Sorry about the double posting of images, it"s been a long while since we used this! That's our friend Bob picking up "Sand dog" Sandra's find. The other snake is a mean one I came across. The Mtn Lion is one of 3...yes 3 that we were priveledged to see at the Bosque. This is mom. She had 2 cubs, nearly full grown with. I think it's the first time they were confirmed.Last but not least is a Great horned owl we spotted while doing our pollinator count. I am also posting my last column for the local paper on finding a babt bird and what to do then.

I FOUND A BABY BIRD, NOW WHAT?


It was another nice, cool summer morning. Sandra and I were about a block into our early morning walk up to the Tech campus. As I passed a low hanging branch on a fully leafed-out tree, in the gutter litter I saw a little rustle of movement. Stopping to investigate, to my surprise the rustle turned out to be a bundle of feathers no bigger than a ping pong ball. Almost invisible in the leaf litter and general gutter detritus, under all the downy feathers was a live little bird no more than a few days...hours? old.
Lying beside it was its less fortunate nest mate. Dead, already shriveling in the sun.
Now, our love of birds would not let us walk away from such a situation and we know enough that picking up a baby will not stop a mother from caring for it. That is an old wives tale. But what is the proper thing to do from here? The first and most logical seemed to move it out of the street and the sun. It is true that a mother will try to find the baby and continue to feed it if it has fallen from the nest. It's also true that you should try to find the nest and gently place the baby back if possible. We searched the dense foliage for a nest but were unable to find any. The decision was made to continue the walk and peek in on the way back to see if mom was able to take over. We quietly approached the scene on the way home about 45 minutes later. No change. No mom. Baby was quieter now and probably very dehydrated.
As gently as I could, I picked it up and brought it home with us.Sandra gathered grass along the way and prepared a small box with a lid and placed it inside. I made a quick trip to Walmart and bought an eyedropper (Why didn't we have one here? We do now.) and some gold fish flakes (sounded right at the time) and made an attempt to feed it while Sandra went online to glorious Google that knows the answer to everything. Typing in baby bird rescue brought up about 200,000 hits. Being big fans of Henry Thoreau, we clicked on to "Walden's Puddle Wildlife Rehabilitation Center" having no idea they were on the other side of the country in Tennesee. They had a phone, we called, got a machine, left a message and searched for more information. A short time later the phone rang. It was a nice, concerned lady calling from Tennesee who was surprised to find we were calling from New Mexico. She asked a lot of questions about the bird and the situation of finding it and gave us suggestions on how to proceed. Well, to my dismay, I found out trying to feed such a youngster was wrong and could likely kill it. Most importantly she said to prepare a suitable nest substitute from a berry container stuffed with grass and place it securely back in the tree as near as we could to where we found the bird. A plastic strawberry box from Smith's was perfect. I put the little guy/gal in and, climbing a step ladder, secured it as best I could near the spot.
The odds of all this working were pretty long, but at least if it didn't work, it would be a quiet, comfortable death. Better than a dirty gutter with all the traffic on Bullock.
My confidence was low, so we vowed to not peek and just believe in the best but after 2 weeks or so, I had to know. I climbed the tree and looked into the nest certain I would find a dehydrated little body. Guess what?...The nest was empty! No signs of trouble but a whole lot of bird poop, a good thing. We will never know what really happened, but the odds of it being found, fed and fledging are a lot better and I'm sticking with it!
thanks to Walden's Puddle and the caring person who promptly returned my call, we may likely have added a another voice to nature's chorus.
If you ever run into a similar situation, you can reach them at 615 299 9938 or if you care to make a donation, their address is PO 641, Joelton TN 37080 or just google Walden's Puddle.

I PROMISE TO KEEP UPDATES!