To The Rescue

Hello,

While walking out to the get the mail, I always look at our raised bed garden. After all, something might have grown while I was away from it. There was a flopping around on the far side, not that it is far. Investigation revealed a robin sized bird hopelessly entangled in the netting we have over the garden to keep out squirrels/rabbits that seem to think the garden is for them.

I told this bird to stop in what I realized was a more soft soothing voice that I normally use. It did not stop, but as soon as I touched it, it became perfectly still. One loop of the netting came off but the rest was solidly jammed against its wing and several feathers were pinned. The poor thing was panting as I told it, “I will go get a scissors and cut you lose.”

Running into the house, up the stairs, looking for a scissors with the sharpest point, back down stairs, out the door, and back to the garden all seemed to take time. Again this bird struggled a lot when I came close, but stopped when I touched it. I gently cut off the netting slipping the point under close to its skin. It was free from the whole unit, but the threads were still tightly wound around its wing. With just one more cut I was able to get that piece off and smooth back its feathers after which it hopped a little before flying away.

I can’t decide if it stilled because it was terrified or if it trusted me to rescue it. I considered it a good deed even though it might have been a young starling which is not my favorite bird.

Paula