ATTN: Birdwatchers!
Jun. 1st, 2009 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peristaltorI have a problem. In the last hour, a friend dropped off a load of firewood. I got to chopping this cherry branch from a freshly-pruned tree. Before I chopped, though, I noticed a hole in the wood with hairs on the walls of the hole. Squirrel's nest, I thought.
I guestimated the depth of the hole and let fly with my chop saw. I got really lucky, chopping only the bottom 2 or 3 millimeters of the hole off. Surprise! No squirrel there, but a bunch of nested hair and an egg!
I took the hairs out a bit to see if there were more eggs and -- movement! It turns out the egg is the unhatched sibling to a little guy that is probably going to get pretty hungry pretty soon.
I think it would be cool to raise the little guy. Sadly, I suppose we could replace the branch, but it now has a massive hole in the nest, and my grubby hands inadvertently besmelled the hairs, so I need to find out what he eats to keep him alive.
Here's an egg shot for identification:
Bigger! Bigger!
I live in Seattle proper in the Pacific Northwest of the Continental United States, for those of you scrambling for the bird guides.
If you know a bird expert online, please link. The faster we can get him or her identified the greater his or her chances of growing older!
Much thanks in advance!
Addendum, Later that Day: I'll spare the bird haters of the LJ world and put the rest of this saga under a cut, with a single teaser:
Two of the Three
That above pic shows two of the three little guys from a nest I found in this hole:
Like I mentioned above, this was firewood. I could have easily chopped through the fledglings within, but no, I only chopped the base. In fact, here's a picture of the base of the nest:
Those three are the luckiest birds alive.
I had no idea how deep the hole was or what was inside. An inch or two in another direction (which, now that I look at the two firewood pieces side by side, would have made for a more even cut) and I would have been cleaning the gore from my 12" chop saw. Not a pretty thought.
Here's the nest piece, after I started pulling a bit of the nesting material out (before I realized the little guys were still there):
I tried to get shots of the contents before I had to empty the nest, but no go. It was too long a tube, and I was afraid to pull the nesting material any further before I had a place for the chicks to rest. Instead, I took that first shot of the egg and posted it, along with an all-call to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
birdlovers. While I waited for the intertubes to work their informational magic, I high-tailed it to my friend's house to see if there weren't some angry or confused parents wondering what the hell. Sadly, he had cut the nest's branch last weekend; it's doubtful the folks (who he hadn't seen about) would have known to look on the ground. These guys are orphans, or at least abandoned.
Many thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mactavish who identified the likely breed by the egg pic. Looks like I had a nest of White-breasted Nuthatches*. A borrowed bird book seemed to confirm this; the WBNH likes to nest in abandoned woodpecker burrows.
Since they hadn't probably seen a feeding in days, I took a chance and gave them (at first) some water:
Drink up!
After doing some later reading in the bird book, I took a chance and ground up some bird feed with a mortar and pestle with lots of water, then sucked some of this into the eyedropper:
Though they have been named (by The Wife), we won't be keeping them. I'd love to, but I know nothing about raising them fit to release into the wild. Also, we live in a cat heaven. I'd feel terrible if they died under my care, or got gobbled by a neighbor's cat. Since another commenter recommended it, I'll be taking them to Lynnwood (about 40 minutes away) in about 15 minutes, where they'll have at least a fighting chance. Oh, and the most helpful person I talked to mentioned something about raising wild birdies being illegal in the state, so . . . .
Still, those three are about the luckiest chicks around.
*Addendum, Still later: The attendant at the PAWS wildlife shelter seemed to think they might be Black-capped Chickadees. Those eggs look very similar. She should know. Also, the chickadees are far, far more common in town than the nuthatches, especially the black-capped ones.
I guestimated the depth of the hole and let fly with my chop saw. I got really lucky, chopping only the bottom 2 or 3 millimeters of the hole off. Surprise! No squirrel there, but a bunch of nested hair and an egg!
I took the hairs out a bit to see if there were more eggs and -- movement! It turns out the egg is the unhatched sibling to a little guy that is probably going to get pretty hungry pretty soon.
I think it would be cool to raise the little guy. Sadly, I suppose we could replace the branch, but it now has a massive hole in the nest, and my grubby hands inadvertently besmelled the hairs, so I need to find out what he eats to keep him alive.
Here's an egg shot for identification:
Bigger! Bigger!
I live in Seattle proper in the Pacific Northwest of the Continental United States, for those of you scrambling for the bird guides.
If you know a bird expert online, please link. The faster we can get him or her identified the greater his or her chances of growing older!
Much thanks in advance!
Addendum, Later that Day: I'll spare the bird haters of the LJ world and put the rest of this saga under a cut, with a single teaser:
Two of the Three
That above pic shows two of the three little guys from a nest I found in this hole:
Like I mentioned above, this was firewood. I could have easily chopped through the fledglings within, but no, I only chopped the base. In fact, here's a picture of the base of the nest:
Those three are the luckiest birds alive.
I had no idea how deep the hole was or what was inside. An inch or two in another direction (which, now that I look at the two firewood pieces side by side, would have made for a more even cut) and I would have been cleaning the gore from my 12" chop saw. Not a pretty thought.
Here's the nest piece, after I started pulling a bit of the nesting material out (before I realized the little guys were still there):
I tried to get shots of the contents before I had to empty the nest, but no go. It was too long a tube, and I was afraid to pull the nesting material any further before I had a place for the chicks to rest. Instead, I took that first shot of the egg and posted it, along with an all-call to
birdlovers. While I waited for the intertubes to work their informational magic, I high-tailed it to my friend's house to see if there weren't some angry or confused parents wondering what the hell. Sadly, he had cut the nest's branch last weekend; it's doubtful the folks (who he hadn't seen about) would have known to look on the ground. These guys are orphans, or at least abandoned.Many thanks to
mactavish who identified the likely breed by the egg pic. Looks like I had a nest of White-breasted Nuthatches*. A borrowed bird book seemed to confirm this; the WBNH likes to nest in abandoned woodpecker burrows.Since they hadn't probably seen a feeding in days, I took a chance and gave them (at first) some water:
Drink up!
After doing some later reading in the bird book, I took a chance and ground up some bird feed with a mortar and pestle with lots of water, then sucked some of this into the eyedropper:
Though they have been named (by The Wife), we won't be keeping them. I'd love to, but I know nothing about raising them fit to release into the wild. Also, we live in a cat heaven. I'd feel terrible if they died under my care, or got gobbled by a neighbor's cat. Since another commenter recommended it, I'll be taking them to Lynnwood (about 40 minutes away) in about 15 minutes, where they'll have at least a fighting chance. Oh, and the most helpful person I talked to mentioned something about raising wild birdies being illegal in the state, so . . . .
Still, those three are about the luckiest chicks around.
*Addendum, Still later: The attendant at the PAWS wildlife shelter seemed to think they might be Black-capped Chickadees. Those eggs look very similar. She should know. Also, the chickadees are far, far more common in town than the nuthatches, especially the black-capped ones.