Roundstonefarm Blog

I arrived at the B&B about 0600 this morning to do breakfast, as always. I got out of my car and saw a male Spotted Towhee thrashing around on the front fender  of a guests Honda SUV. This is the same Towhee that has been hanging around for the last couple of months. I’ve seen him with a female, but only off and on. Anyway, this guy is sorta strange in that he gets up on the guests cars side mirrors and fights with the bird in the mirror. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone out the front door and found him walking on  the hoods of cars and pecking at the bird in the windshield. He’s even come to the kitchen window and pecked  at it while I’m doing breakfast.  Again, going at the bird in the window. He really is pretty. About the size of a large sparrow, with a black hood and white spots on his shoulders and wings. He’s got a deep belly on him and has rufous flanks and red eyes. He’s a good looking bird!

So, I go over to the SUV and find out that his right foot is stuck in the crack between the hood and the fender. His poor leg was rubbed raw and bloody. I didn’t want to shake him up anymore than he already was so I grabbed him. Man did he holler! I stroked his head and he took a dump in my hand. It didn’t seem like he could bend his leg like we do our foot or hand when we humans try to extricate either from a tight spot. Perhaps the Towhee doesn’t have something like an ankle or wrist? Never thought about it. I’ll have to research it a little bit..

Well, what to do, for I didn’t want to just pull it out and maybe amputate the foot. So, I worked he and the leg down the crack toward the headlights. Just slipped it down to where the crack was a little wider. Lo and behold it worked! The leg and the foot just slipped right out without further injury. I held him a little bit and then opend my fist and away he flew. He flew into the lavendar out in front of the B&B and out of sight.  I went out a couple of hours later to see if I could find him, but didn’t. At least I didn’t find his dead body…so there’s hope. I really hope he’s ok, because I have gotten pretty fond of him and his  crazy antics.

I didn’t have any guests last night at Roundstone Farm, so I was able to be at Wildcare when the hospital opened at 9:00 a.m. to pick-up the young hawk that I had taken into them yesterday. Turned out that it was probably just shook up and had no apparent injuries. I waited only a few minutes until the staff brought the hawk to me in a card board carrier. The young lady gave me instrutions as to how to transport it and precautioned me about not being directly over the carrier when I released it. I released the hawk immediately upon arriving at Roundstone Farm. I figured it had enough excitement to last it a life time. I must say though, I really wanted to hold it and spend some time checking it out. I tell you one thing, the girl at Wildcare was right…one didn’t want to be looking into that carrier when opening the top. Man, that hawk was out of there in a flash! It was out of sight before I could even raise my camera for a picture.  But, I at least got a couple photos of it while it was in the carrier. It’s nice to know that I probably will run into it again. I’ll look at every red-shouldered from now on wondering if it is the one I took to San Rafael and back.