I used the “warm hand” method this fall in the huge heavy rain/gale winds we had in the Golden area. I was on the phone with Ann Johnson and noticed a tiny saturated brown lump LEGO in the street in the heavy cold rain and being blown toward the “river” running in the gutter. A car almost ran over it. This was when I still had tons of Lesser Goldfinches coming to the thistle feeders. I put on a raincoat and ran out and picked it up and sheltered it in my gently closed hand in the house for about 10-15 min. I peeked at it and it amazingly was about dry just from my hand warmth. With bird in closed hand, I got a small shoe box, added a soft cotton washcloth, and carefully placed the little juv LEGO in the box and covered it. Within another 15 min he was all dry and peering at me. The rain had let up and there were lots of LEGOs on the front porch feeder, so I took him out onto the covered porch and opened the box. He flew to the window screen, looked at me, and then to the feeder.
So, warm hands can work wonders. Sorry, Ira and Tammy. Hope that doesn’t happen again. Kay Kayleen A. Niyo, Ph.D. Niyo Scientific Communications 5651 Garnet St. Golden, CO 80403 303.679.6646 [email protected]; www.KayNiyo.com From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Christy P Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2016 10:35 AM To: [email protected]; [email protected] Cc: cobirds Subject: Re: [cobirds] Disturbing bird incident You have to be very careful applying heat of any kind to wildlife outdoors, especially one that may already be hypothermic. Oftentimes well-intentioned individuals kill animals trying to warm them back up by putting them into shock. Finding a heat source that only affects the portion of the bird that is stuck, as opposed to its entire body, would be recommended. With something as small as an American Goldfinch, assuming there wasn't a build-up of ice, maybe even just covering its foot with your warm hand and defrosting it that way may have worked, or would in future. Thanks for sharing Ira, it's always our worst fear to leave birds worse-off than they were to begin with. But at least you freed it. Christy Payne Wheat Ridge On Thu, Dec 8, 2016 at 10:27 AM Mary Keithler <[email protected]> wrote: Hi Ira and birders, Perhaps a hair dryer with a long extension cord would work better. Mary Keithler, Arapahoe County Sent from my iPhone On Dec 8, 2016, at 8:41 AM, Ira Sanders <[email protected]> wrote: This morning when I went to put out the feeders, there was a goldfinch hanging from the metal arm of the hooks we use to hang the feeders. At first it wasn't moving and I was wondering how a bird could somehow die in that position. I have no idea how long it was there, but I'm sure it was long enough to weaken it. As I got closer, I saw it's eyes were open and then it started to flutter a little. It's foot had frozen to the iron arm and it was hanging by 1 foot. I ran in to get some water to get it loose, but our efforts, which were incompetent and inadequate, didn't save all of it's foot. My first efforts only caused ice to form and made it worse. The bird did fly from Tammy's hand but part of it's foot was still on the metal. Obviously we did it wrong. In retrospect, I don't think warm water was a good idea at all. In case someone else has this same miserable experience, maybe some forethought could result in a successful outcome and not our utter failure. -- Ira Sanders Golden, CO "My mind is a raging torrent flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CABF3siFD4-93S4BVOPBHFU26HE%2BPZEHxTdD-J88oz%2BN4W0Y3wQ%40mail.gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CABF3siFD4-93S4BVOPBHFU26HE%2BPZEHxTdD-J88oz%2BN4W0Y3wQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/31080AF3-9EB9-4A87-A266-53DA68F4D267%40gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/31080AF3-9EB9-4A87-A266-53DA68F4D267%40gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CADobSodOHKwWuYvcqJqLA8ZGUnAo-Em-t8YkqWu2%2BBDtN-tohg%40mail.gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CADobSodOHKwWuYvcqJqLA8ZGUnAo-Em-t8YkqWu2%2BBDtN-tohg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/016701d25185%2480f0a340%2482d1e9c0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
