Squirrel-Dove Adventure

I was sipping my coffee looking at the pleasant vista of the yard with one of our bird feeders in the foreground. I noticed a tail swishing straight out of the bird feeder. A squirrel had undone the cap of a vertically hanging bird feeder and found its way in.

“Pesky squirrel,” I said to myself, sighing at the ongoing battle of wits between man and squirrel.

When I came back for my second cup of coffee, it was still there but the swishy tail was shorter. I realized the squirrel was stuck!

I went out and, with gloves on, tried to yank the squirrel by its tail, and it yelped. So I laid the feeder on the ground by nearby plants so that it was no longer vertical. An hour later, when I came back to check, the squirrel had extricated itself. Whew!

I laid the feeder on the ground to set it up later.

Then the later came about, and I went to the feeder and there was a mourning dove trapped inside it.

(Note to self: If you leave an empty bird feeder on the ground, a mourning dove is likely to enter it.)

So, hoping for a second extrication, I left the feeder by the same plants. When I came back an hour later, the dove was still in there not strong enough to extricate itself.

I went to the tool shed, got a screwdriver and pliers, and took apart the feeder and freed the dove. It could not fly away immediately, so I thought it might do so after a bit.

Having thus performed animal rescue in our backyard, I went into the house triumphantly.

Presently, I was leaving the house to go to the library and found the dove at my front door! (Honest✌️❗️) It was obviously hurt, I could tell. I put a little bit of bird feed next to it and went inside to inform Mini about our injured visitor.

She took one look at the injured bird and sprung into action. She dialed and gave me numbers to dial. We both dialed.

The first thing she said after reading a couple of sites: “I hope you didn’t feed the bird.”

I stayed still as a mouse.  

She then looked at me and said, “You fed the bird!”

Presently we found a nice person at Tufts Animal Rehabilitation facility who said we could bring the bird by. They were 30 miles away.

I got instructions on how to gently capture the bird and bring it in a cushioned box.  The bird started hopping towards Fred’s Garden.  But it was injured enough that it gave up and let me nestle it in the box.

So off Mini and I went with the bird in the back seat of the car to Grafton, Massachusetts!

We passed by an equine farm and a Veterinary College.  Beautiful landscape.  The animal rescue facility itself was on gorgeous grounds.

A very nice young woman ushered us in and took the bird in the box.  We did want to open the box to make sure the bird was still alive.

“It is,” she said cheerfully.

“Do you get a lot of these?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” she said, “foxes, birds and just yesterday, a one year old black bear!”

We expressed gratitude that they were open for the holiday weekend.

“Oh no,” she said, “weekends and holiday weekends are our busiest. People are out and about and they’re finding injured animals!”

We thanked her, made a donation in Fred’s name, and left for a local nursery.

As we returned home and pulled into our driveway, I said out loud, “I sure hope there is no critter waiting for us at the front door…”

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Epilogue

The large feeder has been disposed. A new smaller feeder is in place. Birds are feeding. Squirrels are frolicking. Doves are mourning.