September has been quite a month on our 12 acres. Within less than two weeks I had rescued a budgie(parakeet) and a rogue rooster.
I first spotted the budgie one evening as we were shutting up the chickens. He was sitting on a bush in our backyard. My first reaction was "rare bird" but I soon calmed down after looking at the yellow blob with binoculars. Definitely a budgie. I tried to capture him that evening but he flew off to the top of a very large willow tree. Over the next couple of days we spotted him off and on under the bird feeder but he always flew off with the wild birds every time we walked out the back door. About 3 days later, on our wedding anniversary, I saw him sitting on our chainlink fence all by himself...no other birds around. I grabbed some bird seed and slowly walked over to him, fully expecting him to fly away. He didn't. He let me put my seed-filled hand in front of him and he started to eat the food. While he was eating, I carefully brought up my left hand and inched it along the top of the fence toward the back of the bird and then I grabbed him!
This is probably not the correct way to hold a bird but he survived my clutching, arthritic hand and is now living in a large cage in the kitchen. We christened him Ripley, after the town in New York State where we were married.
Less than two weeks later I began hearing about a rooster who was hanging around a condo area on the edge of Lake Erie, a few miles from our home. We had a rooster years ago and he was a holy terror so I didn't pay a lot of attention to the FB posts I was seeing until a friend finally sent me a private message and asked if we would be interested. Against my better judgment, I decided to check it out. He was a Polish rooster and that reminded me of a Polish hen my grandfather had named Susie. Susie followed me everywhere, including the inside of the rowboat. This made me weak and my resolve faded away. So off we went on a Tues. morning to see if we could catch him.
Sarah, the kind lady who had been feeding him, led the way and we found him behind a long string of condo garages. The three of us gave it our best shot but he was way too quick for our aging bodies. We left disheartened and I figured Sarah would give the guy who had 75 hens the next shot at him. Apparently, she felt we would give him a home where he would be the star because she called a couple days later. A neighbor had loaned her a fishing net and she wanted us to try again. I told her we would come up in the evening after I got home from work. I wasn't too keen on the net but I had a hunch if I could find where he was roosting I might be able to grab him. To make a long story short, the following drawing is an accurate depiction of the event.
I first spotted the budgie one evening as we were shutting up the chickens. He was sitting on a bush in our backyard. My first reaction was "rare bird" but I soon calmed down after looking at the yellow blob with binoculars. Definitely a budgie. I tried to capture him that evening but he flew off to the top of a very large willow tree. Over the next couple of days we spotted him off and on under the bird feeder but he always flew off with the wild birds every time we walked out the back door. About 3 days later, on our wedding anniversary, I saw him sitting on our chainlink fence all by himself...no other birds around. I grabbed some bird seed and slowly walked over to him, fully expecting him to fly away. He didn't. He let me put my seed-filled hand in front of him and he started to eat the food. While he was eating, I carefully brought up my left hand and inched it along the top of the fence toward the back of the bird and then I grabbed him!
This is probably not the correct way to hold a bird but he survived my clutching, arthritic hand and is now living in a large cage in the kitchen. We christened him Ripley, after the town in New York State where we were married.
Less than two weeks later I began hearing about a rooster who was hanging around a condo area on the edge of Lake Erie, a few miles from our home. We had a rooster years ago and he was a holy terror so I didn't pay a lot of attention to the FB posts I was seeing until a friend finally sent me a private message and asked if we would be interested. Against my better judgment, I decided to check it out. He was a Polish rooster and that reminded me of a Polish hen my grandfather had named Susie. Susie followed me everywhere, including the inside of the rowboat. This made me weak and my resolve faded away. So off we went on a Tues. morning to see if we could catch him.
Sarah, the kind lady who had been feeding him, led the way and we found him behind a long string of condo garages. The three of us gave it our best shot but he was way too quick for our aging bodies. We left disheartened and I figured Sarah would give the guy who had 75 hens the next shot at him. Apparently, she felt we would give him a home where he would be the star because she called a couple days later. A neighbor had loaned her a fishing net and she wanted us to try again. I told her we would come up in the evening after I got home from work. I wasn't too keen on the net but I had a hunch if I could find where he was roosting I might be able to grab him. To make a long story short, the following drawing is an accurate depiction of the event.
Willie--Sarah had named him--was sitting on a railing by the back door of a realty office. I waited 45 minutes until I thought it was dark enough and then started inching my way along the building and up the steps of the stoop until I was directly behind him. It took me 30 minutes to get there and my poor muscles ached and I was ready to pass out from the fear that I was going to mess this up big time. I finally worked up the nerve to go for it and shot my hands out towards the goofy looking rooster and grabbed him from behind. I got a good grip on him, and thankfully, I managed to stay away from his spurs. Naturally, Willie was terrified and let out the most horrible scream I have ever heard in my 60 years. It was so awful that I'm sure some of the tourists who were filtering back in for the weekend will leave and never come back.
We hurriedly put the little guy into a large pet carrier and took him home. The next morning the hens woke up with Willie crowing in the carrier, which we had placed on the floor of the coop. We kept Willie separated from the hens for the rest of the day so they could get used to the new resident and Willie could get used to his new digs. Towards dusk we let him out of the enclosed area so he could meet the hens and hopefully roost with them that night. There were a couple of minor scuffles but nothing serious and Willie successfully roosted with the girls. As I write this, almost a week later, Willie and the hens are getting along great and our rooster phobia is disappearing. Willie is nothing like our last rooster and is turning out to be one of those sweet roosters I've heard about but was convinced didn't exist. He just crowed....love to hear that.
Enjoyed reading your blog Robin! I, too, learned from childhood that you have to be cautious & careful when trying to establish contact with birds or other creatures. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThanks, CL! I'm glad you enjoyed reading the post. Willie and Ripley are nice additions to our family :)
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