Introducing Flick
Please meet Flick, she is a Northern Flicker. Northern Flickers happen to be one of my favourite birds that frequent my part of the world. They are an absolutely beautiful bird and have the most stunning colours on the underside of their wings and a little red spot on their cheeks (neither of which are visible in this photo).
I found Flick in my backyard this morning (hence the delay into today’s normal posting schedule).
Flick was unable to fly as she appeared to have a broken wing. In fact, as I entered the back yard Flick was trying desperately to fly away with her one good wing. But Flick simply couldn’t fly.
So, Mr. MPB offered to help her out by putting her out of her misery. I’m pretty sure he was joking, but nope. Just no.
So, while fighting back tears over the state of poor little Flick, I googled bird rescues and got on the phone with a local wildlife rescue agency. Needless to say, they don’t pick up injured birds, but they accept them as drop-offs. To which I responded, great, how the heck am I going to catch a wild bird?! I was told, simply toss a blanket/towel over the bird and it’ll basically freeze, then pick the bird up within the towel and put it in a box. Sure, I’ll get right on it…
I took the role of finding a box/container and an old dog towel to transport Flick to the emergency vet that works with the wildlife rescue agency. Thankfully, Mr. MPB took the role of bird catcher.
We then loaded Flick into my car (the freshly de-puked car), and I begged her not to escape her box and make a mess. For almost the entire drive, Flick scratched at the box, making all the little hairs on my arms stand straight up on edge. It turns out a wild bird scratching a cardboard box is the creepiest sound ever! Then moments before we arrived at the vet, she went quiet, at which time I was petrified this entire experience gave her a heart attack and I’d be left with a dead little Flick.
Ultimately, she didn’t die under my watch and she’s now with the emergency vet. I’m told that they suspect Flick has a broken wing, and the vet will do an initial check and the wildlife rescue will come pick up Flick and care for her until she is able to be released to the wild. I’ll probably never hear about Flick’s recovery. But, I suspect every time I see a Northern Flicker, I’ll think about Flick and hope she’s flying freely with her birdy friends.
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And now I’m off to our vet with our dog, again, as she’s not doing very well. I’m hoping the x-rays and blood work are just an expensive bill and nothing more. I’m also hoping the dog doesn’t puke in my car, again.
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Aw, what a good deed. Was Baby MPB around for the rescue operation? One of my earliest memories is of an injured swan that we found in our yard — my parents and a family friend captured the swan by throwing a blanket over it and drove it to a wildlife rehabilitator, just like you did for little Flick. I will never forget the sight of our family friend, Fred, in the back seat of my mom’s car, with his arm around the blanket-covered swan — it looked like he was out for a Saturday night date, but really he was holding it still so it wouldn’t get out from under the blanket and attack him in the car!
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Baby MPB was inside the house with me, while Mr. MPB was outside loading Flick into her box. I have no doubt Little MPB would have loved to be involved in catching Flick, but I also have no doubt that he wouldn’t have been gentle with Flick. Also, I was petrified of the germs that a wild bird might carry, maybe I was being paranoid, but I don’t really know. Maybe when he’s a little bit older he can participate in these things. 🙂
And by the way, I couldn’t imagine having to get a swan into a car!!! Those things are huge and can be absolutely vicious (I know this because I chased them as kid, and they did not like being chased, in the end I was the one who ended up running away faster then I ever thought I could run)!
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You could always call the vet and see how the bird’s doing, or at least how it did while still in their care. I’m sorry your dog isn’t feeling better. Mittens has been vomiting since yesterday evening. I’m sure we’ll have a vet visit coming up soon as well.
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I tried calling the agency, no-one answered. I left a message, so maybe one day they’ll call me back?
Sorry to hear about MIttens. I hope everything is okay. As for dog, things aren’t sounding very good, but we still have more questions then answers. I’m trying not to overreact, but it really doesn’t sound good…
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I’m sorry. I called to make an appointment to take him in the morning. Still throwing up. Of course my mind goes to cancer, since we lost his brother to that last year. Hopefully we’ll figure things out tomorrow. 😔
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I’m so sorry Amy. I’m despertly hoping both mittens and our dog do not have cancer.
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Sometimes if you call the bird rescue place they will give you a file number for the injured bird and down the road you can call them back to ask how it all went. I work for a municipal Parks department and we often send injured ducks/geese/swans to a bird rescue and we often follow up using a file number. It would be comforting to know that Flick is on the mend and soon will be back in the wild!
Thinking positive thoughts for your dog. Our dog is struggling in the heat and smoke in the air that we have here right now and last night pooped everywhere in our ensuite bathroom and peed a bunch of times too. Thankfully she knew to go on the tile and not the carpet, but still concerning. It’s tough having sick dogs. It can be a long and costly road to find out what is wrong with them so I am going to put positive thoughts out to you that you will get some answers as quickly as possible. Good luck!
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Aw! we used to rescue birds like this all the time – growing up on the east coast we would have a big summer storm (flash flood or hurricane leftovers) that would hit us a few times and knock bird nests out of the trees. My dad usually found them as he was mowing the lawn. We had a little aluminum bin we would put grass and a perch in, and we would keep them on our screened back porch and feed them berries and worms until they were well enough to fly again. Usually they were babies and we would leave the screen door open during the day so their moms could fly in and visit them, and ultimately when they were ready to fly they would take off together. There was a robin we rescued once who actually became friends with – he came back and visited us all summer!
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You are so kind! I hope your pup is okay. Dealing with those things can be annoying and scary.
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What a gorgeous bird. You are both lovely for making sure Flick gets the help he/she needs.
Sorry to hear about your puppy, fingers crossed!
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