http://www.ibabuzz.com/garybogue/2006/07/31/the-cycle-of-life/ Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:33:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://www.ibabuzz.com/garybogue/2006/07/31/the-cycle-of-life/comment-page-1/#comment-249 Gary Bogue Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:26:59 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/garybogue/2006/07/31/the-cycle-of-life/#comment-249 Reminds me of the time a baby scrub jay fell out of the nest and broke one leg. I patched up the leg with a little splint and kept the jay chick inside the house at night in a shoebox on a heating pad. During the day I rigged a little platform in the tree by the nest with the other jay babies and sat the shoebox with the jay on the platform during the day. Mama jay fed the injured baby along with the others. Just before the jay chicks were ready to fledge, I removed the splint (x-ray showed the leg had healed). Fast-growing chicks are fast growers! Then I put the healed chick back in its nest with the other babies and a few days later, all fledged together. /Gary

]]> http://www.ibabuzz.com/garybogue/2006/07/31/the-cycle-of-life/comment-page-1/#comment-248 Liz Wylie Sat, 25 Apr 2009 03:06:41 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/garybogue/2006/07/31/the-cycle-of-life/#comment-248 Dear Gary, The cycle of life sometimes takes an odd turn. As a volunteer at Lindsay Wildlife Museum my job is to answer callers questions regarding wildlife. One of these questions is what to do if a nest of baby birds falls down or is destroyed for some reason. Our advice, in many cases if the babies arn’t injured, is to make a nest from a box or plastic container in which the babies are comfortable but still accessible by the parents. This “nest” with babies is then placed near where the original nest was situated. We advise to place it off the ground in a bush or tree or even a pole where predators, especially cats, can’t reach it. Frequently the parents return and continue taking care of their babies. Well, by golly, an AT&T employee took down a nest from a pole in front of our house because it was causing problems with telephone communication. We found two uninjured babies on the ground so took our own advice and built a nest from a wooden flower pot. We nailed it up high on the telephone pole and waited to see what would happen. Within no longer than 5 minutes mom and pop were checking over the “nest”, shrugged their shoulders, then continued feeding the babies. It was such a thrill to see that the advice actually works and that the little ones still had a chance to grow up.

]]>