(Header image created with microsoft co-pilot)
This blog reflects my personal experiences and opinions and does not represent or reflect those of DierenAmbulance Nederrijn.
Snappy Start!
It’s standard procedure not to leave the base 30 minutes before the end of the shift. Amongst other reasons, this policy helps avoid the team overshooting their shift should a rescue turn ‘complicated’. The upshot is the morning team is usually waiting for us at the start of our afternoon shift. But not today!
They’re weren’t stuck on a tricky rescue, but bogged down with several. They arrived back at the base on the dot. They’d had 11 rescues and there were still 5 left to do. We needed to start quickly!
Wounded Grebe (Fuut)
This call came on whilst we were on our way to a wounded sparrow. Since the grebe was en route we called in here first.
The grebe, I learned, is a water bird. This one was found behind an inside door which is already a warning sign that something is wrong. And it was; her right leg was injured. The finder placed a washing basket over her so she’d still be there by the time we arrived.
The driver, who I shall call Tom, told me grebes carry their young on their back under their wings. How special!
Tom grabbed his hygienic gloves quickly on arrival. This jolted me a little because it’s usually me who does that when I work with Sally! The finder brought us inside to our waiting patient.
The washing basket was on the floor by a door and near a wall. This made it difficult for Tom to manoever himself so he could reach underneath and grab the duck-sized bird. It was made all the more difficult because she moved a lot. Tom told me later he was nervous because grebes have sharp beaks.
Things happened quickly once he had hold of her, so there was no time for photos – only to be nearby with the rescue box and close the lid as soon as she was inside.
And what a beautiful bird! A screenshot of the admin entry will need to suffice.
After the shift I translated Fuut (into grebe) so I knew what I’d helped, and read a little about it. Of note, they dive very quickly, hence their latin name Tachybaptus ruficollis which is from the Ancient Greek takhus “fast” and bapto “to sink under” (Reference: Wikipedia). Keep this in mind for the update:
Update: By happy chance I was on a walk in the “Wageningse Geul” with my beautiful wife who spotted and pointed out a grebe.
Standing by when she surfaces…
OK. Deep breath…
Wounded Sparrow (musje)
I saw a small child through the finder’s window as we approached their address, so I ran back to the ambulance to grab hold of a children’s version of the magazine. By the time I returned, Tom and the finder were already deep in conversation about what had happened to this poor little sparrow. She had a wound on her chest, but I don’t know about the backstory.
The finder was exceptionally grateful to us for picking up their patient, and he gratefully received a magazine for himself as well as for his child! 🙂
A Helping Hand
As we walked back to the ambulance I realised Tom was handling all of the animals. OK, both animals, so I was only helping. Wait up! There’s nothing “only” about helping! I realised that whilst I’d been telling myself until now I’ve been helping animals, I’d kind of lost sight of the help aspect because I’ve been enjoying the hands-on aspect of it so much!
Goose caught in idiot’s discarded fishing line
(My words.)
Another injured bird waited for us in the same town, and we set off. But a call from the centralist alerted us to an urgent rescue which took priority.
A goose on the side of a large pond near a petting zoo couldn’t move thanks to a fishing line wrapped around his leg. The finder (surely there were more, but this is the one who thought to call us) wasn’t sure if we’d turn up because she’d already called earlier in the day and I guess hadn’t been told how busy we were.
We had no directions on wheres the goose was, so we headed towards the cafe which seemed to be the central area of the petting zoo to ask for info.. We walked through a number of enclosures and playgrounds to get there. Naturally the smaller children took an obvious interest in our presence, and I felt extremely conspicuous (and proud!) togged up in green attire – and especially so carrying a rescue box which, as someone pointed out, had “BIRD FLU” marked on it(!) and some tools for cutting the goose free of the fishing line.
Friendly staff at the cafe directed us to the pond. A 10-minute walk brought the enormous pond into sight in the distance. We realised then that further instructions would be needed to have any chance at all of finding the goose! Tom phoned the finder and they arranged to meet us back at the ambulance. This was simpler said than done because we’d both lost our sense of direction and wound up in a dead end!
The rendez-vous with the finder was eventually met, having also picked up a child and his mother in toe who also knew where the goose was. It was another 10 minute walk to get there!
The goose was in a group of 3 amongst the reeds along the water’s edge. He was now free of the fishing line which was really good news – but there was blood on his leg. This wasn’t good news because an open wound in a pond is ripe for infection; we needed to pick him up and get him to the wildlife rescue centre.
