Last week Jen, Ryan, and I were on our way to the park in Helmetta when we spotted an injured bird in distress on the side of the road. Of course I pulled over to investigate and it turned out to be a juvenile Downy Woodpecker. The downy must have flown into a car and injured its wing and beak. We took it home and I brought it with me to work (Ryan was sad to see him go) the following day so I could make some phone calls and bring the woodpecker to a proper rehabilitation facility.
After many phone calls leading to dead ends, my coworker Alyssa (another nature lover) and I realized the Raptor Trust near the Great Swamp (1 hour away) was our only option. After work in North Bergen we decided to make the trip (the downy was taking water from us all day but not food). Of course I got lost (still not sure why I keep convincing myself I don't need a GPS) and made many U-turns on country roads, unbelievably we drove right past another injured bird in the middle of the street (it wasn' there 2 minutes earlier when I went the wrong way). We pulled over and Alyssa came back to the truck with another woodpecker (this time it was a much larger adult Northern Flicker). What were the odds, anyway he looked worse off then the downy (tongue sticking out of the mouth and not moving), but we decided to take him along to the Raptor Trust too.
We finally arrived and the staff was surprised we brought them two woodpecker's instead of the one we had originally spoken to them about (I think they thought we were crazy). Anyway by the time we got there the flicker was doing much better and both birds seemed to have a great chance of survival.
We got an update 2 days later, they told us the downy had a strained wing and will live with several other birds until it is strong enough to be released, the flicker was doing great and they actually planned on releasing him the next day in the same area that we found him. The staff did tell us that if we did not come to their aid, both birds chances of survival were slim, they said the downy would have most likely been easy prey for as predator or another car, and the flicker was in shock when we found him and would not have moved on his own (not a good idea when your in the middle of the road).
Ryan still asks about his friend, but knows he is back flying with his mommy and daddy, I'm just glad there was a happy ending to this very unusual set of events...
After many phone calls leading to dead ends, my coworker Alyssa (another nature lover) and I realized the Raptor Trust near the Great Swamp (1 hour away) was our only option. After work in North Bergen we decided to make the trip (the downy was taking water from us all day but not food). Of course I got lost (still not sure why I keep convincing myself I don't need a GPS) and made many U-turns on country roads, unbelievably we drove right past another injured bird in the middle of the street (it wasn' there 2 minutes earlier when I went the wrong way). We pulled over and Alyssa came back to the truck with another woodpecker (this time it was a much larger adult Northern Flicker). What were the odds, anyway he looked worse off then the downy (tongue sticking out of the mouth and not moving), but we decided to take him along to the Raptor Trust too.
We finally arrived and the staff was surprised we brought them two woodpecker's instead of the one we had originally spoken to them about (I think they thought we were crazy). Anyway by the time we got there the flicker was doing much better and both birds seemed to have a great chance of survival.
We got an update 2 days later, they told us the downy had a strained wing and will live with several other birds until it is strong enough to be released, the flicker was doing great and they actually planned on releasing him the next day in the same area that we found him. The staff did tell us that if we did not come to their aid, both birds chances of survival were slim, they said the downy would have most likely been easy prey for as predator or another car, and the flicker was in shock when we found him and would not have moved on his own (not a good idea when your in the middle of the road).
Ryan still asks about his friend, but knows he is back flying with his mommy and daddy, I'm just glad there was a happy ending to this very unusual set of events...
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