Num-num update, original story here.
Since taking Num-num in several days ago, he has got stronger, started to open his eyes more and has gotten a whole lot more flappier! When we first got him he could hardly walk, and that's why the cat could so easily get him and his sibling.
For the first two nights Num-num was unable to escape his blue bucket nest and didn't really try. His parents were coming frequently to feed him, so I left the rearing up to them.
On the third day, Num-num was much stronger than before and was jumping and flapping his wings to get out. I was worried he would get out and fall off the balcony...and get eaten by the cat. With much effort Num-num made it up to the ledge of his blue nest. I was hesitant to see what to do, but he just sat there chilling out, and doing some strange bopping movements with wing stretching.
I watched with nervous fascination about what was going to happen.
And then his dad came along and had a chat with him.
And he just sat there. Great, I thought, this is what would happen in the wild. Hopefully the parents tell him to stay put and he won't hurt himself. The parents both came and fed him on his ledge, and seemingly had more chats with him.
I was feeling more relaxed and was reading myself to full pass all rearing duties back to the parents. Nightfall approached, a time when the parents stop coming to see Num-num, and also the time the cat usually comes to make his last prowl of our Hof.
So what does Num-num do? he make a run for it. He jumps off his blue ledge and straight to the edge of the balcony. Despite thinking I'd let what happens happen, I wasn't going to let him go off on his own in the dark! I went to retrieve him off his perilous ledge, pulling him back from the brink a couple of times with a grilling rack that for some reason we leave in our pfand bucket. I'd get him off the ledge and then he'd just run back again, and the third time...thwap, he fell off and down below. NUM-NUM!!!
I ran downstairs and found hum chilling out in the garden. His parents nowhere to be seen or heard, it was no place for our little bird. I picked him up and took him back to his blue safe zone. One more night, I said to myself...just one more night and he'll be ready. I knew it was inevitable that he would make another break for it and perhaps he was ready and should do whatever Blackbirds do. Just not at night please!
Back in his box he kept trying to get out again, getting back out on the blue ledge once more. His squeaks were heard by his dad and when daddy came with a worm, it looked like he tried to knock Num-num back inside his box. Eventually Num-num fell back in and decided to go to sleep.
I was happy to find Num-num still in his box sleeping before I went to work. The Mrs. was at home to keep an eye on him.
Sometime before lunch, he got back out again, went to the ledge, and like Buzz Lightyear, fell with style, diagonally with fledgling flights skills, crash landing in the soft vines of our central gardened area. He then made a run across the paving and into a small shrubbed and vined area where we presumed his parents were setting up shop.
When I came home, already aware of his escape, I could hear him in the Hof but not see him. In the night and the next morning we could hear him and his parents chatting. So he had survived his first night out in 'the wild'!
Today when we came back from an outing we could hear him again. We looked around and he was just chilling out in the shrub thing that he'd run to (and that we've been seeing his parents fly in and out of often). He looks pretty happy and safe. He wasn't fussed when I crept inside the bush to say hi.
And so now our fostering days are over, and our happy little Blackbird is back where he should be, and hopefully out of danger. It's nice to know that he will still be near us and living in our Hof with his parents. Hopefully his sibling, the one that was taken by the next door neighbour, will also survive.
And, I can keep an eye on him from the area where I usually work on the computer, which directly overlooks the Blackbirds home.
Hopefully he'll come and visit us sometime when he can fly better :)
Since taking Num-num in several days ago, he has got stronger, started to open his eyes more and has gotten a whole lot more flappier! When we first got him he could hardly walk, and that's why the cat could so easily get him and his sibling.
For the first two nights Num-num was unable to escape his blue bucket nest and didn't really try. His parents were coming frequently to feed him, so I left the rearing up to them.
On the third day, Num-num was much stronger than before and was jumping and flapping his wings to get out. I was worried he would get out and fall off the balcony...and get eaten by the cat. With much effort Num-num made it up to the ledge of his blue nest. I was hesitant to see what to do, but he just sat there chilling out, and doing some strange bopping movements with wing stretching.
I watched with nervous fascination about what was going to happen.
And then his dad came along and had a chat with him.
And he just sat there. Great, I thought, this is what would happen in the wild. Hopefully the parents tell him to stay put and he won't hurt himself. The parents both came and fed him on his ledge, and seemingly had more chats with him.
So what does Num-num do? he make a run for it. He jumps off his blue ledge and straight to the edge of the balcony. Despite thinking I'd let what happens happen, I wasn't going to let him go off on his own in the dark! I went to retrieve him off his perilous ledge, pulling him back from the brink a couple of times with a grilling rack that for some reason we leave in our pfand bucket. I'd get him off the ledge and then he'd just run back again, and the third time...thwap, he fell off and down below. NUM-NUM!!!
I ran downstairs and found hum chilling out in the garden. His parents nowhere to be seen or heard, it was no place for our little bird. I picked him up and took him back to his blue safe zone. One more night, I said to myself...just one more night and he'll be ready. I knew it was inevitable that he would make another break for it and perhaps he was ready and should do whatever Blackbirds do. Just not at night please!
Back in his box he kept trying to get out again, getting back out on the blue ledge once more. His squeaks were heard by his dad and when daddy came with a worm, it looked like he tried to knock Num-num back inside his box. Eventually Num-num fell back in and decided to go to sleep.
I was happy to find Num-num still in his box sleeping before I went to work. The Mrs. was at home to keep an eye on him.
Sometime before lunch, he got back out again, went to the ledge, and like Buzz Lightyear, fell with style, diagonally with fledgling flights skills, crash landing in the soft vines of our central gardened area. He then made a run across the paving and into a small shrubbed and vined area where we presumed his parents were setting up shop.
When I came home, already aware of his escape, I could hear him in the Hof but not see him. In the night and the next morning we could hear him and his parents chatting. So he had survived his first night out in 'the wild'!
Today when we came back from an outing we could hear him again. We looked around and he was just chilling out in the shrub thing that he'd run to (and that we've been seeing his parents fly in and out of often). He looks pretty happy and safe. He wasn't fussed when I crept inside the bush to say hi.
And so now our fostering days are over, and our happy little Blackbird is back where he should be, and hopefully out of danger. It's nice to know that he will still be near us and living in our Hof with his parents. Hopefully his sibling, the one that was taken by the next door neighbour, will also survive.
And, I can keep an eye on him from the area where I usually work on the computer, which directly overlooks the Blackbirds home.
Hopefully he'll come and visit us sometime when he can fly better :)
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