Good Times, Bad Times

I think last week's epic snowy owl encounter was a bit of nature throwing me something good after a few bad things that I dealt with.

A squirrel showed up in our backyard with something very wrong with its tail.  A third of the tail, starting at the rear end and going out was bare.  The first part of that was white and crusty.  From beyond that it was all open, sore and bleeding heavily.  Initially when I saw him, I thought we had a mink in the yard because the tail was long and just dragged behind him.  There was no poofiness to the tail, no movement whatsoever, like it was a dead limb.  The rest of the squirrel appeared normal.  As we had a snowfall early one morning, then seeing him out there from a distance and then being able to follow his bloody track throughout the yard, I knew I had to do something.  I'm sure he was in pain and that tail looked really infected.

I called the Toronto Wildlife Centre and after leaving a message, someone called me back within an hour, and we had a conversation about the squirrel's condition.  Long story short, I could leave him out there and see what would happen.  Best case would be his tail falls off and if he didn't die from infection and blood loss, he would live a shortened life as they use their tails for many things from communicating, to helping them with some of those crazy jumps that they can do, to helping keeping themselves warm at night like a blanket.  This was all things that I never really thought about.  Then thinking back, I recall a few times over the years seeing a tailless squirrel in the yard and they never were around for very long.  I was "warned" that tail injuries most often end up in euthanasia.  This last bit of information threw me and I did debate on what to do.  As the squirrel continued to get around and leave a blood trail over the next day, I knew that catching him was the best thing.  It took 2 days and catching 8 others before him but I got him.  I plan on following up on him as I have his patient number but expect the outcome to be that he is no longer with us.

Then last Tuesday as I left work at 10 PM, I chanced upon an opossum along Britannia Rd in Mississauga.  He was wobbling along and the one side of his face was crimson red with blood.  It's obvious that he had been clipped by a car.  I quickly did a u-turn as soon as it was safely possible and went back for the animal.  I always have spare gloves in the back, a box or a carrier, sometimes both.  I watched as cars passed him, all narrowly missing him.  It was a harrowing thing to witness.  Again, once it was safe to do so, I raced out after the opossum, grabbing him and putting him in a box.  All I can say is "THE BLOOD!"  I had the intention on bringing him home for the night, and if he survived the night, I would take him to Toronto Wildlife.  Sadly he didn't even make it home with me, dying in the car before I got off the 401.  I needed some rocking me to sleep after that.

Normally I share pictures of the critters I blog about but you can understand why I did not here especially with the opossum.

Then, lastly, I have to share about my pigeon pal Lefty.  He showed up one afternoon on our front porch unable to fly.  I was just taking our cats to the vet when I saw him.  He was kinda jumping up at me, going around my feet, and I knew he wanted my attention.  He did distract me for a moment while I was getting the cats in the car.  I walked after him and he got on my hand as I knelt down to him.  I know I said something to him and put him back on our porch, probably said something like "I have to take Merry and Molly to the vet, you wait here".  Like he was going to understand me.  HA!  But don't all of us animal people talk to our furry and feathered friends like they know what we are saying?

I was gone about an hour and when I got home, Lefty was no where to be seen.  I had heard about him some more from Angie and our neighbours as he was walking around the area.  Everyone knew something was wrong with him.  But where did he go?  It was late in the afternoon and I went out every 45 minutes or so until dark, seeing if I could spot him again.  No luck.

The next morning Lefty shows up again.  He comes walking up the side of the house and out into the backyard.  I hold my hand out and he cannot fly up to me.  I kneel down, hold my hand out again maybe 6 inches from the ground and he jumps up into it.  "Aw dude, what's wrong?"  I gave him some food and he ate.  It wasn't a piggish feed like he and any of the other pigeons normally do which added to my concern about his health.  He sat there on my fingers, poofed out...  that was another sign something was wrong with him.

I put him in my carrier and called Toronto Wildlife.  As per norm, about an hour later someone returned my call.  We had a brief chat about Lefty and I had to answer the usual questions like if the bird had any bands, if it was a baby, etc.  I explained how I knew this pigeon as he was one of my regulars, more or less.  He has been coming around since last summer sometime.  He did disappear for a few months late in the fall and just started coming around again in the last few weeks.  So ya, not a baby, not a banded pet pigeon.  I got the approval to bring him in and away we went.

Normally with any animals I bring into the centre, I cover them up and keep things quiet.  Lefty was a different story.  I hate to say that he was almost like a pet to me because he is not that, but most of you get at what I mean.  My retelling of him coming to me for help, at least that is how I took it, says that while he is a wild bird, there's something different with him like some of the others that I have gotten to know over the years.  I talked to him a little here and there with the drive up to the centre.  Lefty just sat there in the carrier and looked at me the whole time.  I told him he was going to get help, they would look after him, everything would be okay.  Again, here I am thinking Lefty understood everything I said to him, word for word.  I honestly believe that he did, in his own way.  He knew I was his friend.  He sought me out when he was in trouble.  Any bird that cannot fly besides penguins as an example, is a doomed bird, especially here in a city with so many animal predators and free roaming cats.

