Foresty,  Outdoors

Sick wildlife near the homestead

Sick wildlife
Bird in distress.

This poor bird, not sure what it is, a grouse maybe, showed up near our front deck just after supper this evening. I’ve seen birds like this before, feathers all puffed out. Something was wrong.

 

 

 

You can click on the images for higher resolution photos if you want to see them.

I was able to get close enough almost to touch, but that was not my intention. I was just looking to see if any injury was obvious or visible.

Wild bird in distress.
Wild bird in distress.

Clearly there’s a problem. Its feathers are all emaciated (if that’s a proper way to say it). I did get too close at one point, as the bird kept an eye on me as I walked around it. When I got too close, it turned and walked toward me. But it could barely walk. Its in a sad state. When I got to look at the rear of the bird, it was very apparent there’s a problem. There were flies on the bird and lots of little, well, there’s no good way to say this, there were what appeared to be maggots feeding on an open wound.

Injured wild bird.
Injured wild bird.

Very disheartening to see. Then my wife and I had a conversation as to what would be the proper thing to do? Let nature takes it course? Or put it out of its misery? We opted to leave it be. Shortly thereafter we had to leave the house for a couple hours. Upon return, the bird was gone. Whether it stumbled away into the woods or something came along and picked it up. We’ll never know. 🙁

 

A Newfoundland born Canadian with a life long interest in woodworking, baking and anything else that peaks my curiosity.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *