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Re: Neighborhood Bird Rescue

From:

"J. Steven Huy"

Reply-To:

Maryland Birds & Birding

Date:

Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:15:00 -0500

Missed your original post, but wrens get into this kind of trouble often enough so here it is for others:

Use vegetable oil to free critters from adhesive traps.  Those for rodents and snakes usually include that in the intructions but I doubt it would be on an insect trap.

The oil works quickly and will reduce stress on the bird bu it will mess the feathers. If applied with a Q-tip along the adhesive you can minimize the oil in the feathers. Once the bird is freed it should be immediately taken to a rehab facility where they have the experience to care for it until the oil is cleaned from the feathers.

Wrens are bad for getting into traps.  They crawl into small spaces where other birds won't.  I have twice had Carolina wrens get caught in mouse traps.  One was inside an enclosed porch and the wren apparently came in through the basement and a gap in the floor.  The other was in a closed drawer in a cabinet outdoors, the wren had climbed in through the bottom of the cabinet and up behind the drawer.

--
J. Steven Huy
Middletown, MD, USA


 
---- Phil Davis <> wrote: 
 
=============
Update:

She had lots of spunk early in the evening, but she did not last through 
the night ...

We think the neighbor had her cricket trap(s) outside of her garage door. 
She felt terrible! We trust she learned her lesson and won't do that again ...

Phil


At 21:36 12/18/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>MD Osprey:
>
>Late this afternoon we got a call from a neighbor, across the street. It 
>seems she put some of those sticky insect traps in her garage to catch 
>crickets. She left for a few hours during the afternoon and when she got 
>back she saw that a bird had become stuck in the trap. Barbara and I said 
>we'd be right over. On the way, we said to each other, "it's probably a 
>Carolina Wren." Well, we were only half-right ... it was a Winter Wren! 
>The trap was way back in a corner of the garage. I don't know if the 
>neighbor left her garage door open when she went out or not ... I'll ask 
>her tomorrow.
>
>The poor bird had both legs stuck, it's belly, and one side of it's face. 
>That is nasty very a adhesive, for sure. We were able to carefully 
>extricate the bird without dislocating any legs and being careful with her 
>eye on the stuck side. (We say, "her" since Winter Wrens are so dainty, 
>but who knows ...)
>
>We used some of that citrus-based non-toxic solvent and cleaned her up as 
>best we could (this was not easy, for sure!). Barbara is a believer in the 
>power of heat for her curing birds so we put the bird under a lamp and 
>placed some water and insect-suet mix in the bottom of the cage (we are 
>using one Barbara's small bird transport plexiglass cages).
>
>The bird dried out under the light and is now quite active, sitting on the 
>perch and she is making poops ... that's good.
>
>We've put her to bed for the night and we'll see how she is tomorrow. Much 
>of her feathers are still matted and she lost a few in the first cleaning. 
>We may have to do a second cleaning tomorrow. Naturally, with the cold 
>weather, she would need all of her insulating abilities to survive outside.
>
>If anyone has any additional experience in this area, please pass on any 
>tips. We'll let you know ...
>
>Phil
>
>
>==================================
>Phil Davis      Davidsonville, Maryland     USA
>                 mailto:[log in to unmask]
>==================================

==================================
Phil Davis      Davidsonville, Maryland     USA
                 mailto:[log in to unmask]
==================================