Even though these geese were accustomed to people and therefore relatively tame, this one didn’t welcome our help. The trick with catching water birds is to stand between the water and the bird so they have no means to retreat to the water and be out of our reach. This wasn’t possible now and we were restricted to trying to reach him parallel to the shoreline.
He easily out-manoevered us. Tom approached him from one side whilst I waited at the other. Scared, the goose ran / flapped quickly past me, a finger’s width out of my reach, and into some more reeds. I went after him – admittedly nervous of getting bitten – and getting an armful of nettle stings instead of an armful of goose 🙁
I suppose I got what I deserve – I did say I wanted to hold a bird in my hands again! 😉
Tom stayed with the geese and the 3 humans whilst I set off back to the ambulance to get some nets. I returned 2 minutes later and asked the finder how to get back to the ambulance – I’d lost my sense of direction again! Time was pressing. I jogged to the ambulance and came back armed with 2 nets – only to find the geese had taken to the water in the time I’d been away.
Back in the ambulance, Tom pointed out that although we had ‘wasted’ our time on a wild goose chase (it had to be said! 😉 ) the child will have learned not to leave fishing tackle lying around like the idiotic cretins (my words) who did and got this poor goose into trouble.
And the goose? Not so smart. Zoom in, and you’ll see he’s with fishers…
Wounded Pigeon
We were in luck with our next rescue because it was on the way to the wildlife rescue centre.
This pigeon was found on a patch of grass at the side of some houses just after it had been mowed by a council worker. The finder was worried a cat was going to attack her, so placed her in a box for us to collect and bring to the rescue centre.
When we arrived we were alarmed to see the pigeon in an open box on the doorstep! I suppose the thinking was she wouldn’t be able to walk away, but she was exposed in every way! This pigeon was indeed very lucky not to have been reached by the cats known to be in the neighbourhood.
The finder had placed some food and water in the box, but it looked untouched. Indeed, the huge bird barely reacted when I picked her up. She seemed stiff too, but thankfully she was certainly still alive.
Next Steps
Our next rescue was only a little way off route to the wildlife rescue centre, but it had been a long time since we’d rescued the grebe. We elected to go straight to the rescue centre, stopping only to top up on petrol.
Flightless Frequent Flyer Walker: Young Magpie (ekster)
It seemed this young magpie had had enough of flying and made frequent use of a carpark underneath a block of apartments.
The security gate at the carpark entrance was closed when we arrived, and we couldn’t find a box (with a magpie inside) anywhere near. We left a voice message with the finder saying that we were onsite but unable to do anything. Please would he call the centralist when he was able and arrange something about leaving the bird in a collectible location so we can come back later and try again.
We’d just hung up when the gate opened – a car was driving out! This was a great opportunity! We waved the car down and its driver was happy to get out and have a chat with us about the little magpie who couldn’t fly. She’d been caught and released several times in the grounds, but insisted on returning to the car park!
Knowing their love for shiny things, I wondered afterwards whether this magpie was in fact a car thief! 😉
And even more luck. This driver had in fact just let the bird out of the garage herself and set him under a tree in the nearby greenery. She pointed out which tree it was and we set to work!
‘Work was easy’. Even though the tree branches hung low and the young bird was on the wrong side of them, it was easy to pick him up. He gave me a characteristic squawk in only the way a magpie can, looked mischievously at my hand but didn’t give it a peck. We were friends! 🙂 I couldn’t see any wounds on him, so I wasn’t certain why he wasn’t able to fly. He was well-feathered and I guessed he was older than a nestling.
Obviously I had my hands full, so it’s just a location shot!
I placed him in the rescue box and brought him inside the ambulance where we opened it back up to put him into a small nest. He didn’t agree and hopped straight out of it! Cheeky thing!
As we pulled away I noticed the driver standing by the automatically closed garage door. Her car was inside, and she was outside on the phone. I wondered whether she’d been locked out and was calling for help. When I mentioned it to Tom who had a better view, he saw the garage door opening. So magpie and friendly lady were safe! Phew!
Young Spotted Woodpecker (bonte specht)
A very young woodpecker with a lot of bad luck (or good luck if you’re an optimist). I couldn’t fathom the order, but this little creature had been picked up and dropped by a jackdaw (kauw), a crow (kraai) and a cat.
The finder asked whether the woodpecker would be returned in the same area because they’d seen the mother nearby. At the same time, he was aware there were predators nearby too. I don’t know the rescue centre’s stance on practicality here but I made a note in the admin all the same.
Back at the Base
After dropping off the magpie and the woodpecker at the rescue centre we returned to the base to find this bird on the desk, curled up as if it should still be inside an egg.
All in all it was a full shift, and I headed home feeling good about a decent number of creatures we helped! 🙂
