Re: bird rescue

Interesting looking bird. The adult looks to have the same white outlining on its black feathers that the yellow-crested night heron has.

On Jul 26, 2005, at 10:01 PM, Theresa wrote:

Well- tonight certainly got more interesting. About 8:30 I was opening

up the windows in the house since it had cooled off outside. I opened the side window of my husband's office- and heard a horrible screach and saw a cat run away. So I went dashing out to investigate. Finished shooing a black cat out of my yard and went down the side of my house to find a young heron there. He was most unhappy, but unhurt. So... what to do with it?? It didn't have all of its flight feathers yet, so I have no idea how it ended up at my house in the midst of suburbia. Went and got a towel- thinking I could soothe it enough to catch it. Yeah- right. This thing screamed at me and flew/hopped away a bit. So- went to get a box to try and catch it. With some effort, patience and a little coaxing (by waving the towel behind it) it finally hopped into the box and I closed it up. The bird (including long yellow legs fully armed with claws on it's feet) was about 15 inches tall, with a beak about 5 inches long. Kind of fluffy still, but with mostly real feathers. My husband helped with the catching part, and then drove me down to Cosumnes River Preserve about 15 minutes away where we released the little guys near the edge of a stream that has some nice oaks next to it and plenty of underbrush. So.. hopefully he'll make it. There should be plenty for him to eat and I've seen herons there every time I go. I did some research to find out what kind of heron he was- and have concluded that he was a Green Heron. Here's a link to a photo that shows a young green heron (mine was more mature that this one in the photo- but still gives the basic idea).

http://www.carolinawildlife.org/gallery22.htm


And more info about the species (including a link to the songs of the species). The harsh squawking noise was the only one we heard. It was quite clear that our little friend was rather pissed off about the entire situation.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/ Green_Heron_dtl.html

So, at least now he has a fighting chance of survival. It made for a fascinating evening for me. I still can't imagine how it ended up in my yard- but I guess at least he picked the right house to come to.

Theresa

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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