18 July, 2007
Injured Seagull Chick Update: 18 July, 2007
As of this morning, this poor guy still had that fucking wire and line wrapped around its foot (feet?). It looks like the Animal Control officer was unable to reach it safely to tend to it. I phoned the shelter this morning and someone there told me the officer tried yesterday to reach the chick (okay, juvenile, but it's still a baby to ME) and was unsuccessful and that she was going to return today. But it looks like she still couldn't reach it, and if she could, it really is a two-person job to recover the bird (while keeping the very-protective adults from pecking her to bits).
I went back this evening and met my friend K there. We agree that this is a job for someone with more skill and experience in this sort of thing than either of us have. He found the name of a bird rescue organization and he's going to contact them. Perhaps if they cannot come to Alameda, they can give us direction on how to recover and help the bird ourselves. Either way, this little guy most likely will need some care and rehab.
I was relieved to see that the adults are being so protective of it. They hovered and squawked and got REALLY testy if they thought either one of us was getting too close to the chick. K also said he saw the bird swimming around, so at the very least it should be able to get over to the pier pilings to eat the shellfish that cling to them. And it seems it found a shelter for the night underneath a concrete piling, so it should be reasonably safe until high tide sometime in the early morning hours.
I'm still so fucking angry about this that it took every last ounce of self-restraint to stop myself from going over to where a bunch of guys were fishing and screaming blue murder at them. I am tempted to post photos of this chick near the fishing areas, though.
**sigh**
Labels: ferry commuting, gah, seagull chick
~~ victoria on 9:10 PM ~~ 0 comments
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