Forgive me father, for I have killed...
Whilst playing outside in the garden one day, aged about ten, I spotted a Blackbird chick cowering under the hedge. The poor thing had clearly fallen from its nest and, fascinated, I picked him up for a closer inspection. I couldn't see the parents anywhere to hand him back to, so I took him inside to show my Dad, who told me that they might not want him anymore now he had been handled by a human. Distraught at the sudden realization of what I had done, I decided to put the chick in a cardboard box with a few holes punched in the lid and take him over to the local RSPCA shelter. When I got there, however, they were shut, and so I left him outside the gate for whoever opened up in the morning to find and rescue.

I honestly believed that I was doing the right thing, but really I almost certainly ensured that the poor creature starved to death in the night, trapped in a box where his parents had no hope of finding him, or, worse still, was easy pickings for a cat or a fox. This only came clear a few days later when my Dad asked what I had done with him in the end, having assumed he was put back in the garden. I feel just as guilty for killing that bird now as I did then, and no matter how many fat-balls or bags of peanuts I buy, it just won't go away. Sorry, bird...
(Bob Frapples is de-lurking on, Tue 31 Aug 2010, 22:02, 29 replies)

I can understand binning cats, but this, this.... simply horrible!

( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Tue 31 Aug 2010, 22:15, closed)

I know...
:(
(Bob Frapples is de-lurking on, Tue 31 Aug 2010, 22:18, closed)

I've done worse.
My grandma used to pay use to rid the crows out her corn. I've also hunted deer, fished, etc.

But I once shot a robin out of a cherry tree in the back yard. Instead of the feeling I thought I'd have, I just felt empty. I'd taken a life for no reason whatsoever. I still love to shoot and even to hunt, but don't just take life for no reason.

Note: This does not apply to spiders, rattle snakes or anything that gets in the way of my car.
( BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Tue 31 Aug 2010, 22:28, closed)

"Shoot all the bluejays you want son
but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Tue 31 Aug 2010, 22:41, closed)

Fuck off Dogs

(TwinkleFuckingToes Has a ingrown toe nail, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 12:32, closed)

Holy shit
this is worse than the whole Jamie Bulger thing
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Tue 31 Aug 2010, 22:27, closed)

I'm hardly the Jon Venables of the ave world- I was trying to save it, not kill it! Beginning to wish I hadn't told this story now, I just wanted to know how many Hail Marys I needed to say to make it all go away, but instead i'm sat waiting for a mob to turn up at my door brandishing pitchforks...
(Bob Frapples is de-lurking on, Tue 31 Aug 2010, 23:05, closed)

I've got my pitchfork ready
But will you send directions? For some reason google maps is telling me you're only 5 miles as the crow flies.

And it says there's no birds-eye view to see if it's the right street
(CactusZack Shaved his coin purse on, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 0:00, closed)

Blame your dad - he gave you incorrect info that led to the brutal murder of this innocent creature (for which you're going to burn in hell after having your eyes pecked out). Birds don't reject their chicks because they've been handled by humans - they dont have a good enough sense of smell to make the distinction.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Tue 31 Aug 2010, 23:15, closed)

Almost
Some birds have a better sense of smell than others depending on the size of their nostrils and olfactories.
Putting it back in the nest would not have done it any harm though.
(oneinthepink is at your cervix m'lady, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 9:54, closed)

yes, science
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 12:02, closed)

I'm not sure
if putting it back in the nest would have solved the problem. Wild animals expend a lot of energy in raising their young and will not tolerate waste. Once a bird realises it has been rumbled by a top predator they will abandon the nest and all in it. No sense hanging around and risking being scoffed when you can cut your losses and start anew.

This last-resort mentality also resides in mammals. If rodents feel threatened by any sort of predator they occasionally devour their young in order to waste as little of the precious energy they have expended on them previously.

The OP started to do the right thing in putting it in a box. The error lay in abandoning it outside the rescue centre. You never know, this story could have had a happy ending and a worker may have discovered it before it became dehydrated and dedded.

