so yesterday we put our sailboat in. there were birds living in the mast but my father "got them out" before we left. (that means he pounded on the mast until the
parents flew out. naturally it wasn't until we were in rhode island and the mast was off the crane and standing in position that i heard the babies in the mast. we all kind of looked at each other like 'egh...what to do?' it would have been an extra fifty or so to have them lift the mast again, but i felt bad, my brother was yelling "they're effing birds! you don't want it on your conscience? FINE, it's on my conscience. you kill things all the time, what do you care?" i was ok with them not surviving, but not ok with knowingly leaving them to starve in the mast- luckily my father couldn't leave them either. We finally rigged a complicated pulley system and the guys tilted the mast while i stuck my fingers in the 2" space in the bottom and dragged two screaming chicks out by the feet.
they spent their day in a box in the back of the U-haul- i fed 'em some cat food before we left, when we got home, and first thing in the morning this morning. i really didn't want anything to do with raising them, i'm pretty sure they're insect eaters which are complicated to raise, and i knew the parents were still there, just the next was gone. this morning they woke me up at 5:30, so i drove over to my parents' house and duct taped a flower pot to the empty boat trailer. i threw some pine branches in there and stuck the babies in.
when i pulled out of the driveway the parents were swooping down and sitting on the edge of the pot! when my father left a couple of hours later they were still there.
yay for a successful rescue!!! double yay for not having to find a rehabber to take them off my hands!!
if only they could talk- those babies traveled to newport faster than their parents have ever flown, spent some time on a crane, on a sailboat, and were hauled out in a finger-risking rescue, force fed cat food, road in the back of the truck on the way home, spent the night in a dog crate, and now they're home again!!!
