sigh Great. I find an animal in distress and it’s a winged rat. Fancy-looking markings, but it’s a freakin’ pigeon. Gah! Street vermin! It better appreciate the fact that I could’ve left it to be eaten by the downtown raccoon that lives nearby.
But no! Being a nice human I’m dropping it off at the wildlife rehab center where they’ll look it over and patch it up if it needs it. Then they’ll re-release it to continue its life of eating French fries off the sidewalk and probably get hit by a streetcar eventually.
The pigeon is in shock and is just shaking. No obvious injuries, but can neither fly nor walk. It probably just flew into a window and knocked itself silly.
I called Sniffs_Markers to see if she could pick it up and drop it off.
“I found an injured bird.” I said.
“What is it? A sparrow? A starling?” She asked.
“Nah,” I answered, “…it’s a pigeon.”
“Oh.” (voice dripping with disappointment.)
She can’t get away from work though, so I’m stuck with this thing in a box under my desk.
My friend found a peregrine falcon once. What do I find? A rat with feathers!
Nah. Baby pigeons are really cute though. Especially when they are “teenagers” because then they are cute in the OMG-what-an-ugly-critter! kind of way (they look like aliens).
This is an adult one that looks like of like a Dalmatian (only grey and white).
Other than birds who are stunned from bonking into windows, the only time I’ve seen a pigeon shake like this is when it was dying from pesticide poisoning after sleeping and walking around on a freshly sprayed lawn.
This thing is now snoozing peacefully without the shakes. So I’m guessing it crashed into something and was in big-time shock. Before I go all the way to the birdy rehab center, I’m going to open the box and see if it flies out on its own. If not, then off to the birdy doctor Pugsley goes.
Wish it was a cuter critter though. Then again, I suppose I should be grateful that it isn’t something stinky or loud.
I’m not sure what the difference is, but I had two birds described as “wood doves” removed from the vent pipe for my kitchen exhaust fan just yesterday. Sounds like pigeons that go shopping at Nordstrom to me. :dubious:
They’d gotten stuck right behind the fan, just out of sight around the bend. I heard scuffling and squawking when I came home Tuesday evening and looked up there and tried luring the bird(s) out with intentions of grabbing them in a bath towel and escorting them to the patio. No luck, so I called the building office and left a message, then altered my dinner plans, not wanting to turn on the spinning blades of certain birdie death. Shredded tweet was not going to be on the menu and was replaced by take-out.
Wednesday afternoon (yesterday) the office calls me to say that one of the office staff and maintenance leads went to my apartment. They disassembled the vent hood and were able to easily extract one of the birds - by the description, it flew right out at them, but the other budgie wouldn’t budge, so they called SF Animal Care and Control for assistance. SFACC is ultimately able to lure the other one out. I have no idea if they released that one to the patio or took it for care.
Must have been a quite a scuffle, as there were little feathers here and there in the kitchen and living room, and a bird-sized smudge on the patio door where the one bird undoubtedly tried to hurl itself back outside. No shortage of crud on the floor and stove either.
My pseudo FIL has a dove. They resemble pigeons a lot, but they’re easy to tell apart once you get a decent look at them.
Pugsley is now in rehab! After spending the afternoon snoozing in the box under my desk, I gave him/her a stab at freedom. Pugs was none to keen on leaving the box and still had the “you’re going to eat me!” look. I put Pugsley back in the garden and said “Fly, Pugsley!”
Pugs did a lot of flapping then sort of went “WhoooOOOAAAaaaa! Oof!” and fell over. Tips over trying to walk too.
So Pugsley bashed his/her head, ate something poisonous, is sick, or is drunk. Or… insert ominous chord here…
Best that Pugsley gets checked out by a vet because a major loss in co-ordination (or central nervous system glitches) is a West Nile Virus symptom and, since Pugsley was found right downtown, that may be of interest to health officials.
Note: There is no documented case of animal-to-animal or animal-to-person transmission, so I’m not worried about sticking Pugsley in a box. (Wouldn’t have touched him/her if I thought there might be a problem). In any case, I was washing thoroughly after touching the yucky thing.
Gah! Of course, the hotline for reporting sick/dead birds is closed for the day. Just wanna be sure that they know to check with the vet folks tomorrow – though I’m sure the vet would contact the health folks to add a bird to the total if it is WNV.
But bureaucracy being what it is, I do want to make sure that there is some follow-up.
Of course, now that I’ve just given myself a case of the willies, I have to go wash my hands again…
