A highlight of our summer happened last week. We have a small strawberry patch which the robins were enjoying until a few weeks ago when my husband covered it with a net. Last week while finally being able to harvest some lovely strawberries I discovered a robin terribly tangled in the net. I had no idea how long it had been there. It was worn out from trying to escape. It had been totally still until I was almost touching it and then it flapped around making things worse for itself.
First I worked on freeing its legs. It kept clenching its claws making the task difficult. The more I loosened the grip of the net the more the robin tried to nip me. I got some gloves on and came back to the rescue. I worked quite a while to untangle the poor thing but couldn't get the netting out of one of its wings. I held the bird carefully while my son cut the net to free the bird, but it could not fly with the netting that was still in its wing.
We watched it hop around for half an hour as the sun began to go down. I kept wishing my husband was home. He grew up on a farm and I knew he would know what to do. Finally he got home just before dark. By this time the robin was under some bushes at the neighbors who were not home. My husband crawled under the bushes, but the robin just run out the other side. Together we surrounded the bushes and herded the bird out into the open. It ran to a small clump of flowers where we could see and reach it. My husband with his farm boy know-how got the netting out of the wing without hurting the wing, as I knew he would. We were so relieved to see it fly away as soon as it was released. It was a very gratifying experience to be successful in helping a helpless creature. (Our cat knew the bird was in the net, but hadn't attacked?)
Peace, Christina
First I worked on freeing its legs. It kept clenching its claws making the task difficult. The more I loosened the grip of the net the more the robin tried to nip me. I got some gloves on and came back to the rescue. I worked quite a while to untangle the poor thing but couldn't get the netting out of one of its wings. I held the bird carefully while my son cut the net to free the bird, but it could not fly with the netting that was still in its wing.
We watched it hop around for half an hour as the sun began to go down. I kept wishing my husband was home. He grew up on a farm and I knew he would know what to do. Finally he got home just before dark. By this time the robin was under some bushes at the neighbors who were not home. My husband crawled under the bushes, but the robin just run out the other side. Together we surrounded the bushes and herded the bird out into the open. It ran to a small clump of flowers where we could see and reach it. My husband with his farm boy know-how got the netting out of the wing without hurting the wing, as I knew he would. We were so relieved to see it fly away as soon as it was released. It was a very gratifying experience to be successful in helping a helpless creature. (Our cat knew the bird was in the net, but hadn't attacked?)
Peace, Christina
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