New Year's Day brought an injured male northern cardinal to our feeders. He attracted our attention because the other males kept jumping at him trying to get him to leave, but he would just pitch forward and try to balance again with his wings. We let him go for a few hours as we went on a hike knowing it's generally best to leave wildlife alone and figuring he may have struck a window and needed time to recover, but alas when we returned he was pummeled by the crazy wind and blown into a hole where we dug up our septic tank lids.
The little dude was mostly immobile so we decided to try to help.
There's a great
wildlife hospital on the north side of Columbus so off we went.
Upon arrival the cardinal was still quite alert and after a bit of his fear wore off began to eat some seed. When I left the doctors were inserting tubes to feed him intravenously due to his as yet unexplained "extreme emaciation." The cardinal was the first case for 2012 so he's a bit special to everyone I think.
Thinking good thoughts for the little bird!
Hi J&S...What a good deed to start the year : }} And to be lucky enough to have more than one Cardinal around!!
ReplyDeleteCute story : }
Grace
If he recovers will they have you take him back to release him at your place? keep us posted!
ReplyDeleteSuch a sweet little birdie. Your care and compassion meant the world to him, I'm sure:)
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