There's been some discussion of accidents involving wildlife recently, here and on Pierre le Poilu's fine blog page. Here's more of the same, but if I can get the videos to upload this should be a little more like daytime TV.
Episode 1 - The Baby Swallow
At the moment we are still troubled with nesting swallows in our woodshed, despite the ingenious introduction of a fake owl to scare them away. To put this into context, we actually like the swallows, but they make a dreadful mess of the place. If we can stop them getting in next year that will be a positive step. Mind you, we said that at the end of last Summer, too.
Anyway, this is a tale of a swallow that isn't one of ours - the Contesse was at Tescos the other day and found a baby swallow which had fallen off their roof. It seemed unharmed, if a little groggy, but it was right in the pedestrian footway, so she moved it to a safe place where its relatives could find it and take it home (or whatever). We just know this story will have a happy ending - it had better, the poor little thing is due to fly away to Africa in a few weeks. I'm sure it will be all right.
And - if it works - here's a short video of the little chap being rescued...
Episode 2 - The Bat
The business with the swallow was a few days ago. Today's excitement came when my wife was getting ready for her exercise session. Unwisely, a pipistrelle bat had decided to take a nap in her sports towel. Happily, both parties survived their chance meeting, and my wife had the advantage of having her pulse-rate nicely revved up before she started her static-bike workout. I took the trespasser outside into the garden. He seemed well enough, and we put him in a protected spot under the hedge to get his bearings.
We'll assume that is another happy ending. That's enough for this week, thank you.
Excellent and informative. Glad to hear the Contessa is ok.
ReplyDeleteAs I have nothing intelligent nor even humourously sarcastic to add(shock), I will merely say:
dinnah dinnah dinnah dinnah dinnah dinnah dinnah dinnah Bat(rescue)man!
Wild creatures are splendid - especially when they stay in the right places. I ask you - do I go out for a kip in the bats' house?
DeleteOur youngest cat occasionally catches bats , brings them into the house and devours them (breaking several Wildlife Protection Laws I would think) , I wondered how he catches them - then I saw him on next doors garage room trying to swipe them out of the sky as they fly past .
ReplyDeleteIt seems he manages to catch some, then? Seems he's doing it the hard way. All you need is a sports towel, apparently.
DeleteMy wife has finally managed to educate me that the birds that share our house are Swifts not Swallows, Took having to disassemble the stove pipe to rescue a young one who was having trouble getting back up the chimney ( its knows the way in, must know the way out...), When she released it out the front door, it flew off faster and straighter than any bird I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteSo far this summer we have had to let sparrows out of our stove on about 15 occasions. We open the windows wide, open the stove and stand back. Whoosh. Out he goes - you'd swear he knows the way. Just a minute - he does know the way - it's the same sparrow, isn't it?
Delete