A cold little chickadee

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As I left work at Ferdinand’s yesterday, I came across this little guy in my path. I’ve always been fond of chickadees as they’re adorable. Their name is fun to say, they’re adorably small, and they are pretty quiet – no obnoxious sounds. I decided I wanted to take a picture. I took one from a reasonable distance, then moved closer and closer, seeing how close I could get before it flew away. But it never flew away. So I couldn’t help myself. I tried to pick it up.

And it let me. It didn’t struggle or chirp. It just let me scoop it up, which meant something was wrong. And now I had involved myself. I felt bad for the little guy, but what are you supposed to do with a sick chickadee?

If I hadn’t picked it up, I probably would have left it and let nature take its course. But it was too late for that now. I couldn’t take it home and risk it recovering so I’d have a lose chickadee in my room. So I decided to walk over to the veterinary hospital and ask them what to do. I didn’t think there was much that could be done, but at least then the bird wouldn’t be my problem anymore, and I could have a clean conscious knowing I had done what I could.

But then I felt too foolish to go into the vet hospital. Somehow I didn’t think a lethargic chickadee would rate very high on their priority list, and I figured they would tell me what I already knew – I should have left it alone.

Luckily, in my pacing around outside the hospital entrance trying to figure out what to do, the chickadee perked up and started hopping around on my arm/hand.

Thinking it probably just got too cold sitting in the spot I originally found it – on the sidewalk in the shade – I put in the sun on some nice, warm landscaping bark.

I like to think it warmed up, fully recovered and flew away.

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Filed under adorableness, animals, nature, photos