Thursday, May 17, 2012

A Swift Rescue

Yesterday evening I went to my basement workshop to finish fabricating a part for my motorcycle.
As I sat at my work bench I heard scratching. I just assumed it was one of my cats at the litter box so I ignored it and proceeded to work.

This morning after pouring water into my coffee machine and feeding the cats, I went back to the basement to check on my part when I heard the scratching once again. With the domestic felines all accounted for in the kitchen I realized I had a "guest".

I grabbed my large flashlight and started to investigate when I spotted a bird wing sticking out of the hatch in my chimney where I empty any ashes. Upon opening the hatch a poor little chimney swift emerged and began to run across the floor terrified and exhausted from his/her ordeal.

My cats heard the commotion and their curiosity brought them to investigate but having never seen a real bird other than out the windows they became afraid and ran upstairs to the bedrooms.

No longer concerned with the feline predators I gently scooped up the chimney swift and brought him/her outside, then fetched some water, bird seed, and a piece of bread I soaked in the water. I knew that they eat insects as they fly but the poor swift had to be dehydrated.

The swift was afraid of me but I talked softly to it and it seemed to calm down. Soon it tried to fly but couldn't get very far and clung to the outside of the house. I moved the water and things one more time to be near to the swift then sat a bit away guarding against predators as my little swift regained his/her strength.

To my delight I did not need to wait long as the little swift, now rested after his/her ordeal took flight and quickly disappeared.

Returning to the house I was greeted by my cat Keiko who seemed curious as to the most recent domestic adventure. Fortunately Keiko and his buddies had no idea what to do with a live bird in the house, for which I am grateful.

I hope my little swift is doing well tonight and look forward to him/her eating the mosquitoes that are certain to arrive with the warmer weather we are expecting in the next few days.

My Little Chimney Swift Recovering Outside
It's OK Keiko, the Human Got Rid of the Strange Creature from the Basement

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just rescued a chimney swift too! Just two days ago. I saw him on the bike path as I biked to work in the morning. Then later, on the way home, he was still there. I picked him up and put him in my backpack ad got him home. Then into a box. We tried to give him water from an eyedropper, but I'm not sure how successful that was. Later, we got him to a nearby Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. They later emailed me that he seemed to have some "head trauma," but he's improving.

Carmelo J. Aresco (Ceij) said...

Very cool!
I hope your swift makes it to a full recovery!