Um... help?

[stillane]

Any of you know anything about wild bird rescue?

No, I'm not dipping into the vicodin. Well, okay, I did take one, and I am a little dizzy just now, but there is also a form of waterfowl residing in my living room. Dad came home this evening with a temporary addition to the menagerie, and now I'm trying to figure out how best to care for it (him? her?).

The little guy looks a little something like this, which is what I'm assuming he is until further notice. He's not presenting with any obvious injuries; Dad was just concerned because he was hopping around on the road, and there are enough feral cats, etc. around here that his chances of making it to morning weren't so hot.

Barring other information coming to light, I'm planning to thaw some fish/shrimp and offer him a little, and hopefully get in touch with someone in Fish & Game or something tomorrow. Any other ideas? Anything I absolutely shouldn't do upon pain of death?

Any of you know who a Pennsylvanian should call in these circumstances?

Comments

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Probably someone here? http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=481&q=153205

I'm not sure you reach anyone until tomorrow, unless you know of vets that handle more than pets/farmlife in your area...?

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Actually, which part of the state are you in? There's a wildlife rescue I found but, uh, it's in Friendsville which is no where near me...

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Central, kind of middle of nowhere. I'm not actually sure where Friendsville is, come to think of it, but that could be down to my notoriously crappy directional sense. Thanks so much for the Game Commission link; they've got a phone number on there for my region which I'm going to try first.

Will keep you posted on the plight of the critter.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

http://www.wildliferescue-pa.com/

THis might help you; I'm not finding any really useful information, but it's got a bunch of links, and you're probably close enough to their location even though they say 'northeast pa'.

There's also this: http://www.tc.umn.edu/%7Edevo0028/contactN.htm#pa

Which actually has real numbers and their intro page suggests they might actually know what to do when presented with a scenario like yours.

Good luck! I hope these help!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

"Any other ideas ... pain of death?"
Don't feed it fish. *fwaps self*

The only nearly-dead birds I'm familiar with tended to fly away after a while when they felt safe and no longer dazed, so perhaps put him in a (warm?) box on a veranda or somewhere with an exit?

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Our big problem is that there is nowhere warm to put him, aside from indoors. All the waterways are frozen, too, which is probably what led to the little guy being out on the road in the first place. I'll be extremely glad when this winter finally decides to give up. *g*

At the moment, though, we've got him in a quiet box with a little paddle pool and he seems to be doing fine. We're just waiting to hear from the rehabbers now.

Thanks for the advice!

[grey-bard.livejournal.com]

Lehigh or Northampton County, by any chance?

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Nope. Much closer to the center of the state, and a little west of Harrisburg. Sorry.

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

Waterfowl eat mostly bugs, and that beak looks like a bug-eatin' beak. You probably have a rehab or wild bird centre somewhere in your region, if not your town/city, so calling them would be your best bet for care.

http://www.rehabitat.org/rehabilitators.htm

That's a place to start.

My sister did bird rehab -- they generally do best with quiet/isolation. Water's a good staple.

B

[stillane.livejournal.com]

I think you may be right about the bug-eatin' beak. He doesn't seem terribly amused by the shrimp, which is about as close as we could get to anything listed as being in their diet. We think he poked at some dried corn, however, so at least he's getting some sustenance. I wound up putting a call in to one of the people on that list you linked me to, and now we're just waiting to hear back.

At the moment, the bird is (happily? can you really tell with one of these guys?) splashing around in the little pool we set up for him, and preening occasionally. So long as he's apparently content, we're counting everything as okay and holding out for the experts.

Thanks so much for the help!

[feartheotter.livejournal.com]

I have nothing to add that hasn't been said, in re: care of the little fellow.

I just wanted to comment (once again) that you have an odd life and I'm jealous.

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Heh. You are absolutely right about that odd life bit. It's kind of a giveaway when my dad can walk into the house calling, "I've brought you a critter!" and my first instinct is to cycle through all the possibilities we've previously entertained. Sight unseen, I figured we'd inherited another hedgehog. *g*

Also: sorry I'm not very conversive lately. I'm not so much with the working jaw these last few days, and I keep conking out before the typical online ventures. At some point, though, I need to say hi.

So, until then, "Hi!"