[Mnbird] Returning Friend

Tue Mar 26 10:05:31 CDT 2019

Oh my!
THAT IS a story! And a good one.
But now I am going to be always wondering about your goose!
And what happens when her mate flies away, in the fall?  And she cannot
teach her young to fly?
And and and...

I too have had wildlife 'friends' whom I have either looked after, or at
least watched for.
We had one such non-avian friend, a deer, who had a broken rear leg. She
kept it stiffly held out, but managed to live for a couple or three years.
Another deer, probably one of her fawns, always watched out for her, was
always near by, and would sometimes paw at the ground for her to help her
feed. We don't know how her leg was broken, but it healed stiff, allowing
no bending in it. She couldn't not use it brace while she lowered her head
to eat. So she had to carefully manage that. We watched her come and go for
at least two winters when we were first here. We live in Oak Grove, with
some woods, marsh, a creek. Before the land across from us was made into a
conservation area and opened to  hunters, the deer would bed down in our
yard. In winter we would get small herds of them yarding up.
She was always one of those. Then, after a couple or so years, we never saw
her again. Did she get shot by a hunter? Did she get hit by a car? Die of
starvation, or hurt another leg? We shall never know. But seeing her and
seeing her survive, despite her great injury, and seeing how another deer
obviously was tending to her, was heart warming and touching. And we never
tired of seeing her and always hoped she would keep coming back.

I love and support the Wildlife Rehab organization and people - they do
wonderful things.
i have delivered to their care more than one bird, some having struck a
window, or that have a broken wing, or too young and out of a nest and the
nest not in a good spot. (Such as built in a Bruegger's sign over a
doorway, and the youngster was found in the parking lot. No way to return
him, and I couldn't leave him there, with people and cars.) Broken turtles
from the road, a similarly hurt raccoon.
They do their best and sometimes they are able to revive and release them.

I think all living things deserve a chance.

Pamela
- Pamela
Never give up on a dream just because of the length of time it will take to
accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. - Unknown

“There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.”
― Aldo Leopold
I am one who cannot.

On Tue, Mar 26, 2019 at 9:43 AM REBECCA ORTTEL via Mnbird <
mnbird at lists.mnbird.net> wrote:

> Hi, everyone.  I've never posted but have read these emails for many
> years.  The "Returning Friend" post made me want to share my story.  I hope
> it's not too long!  We live on a creek that is kept open for most of the
> winter (it's part of the chain of lakes supplying the St Paul water
> utility), and we have Trumpeter Swans, Mallards, sometimes Wood Ducks, and
> geese.  Last spring we had around 100 Pelicans that stopped for just one
> day.  We also have a Bald Eagle nest, an Egret or two, and occasional
> Loons.
>
> Last summer, a Canadian Goose showed up with a broken wing.  The lower
> half of her (I think it's a female) right wing dangled.  I tried a few
> times to catch her so we could bring her to the Wildlife Rehab Center, but
> no luck.  She seemed just fine -- except she couldn't fly.  We feed the
> birds in the winter, and I made sure that the goose got enough food.  She
> was the lone goose this winter amongst the many Mallards.  When the Polar
> Vortex came, however, the creek finally froze, and our goose started
> accumulating ice on her broken wing.  By day two the chunk was the size of
> a basketball and she could barely walk, yet we still couldn't capture her.
> I kept feeding her and checking on her, but she was clearly miserable.  On
> day three when I checked on her, I heard much alarmed squawking and found
> her facing down an eagle that was standing about two feet away and watching
> her. The ice chunk had melted enough to then refreeze into the side of
> the creek bank - with her along with it.  She had been trying to pull her
> wing loose all night, and there was a lot of blood.  The eagle took off as
> I appeared, and the goose was frantic.  It was still terribly cold, and the
> creek was partially open at this point, so the whole situation was
> precarious.  I grabbed our ice chopper with the plan to chop her out of the
> ice, but I realized that it would be better to free her from her damaged
> wing so she wouldn't freeze up again.  Thankfully, a well-placed chop did
> the trick, I was able to cut off the mangled part of her wing, and she was
> free.  She bled a little bit over night, and then the creek thawed.  She
> went away for two days, and I was just sick thinking that my "surgery" had
> killed her - but then she showed up, energetic and hungry.  Within a week a
> male goose showed up, and the two have been happily floating in the creek
> ever since!
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Mnbird <mnbird-bounces at lists.mnbird.net> on behalf of Art via
> Mnbird <mnbird at lists.mnbird.net>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, March 26, 2019 8:33 AM
> *To:* Mnbird post
> *Subject:* Re: [Mnbird] Returning Friend
>
> Nice to hear about you friend.
> We need all the friends we can get espically wildlife friends
> The way things are going I wonder if, in a hundred years, kids will have
> to lookup in a book to see what a Robin looked like.
> --
> > Hello all. Last year I had a robin that was a frequent visitor here.
> > What made it distinctive was that it had some kind of growth (tumor?) on
> > the back of its neck.  I assumed it was going to end up dying from
> > something related to the growth, but it stayed most of the summer.  The
> > growth then was almost always bare.  Tonight I saw my robin again, and
> > it is apparently doing very well.  The growth is covered in feathers at
> > this point, but still very obvious.  Hooray survival!
>
>
>
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