Or it could quickly have become fox nosh. nom nom.
(mersault, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 12:39, closed)

I recently saw something on tv
where they put orphaned Peregrine chicks into a surrogate nest.
There was only one chick when the parents flew off for food and three when they returned.
It was explained that birds can't count and smell did not play a factor at all. The chicks were reared successfully.
(oneinthepink is at your cervix m'lady, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 13:16, closed)

What's to forgive?
You acted in good faith, seeking help, using the best information available to you at the time. At ten, your Dad is still the all-knowing fount of wisdom; and it's not fair to yourself to judge your actions at that age by your current knowledge and abilities. Please consider that what we feel guilty about, and what we actually do wrong, are not always the same.

I'd say it's possible that the bird didn't make it, but not certain. Keep in mind that shelters don't just function 9-5; so how could you know if, for example, two minutes after you left, someone had turned up for their scheduled visit to check on the animals; found little birdie, and brought it in?

Even if it stayed on the step until morning (I assume it was mild springtime, not freezing midwinter), it had downy feathers (which are optimised for maximum warmth, not flight) and a box to keep the wind off: Surviving overnight was plausible (the other blackbird chicks don't get fed at night either, and they do allright).

Supposing it didn't survive, it's not as bad as it could have been: The sad fact is that a lot of chicks simply don't survive to adulthood, but at least this one had the opportunity of passing on relatively pleasantly, compared to the unpleasant liklihood of a cat getting it if you'd done nothing and left it exposed.

Additionally, I understand that sometimes chicks are injured by the fall anyway, and no practical level of intervention on your part could save them.

Finally; how many birds do you think have been helped by each feeder item you've hung out? It sounds to me like you've already earned redemption from whatever slight error you might have committed.

(Ihis ill-structured argument brought to you by Insomnia.)
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 1:08, closed)

Awwwww, thanks.
This does make me feel ever-so slightly better. You're right, I don't know for sure that I did kill it. It also is kind of my Dad's fault. No 'Our Fathers' for me then!

(This reply also brought to you by insomnia- no doubt a result of some deep-seated childhood trauma and guilt...)
(Bob Frapples is de-lurking on, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 1:36, closed)

It’s your Dads responsibility for the cruel end
By allowing a witless 10 year old to deal with the situation
Top parenting there
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 8:57, closed)

I am letting you off the hook.
My first job. The lot I worked with made a game of Ruin Kila's Weekend. The building we worked in had a high roof. The birds would make their nests in the rafters as there were no large trees nearby.

Cue Friday afternoon, almost quitting time. One or another would bring a bundle of baby bird, telling me if had fallen from its nest. I would dutifully take the bird home and spend the weekend carefully feeding it. By Monday morning, without fail, the baby bird would be dead. I would arrive at work, shattered and sad, only to suffer the cruel questions from the rescuer of a now-dead baby bird. And taunts from his mates. Until I came to be known as Killa. Bird Killa.

I stopped taking baby birds home. Do not accept little bundles of baby bird. Avert the eyes. Do not look at the tiny shadow on the pavement as you walk to the carpark.

Years later, I learned, baby birds simply do not fall from nests. They are pushed. Pushed out by the larger chick, or pushed by parents who realize they will not survive. Often pushed by being beaten and pecked within an inch of its tiny life. Nature is cruel. Only the strongest can survive, and birds have to make tough choices.

I learned this because Mum later married a bird breeder, and we would watch the baby birds get shoved out by the parents or the older chicks, watch as the baby birds fought vainly to stay in the nest, watch as they did this again and again if we tried to replace the baby birds. I raised baby birds that we removed BEFORE they'd been beaten and pecked. They had grips of steel, none ever fell.

The parents will never abandon a healthy chick. The chick will scream and the parents will try to defend it, encourage it to fly (even ones with just a few real feathers can fly a bit), and they will feed it. A silent baby bird with no parents about is a baby bird about to be food.