It was hard to pass Lefty over to the staff and see him get taken away to the back, still in the carrier.  But I left Toronto Wildlife with hopes that we would see each other again.  Sadly that was not to be.

It was deemed that Lefty had a viral infection called PMV.  There is no cure.  He would only get worse over time and I have seen that in other birds.  It wouldn't be long until he would turn into a seemingly drunk bird and stumble around and fall on his face.  Then in the last stages, he would start to have violent convulsions and this would carry on for who knows how long until he finally passed.  I have seen this in other birds.  Euthanasia was the only option here.  His suffering ended.

Losing Lefty was like losing another friend.  He showed up in the yard last summer and quickly took to me.  We had a lot of fun last year over the months and he was a little blessing while I was off sick those 10 weeks.  

Then Halloween came around and he obliged my selfies with him.  Some of the pigeons get pretty freaked out at my masks, not Lefty though.

He was an awesome little backyard friend.  He is proof to the people that pigeons really are personable birds.  Just be kind to them and you will get the love in return.

I'm missing him and will for a long time.  Thanks for friendship Lefty.

Most of my bird pals just fly away one day and do not come back.  I don't know what happened to them and don't put much thought into that.  I have mixed emotions about situations like this where I know their outcome; and I try to keep the knowing he's not suffering and died with some dignity at the forefront. 

I think about making a pigeon book of all my friends over the years.  I don't know how often I would look at it.  I see their photos come up on my Facebook memories and much like the many of Meadow over the years, there's days the pictures put a smile on my face while some days I get overwhelmed with sadness as I miss her, and some of these birds who used to come visit me daily.

Okay, that's it for this one.  See you all again soon as I have my next blog already working through my mind, just compiling the photos for it.

Epic Encounter

Hello!  Remember me?  Long time since my last blog, eh.  I have a few in my head to do but...  hopefully I get the *blog bug* to do them in the coming weeks.  What happened last night, really wanting to tell this story might be that revival I need...

So, here we are just flying through March.  Why is this month going so quickly?  In the last week I definitely have noticed more snowy owls after dark on my way home from work than what I have all winter.  It's obvious with spring around the corner, that these northern owls are on the move to their nesting territories.  I've been lucky enough to spot a few around my work either on my 30 minute break or on my way home at 10 PM.

I saw this one 3 nights ago.  Crap record shot from a nearby parking area.  The owl is across a small field from where I was parked.

Then last night after I got my coffee, I took a drive around to another parking area and found this other snowy owl.  The lighting was terrible here but it was cool to see the bird under the near full moon.

Initially I did not spot the owl but tuned into the first sounds of killdeer for the 2022 season.  It was a lovely evening with temperatures in the low teens.  As I drove around looking for snowys, I had my car windows down.  Hearing those killdeer was music to my ears.  As spring migration ramps up, there will be many first bird calls and songs of the year, and it's always a little exciting.  Just over a week ago it was the first red-winged blackbirds and common grackles to return, hearing them before spotting them.  Now it's the killdeer.

I had stopped my car in this parking lot, and listened to the killdeer.  I tried to spot one in the dim light from the moon and distant street lamps.  As I looked around, it was then that I found the snowy owl on a low lamp post.  I had my camera with me and tried for some pictures.  Unfortunately I couldn't get the angle to have the owl in the moon but it was fun to try.  Only having about 10 minutes to play around before having to get back to work didn't help.

The killdeer were loud and flying about the field.  It turned out that the snowy owl had also taken notice to these newly arrived migrants (they weren't here the night before).  I had the thought to take a short video of the owl on this lamp post with the sounds of the killdeer.  Before I could even make that video, off went the owl diving down into the field and it was chasing one of the killdeer.  Holy s**t!  The maneuvering of the owl was incredible to see.  I couldn't see the killdeer but I could hear it's frantic calls as it was being chased.  Mere seconds later the owl had taken down the bird.  There was a couple more ear piercing shrieks from the killdeer before it was done.  Those sounds haunted me the remainder of the night.  I was happy for the owl to get a meal.  I was sad for the killdeer to return "home" for the season only to become dinner on it's first day back.  

The field was more lit up than the parking lot where the owl was hanging out.  I was able to get another crap record shot of it on top of its prey.

I was almost late getting back to work to finish my shift.  I was so wow'd about this encounter.  It sucks that I don't work with any others who share my interest in wildlife.  I mean the guys like this stuff but not nearly to the extent that I do.  I told a couple about this encounter and they were like "oh neat" but perhaps when I see them today and can show them a picture or two, they will be a little more into it.

After work I had to get a few things at the Walmart just a couple blocks away.  On my way to the highway to head home, I passed the parking area one more time.  I found the owl on an icy snow bank along the driveway.  I watched it from my car for a couple more minutes, taking a few more pictures and then headed for home.  

As I got out my car in our driveway, all I could hear was killdeer in our neighbourhood.  Amazing how they're all back...  just like that!

It won't be long now and these snowy owl sightings will once again be a thing of the past until who knows when next winter.

Thanks for stopping in.  I hope this reads well.  I haven't even finished my first coffee yet; but I wanted to get on this before I got distracted by something else with my morning.

Cheers!