FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Red Breasted Nuthatch

[j arnold <alee04lacebark@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yesterday my husband said he saw a nuthatch on the
floor of our large metal barn. He said it looked like
it was dying, but when he went to pick it up it flew
up into the rafters.

We opened all the barn doors and went about our
business, then closed the barn for the night.

This morning, I went out to the barn and when I opened
the door there it was on a clothesline I use. It flew
out over to a clump of persimmon trees. It looked weak
as it flew away.

I began to clean the birdbaths in another area and
looked up to see the bird perched on a birdbath under
those trees. Later when cleaning that birdbath, the
nuthatch fell out of the tree at my feet. I thought it
was a young whitebreasted at the time, but I was so
upset that I didn't notice it had a red breast.

My husband suggested sugar water, so we dropped a tiny
bit on the end of her beak with an eyedropper. She
swallowed a couple of drops, then closed her eyes,
while I held her hoping to give her more. The whole
time, I was wondering what else to do. 

I decided to call Eileen Wicker, and  the person there
gave me Mary Jo Schenider's phone number. She wasn't
home.

We then decided to use our butterfly net to hold the
bird until I got some wet cat food to try to feed her,
and we didn't want to overheat her or stress her any
further. I laid the hoop on the floor with the net
poofed up above her. Then I noticed that her eyes were
open and she was looking at that net. When I came back
to the porch, she had gotten out of the net and was
sitting on the floor. 

I picked her up carefully, and placed a dot of the
food on her beak. She shook that off, but took more
sugar water.

Then Mary Jo called, suggesting that we give her
chopped grapes and hulled seeds. When I came back she
was hanging from the screen on the porch window, so I
took her and the food out under the trees and put her
on the ground. She immediately flew into the tree. 

I put seed and suet out, but haven't seen any evidence
of her since then. We hope she is doing well somewhere
around here. 

This is the first time we have seen a Red Breasted
around here, but it's 
not the first time a bird has been caught in the barn.
Hummingbirds have also been found, but sadly they were
dead. 

Wish there were a solution to this problem of birds in
the barn, but when it is hot and we are working in
there we must keep those doors open. Otherwise we will
leave them closed in the future.


       
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