You, off the hook, now. The baby bird would have died anyway.
( kila is reading clocks upside-down as usual, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 11:05, closed)

Nature is cruel and horrible, but not nearly as cruel and horrible as your colleagues sound! My God, that must have been soul destroying, Monday mornings are bad enough without feeling like you've killed something.
(Bob Frapples is de-lurking on, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 11:34, closed)

Lozzie sounds like a really nice Chick
I like sensitive chicks x
(TwinkleFuckingToes Has a ingrown toe nail, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 12:36, closed)

Haha!
I am really nice, or at least I reckon my dog thinks so!
(Bob Frapples is de-lurking on, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 17:54, closed)

Do you think the parents knew the weekend meant "no food from the humans"?
Yes... I dreaded facing them at work on Monday morning. It started out innocently enough. They really meant well. Then it got to be a common joke to "give it to Kila, she kills everything!" Creatures I did not kill (immediately): turtles, kittens, budgies, dozens of lost dogs, a rabbit and a mongoose. Partly to prove I did NOT kill everything. :)
( kila is reading clocks upside-down as usual, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 20:38, closed)

I hope they didn't
...it'd make me feel worse thinking I had distressed them too, on top of the obvious distress they would have been in if he had fallen, that is.

Do you live in a zoo?!
(Bob Frapples is de-lurking on, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 21:01, closed)

I take in strays
At least that's what my best mate told the future Mr. Kila.

I meant that I was just wondering if the bird parents recognized the humans' go-away-for-the-weekend noises and kicked out the weaklings so as not to waste energy on them, knowing no easy food was forthcoming from the humans. Well, crumbs from biscuits and such... that we'd leave for the birds when we would eat lunch outside (we were messy eaters).

Rumor has it I was raised in a zoo. Not true, not true. Zoos have standards for raising the young.
( kila is reading clocks upside-down as usual, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 22:21, closed)

We had a number of successful rearings
My dad was the go-to guy at his work for any injured/lost/unwanted wildlife. We had a number of successes, but these were outnumbered heavily by failures. Most birds will die overnight from shock. If you can get fluids in to them before then you have a chance.

My most memorable success was a housemartin chick that was very young with no feathers. We fed it all the way to a juvenile with full flight feathers. Then we knew we had to let it go. We had no idea if it could fly or not, as it spent its time in our porch, but when I lifted it above my head and motioned for it to fly away, it did nothing. Sat there, uninterested. Before anyone could say anything, I decided it needed some tough love and I threw it upwards. Suddenly it whirled upwards, circled the garden a couple of times in true hollywood clicheness and shot off, never to be seen again. I cried.
(mersault, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 12:51, closed)

Oddly enough
That's what you're meant to do with housemartins, swallows, etc. They can't take off from the ground because their legs are too short so you have to throw them upwards. Touching story though :)
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 13:39, closed)

Ours were doomed...doomed I say!
Good work on your housemartin!

My step da taught me to recognize the splayed legs indicating the chick was weak and could not support itself, probably due to being beaten nearly dead by some big bully sibling, or worse, its own parent.

These were all house sparrows, every last one died.

Some success with mynah birds, a lovely triumph but completely illegal in our area as they are protected as wild animals. We'd turn them over to the nearby "bird lady" who had a special dispensation from the Pope of Good Animal Care to take in wild animals. She once screamed at me to feed the mynah chick some dog food and put it back and stop touching it, the parents would get it to fly back up to the nest. She only stopped screaming at me when I told her I caught it in the pool, where it had tried to jump on my head as I was swimming. Bird brains...

I did have much success with budgies, cockatiels and parrots of all types. Raising 2 parrots and 11 baby cockatiels at once is my record.
( kila is reading clocks upside-down as usual, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 22:31, closed)

RSPCA
Year's ago I worked as a young volunteer in an RSPCA shelter and we found a blackbird chick in a box. It was still alive but sadly it didn't make the night and I was distraught but the vet told me it would have simply gone to sleep and not suffered.
(RobNob, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:36, closed)

you
gullible bastard
(mersault, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 14:48, closed)

Really?
It wasn't about thirteen years ago in Nottinghamshire by any chance...?
(Bob Frapples is de-lurking on, Wed 1 Sep 2010, 17:49, closed)