out "the road," and we all started out on a drive. And drove, and drove and drove. For two hours. We got to the "Bienvenue to Canada" sign before we gave up.

By that time I was in a frenzy of paranoia: We had been driving for over two hours and _hadn't seen another car._ Not one. At all. The border station (at the time) was a kiosk with a notebook so people could sign in and out as they crossed to record their movements. We also passed the grave of some poor soul who had been found frozen to death by the side of the road many years before. No one could identify him, so they buried him on the spot and put up a little sign.

"Did you realize that if the car croaked it would be _days or weeks_ before anyone came looking for us?" I shrieked, totally squicked out at the idea that people might find us in a melting snowbank all frozen and dead in the Bug.

My sister began laughing at me. "Don't be a dope. We told my husband where we were going, so he'd come look for us. And, Mr. Neighbor goes this way to and from work, and if he saw a strange car, he'd check it out. Everyone here stops if they see a broken down car - it's not like the Big City where you live."

I was slightly mollified, and reminded my dear sister that is is not a "Big City." Rather, it is the small city where we grew up, and that it is almost exactly the same as when we were kids. Just because she's turned into Ellie Mae Clampett doesn't mean I have to.

I felt so much better when we got to the relative civilization of "town." (Like four buildings, but at least there are a couple of people around) DD and my sister still laugh at me for being afraid of an empty road.

Kathy N-V (no high speed cable access?)

Grew up in Delta? What's your partner's name? I know a bunch of people down there. Yeah, sometimes the buffalo there wander out onto the road, and stop traffic. They're hard to move, though our Queensland heeler can do it. They're bred for exactly that job.

Tina