A time to forget about pest controll.

[KCE]

As you know I do a lot of pest control but not to long back I had to put that a side and help out this little chap and give him a start in life.
Across the road from me is a large conifer tree where the wood pigeon nest each year.
My wife and I was sat outside this day and saw a scandal with two magpies and a crow.
We saw that the crow had dropped this little guy from around 30 foot onto the road which it stole from the nest.
I picked it up and began a journey to help this little guy on its way.
We called him Woody.
The first thing we had to do was settle him down in the house and check him out.
The next stage was how and what do we feed this little guy to help him out.
I do have various foods which I put out for the wildlife in my garden throughout the year so choose to feed him BMP a soft protein food made with boiled water.
We had to find a way to feed him as wood pigeons get fed regurgitated food so came up with the idea a bottle with a piece of balloon fitted over the top with a slit in.
Well he took to this asap as you can see in the pics.
We spent the next 3 weeks each 2 hours day and night feeding him even my dog Candy got involved who use to listen for him waking up for his feed.
The next problem we had to think about was when and how do we let him go back into the wild as we need to make him wild and not imprinted and dependent to us.
The 4th week we started to keep him out side day and night in a large dog cage with small amounts of food in there and stopped handling him which in time he became very aggressive towards us so I knew it was time to release him.
We opened the cage and away he flew but he did circle our house a few times then flew away towards the woods. 

[KCE]

Few more pics.

[Daztilley]

Great write up kev 👍 was glad that you managed to save him from the nest robbers 👍👍👍

[Kernal]

OMG thats so kind of you to do that, Thats made my sunday,  to read this thread really did put a big smile on my face.

Top carework KCE,  I take my hat of to you kind sir. 

Regards

Kernal

[Ca_Varminter]

Hey PaPa KCE,..
That is simply amazing!!
Wow ... Perfect story to read on sunday..

ATB,
Stuart

[KCE]

There are times us rapid owners do put something back into the wild and I'm sure many of us would have done the same for little woody.
That was not the first time we have hand reared a bird.
We did the same for a day old sparrow who we found outside our front door with an eggshell still attached to him just before the ants got to him.
We had peetwee for 11 years who used to live in a budgie cage at the bottom of the stairs but he came out during the day and had the run of the house.
Sorry no pics as we only had polaroid back in them days not mobile phones.
The upsetting part to peetwee that when he first opened his eyes it was me he first saw so when out of the cage it was me he flew to most of the time and sat on my shoulder while watching tv or eating my food.
He had a thing for chips and sausage at times.
Regards Kev.

[Ca_Varminter]

Well the one thing that the Non-hunting Community just don't Understand!!
The Majority of the time out in the field..
You are observing Nature...at it's Best....
You come to understand the interaction, and relationships of wildlife and it's enviorment!!
One of my favorie places to hunt California Ground Squirrels.
Was next to a river..
I used sit there and watch the River Otters play and hunt...
It was sight to behold...

Stuart

[KCE]

Yes I agree with you there Stuart.
It has been the same for as long as I can remember the so called non shooting community who will always make the news headlines and all the press when you get the one so calle Rambo that goes off the rails then we are all tard with the same brush.
They are uneducated in so many ways and don't see the bigger picture at all.
Why we shoot the grey squirrel in the uk they are unaware that that it is not native to the uk and has led to the native red squirrel here to be a very rare endangered species.
They are not aware of the destructive damage it can cause in other ways.
They are not aware as to why we shoot the wood pigeon or the magpies and other carrion.
They would soon learn that if we stopped there would be a severe shortage of grain products used in there daily diets.
They would soon notice when there gardens became quiet as there would be no song birds any more to name a few things.
I don't see anything being changed in the near future regarding them and us responsible shooters.
As long as we stick up for ourselves and abide by the law at all times while out in the field is all we can go on doing.
And when we do meet people along the way try to educate them as to our reasons why we shoot.
Regards Kev.

[Scott]

A great thing you did there and no mistake

I wonder if it will come back to the home it once knew in time to come or is that not in the nature of these birds? (I know nothing about them)

Regardless, still a great thing you did, much respect to you and your wife for this act of kindness

[daystatesniper]

Nice one Kev ,reminds me of a bird my bro' rescued years ago ,a Jackdaw ,tree rats had raided the nest and it had tumbled out and was laying on the floor ,keeping chickens he placed it under his electric brooder .It grew ,and feeding it meal worms and maggots/worms etc it grew to adult size then the day came to release it ,it flew away .Then a few days later he was in his garden and guess what came and landed on his table ,the bloody Jackdaw!!!,he put his hand out with a few mealworms on it and it came ,landed on it and ate the lot !!!,anyway he put a bright yellow ring on it's leg so if he was ever out corvid bashing he would not drop it .It was around him off and on for six to seven years and then just vanished but he always said he saved a life that day ,and yes it was a corvid but hey ho ,even hunters have a heart .

atvb' Mick