Injured birds

[gleno1]

Hello i need advice please of what to do if i get any injured birds in my garden, Yesterday morning i was going out and i saw an injured baby thrush in a flower bed.As i crept up to it it looked terrified .- my husband said that he would keep his eye on it while i was shopping and shoo any cats away that approached it.All of a sudden a magpie swooped down and flew away with it .I was distrought when my husband told me could this have been avoided if id have maybr put the thrush in a box and released it later on

[Androcles]

I understand your concern - I would share it. But in these circumstances, we maybe have to adopt the view of the cameramen who make nature fims - this is part of nature, magpies have to eat too, and we interfere and disrupt the natural pattern of things at our peril.....?

[Morganna07]

I agree, it is a shame when you see a helpless animal, it in turn makes you feel helpless. However if you had moved the baby you would have left your scent on it, the mother would then have rejected the chick and would not have fed it, it just would have starved slowly. It is best to let nature progress in it's natural way.

[Meg]

Androcles is probably right, these things are probably best ignored by us and left to nature.

A few weeks ago I found a buzzard with a damaged wing, the RSPCA told me which local vet to take it to, which I did. They didn't seem over interested in it and I suspect they put it to sleep as soon as I left.

I can't bear to see a living thing suffering, I'm sure you're of the same attitude, but sometimes there is nothing we can do. Sad isn't it.

[tamborine]

There is something that can be done......cull the magpies! There are too many of them.

[poltergeist]

what does 'shoo' mean exactly?

[Mr Veritas]

Often,just the picking up (or even looking st) an (apparently) abadoned or injured wild animal can so frighten it that it dies of that fright.
It's best,if you can bear to,to leave it alone.If it recovers enough to resume it's normal way of life then that's fine,but as others have said,if it dies that (sadly) is nature.
Our cats bring in lots of small rodents (shrews,mice etc) but as soon as I try and catch them they die on me of heart failure,it's a real catch 22 situation.

We cannot really get in the way of nature.

[fredpuli47]

Poor magpies ! If there wasn't the food for them they wouldn't be around because they'd neither survive nor breed succesfully. If you have lots of magpies that's a good sign. You must have got lots of birds to provide the eggs and young for them to eat. Overall, the birds in your area won't die out because of magpies . They may well be flourishing, in fact.This towny obsession with magpies is quite a recent phenomenon. It must be a sign that we are encouraging bird life and are now more interested in it than hitherto.

Cats are another matter.If we culled the cats we'd save a lot of birdlife. They don't kill to survive, unlike magpies. [Not a serious suggestion, but accurate in its content ! ]

[rinkins]

Vets have an obligation to take in wild animals that are injured I hate to take a dove not so long ago. I did phone the vet before I took it in and they said to take it straight in. They were very good and let me know the outcome too.

[gleno1]

Thankyou all very much for replying to my querie - i felt much better when id read them. Poltergeist -the word shoo goes back to my childhood -if there were any cats or dogs lurking around our garden my mother would tell them to shoo-that meant clear off and they usually did .I was born in lancashire -maybe its a lancashire saying.

[raptorfrank]

hi gleno magpies are part of the crow family and are carrion feeders as all crows are jays roocks etc, we take in a number of birds and most never make it through the night
so it is always 50/50 but also some do and go back 100%.
we also found that some vets are not interested in wild birds be it raptors (birds of prey) or garden birds as they make no money out of these like therebread and butter work cats and dogs.but dont give up look for an animal sanctury they will take all small or large good luck

[gleno1]

Thankyou for your reply raptorfrank i will bear that in mind if it happens again .