Last evening Elsie and I had a visitor. Well, I had the visitor, Elsie ran in fear for her life. Cats.

I was walking the beach at sunset when I happened upon an odd scene. There was a sandpiper kind of swimming and kind of drowning in the waves. I noticed that there was a bird of prey stalking it from the air. It would dive down and the piper would duck under the water. It was pretty drowned. I stood near it so whoever thought it might be his dinner would leave. But that bird was determined. It tried picking it up once and dropped it. When that happened I waded out into the cold Pacific and picked that poor drowned rat of a sandpiper up and took it onto the dry sand. I wrapped it in my extra shirt and sat with it for a while. Then I brought it home.

What does one do with a rescued bird? I researched the Project Wildlife web site. They said to wrap it and keep it dry and toasty with the room temperature between 70 and 80 degrees. It wasn’t quite that warm in my studio yet warmer than outside. Interestingly enough they also said not to give it water or food. I converted the bathroom into the nursery. I made sure it was warm and dry and bundled. I turned off the lights, checked on it when I used the bathroom and left it alone.

This morning I unwrapped the poor shell shocked bird. It was really cute. I put a towel down on the floor of the bathtub and decided it was time to check for injuries. That little bird stood up immediately, went to the bathroom and started walking around. I checked his wings and everything looked in tact.

Next stop was my enclosed patio. I unwrapped him. The sandpiper stood up, hopped to the edge of the box and flew. Bye Bye Birdie.

I have some issues regarding what I did. I mean, that hawk needed to eat too. My interference did not allow for the survival of the fittest. As a human being it is hard to stand by and see this whole scene play out. It is even harder when the food source for the hawk is struggling so hard to survive. it easily could have had internal injuries that I could not assess. Did I do the right thing? Maybe and then again maybe not. This morning, however, I felt good to see this little bird recovered and ready to meet another day.

Elsie

is

once again,

glad

to be a

solo pet.