June 11th, 2009

This one is going to be a happy and cute one to distract you from the sad ending of the other bird’s story. When we found the big bird today, on the beach, we also found two baby bird hatchlings. Their (sorry, this part is sad) nest had most likely been destroyed and they had been touched by humans so their mother would never come back. Happily, though, Will and I found them before anything happened to them and brought them back to the ELC. They were so young, only a few days out of the egg at most. Then, Will told me something that blew my mind. He said, “You should probably go and catch some grasshoppers to mash for the hatchlings.”  Nasty. Grasshopper guts. So, anyway, I went and caught them; bringing them back in a plastic container. A lucky few got to die quickly thanks to the iguana, but the rest I drowned (please don’t think that I’m a horrible person). I put the grasshoppers on the top of the plastic container and began to mash them. I’ll save you the nasty details, and just tell you that by the time I finished and added some water, I was left with a murky brown mixture that I put into a dropper. I dropper-fed the hatchlings, and then left some of the bits they didn’t eat in a bottle cap with a little bit of water. Hope with me that they survive, because it would be so amazing if I got to see them grow up and fly for the first time.

Filed under: Shelley |