Saturday, May 30, 2009

Protocol for handling fledglings

A small, mango-sized (chausa variety, you might say) fledgling lying helplessly on one side of the road, surrounded by a group of 5 (and more joining) greedy crows, who've just started furiously pecking at its tender body in hopes of easy meat - what to do?

1. Drive the crows away, who then start hovering about you, greedy, cawing
2. Catch hold of the chick who flutters about your feet
2.1 Wrap your palms neatly around it, mind those wings
2.2 Hold more strongly, unless you want it to pop out. Struggle is a sight to behold.
3.1 At home? Adopt it.
3.2 Close to a bird shelter? Go, donate it.
3.3 Standing on Rajpath (or any generic road) with a bird in one hand and balancing a bicycle with the other, while traffic streams by oblivious, and half-amused glances briefly try to decipher you? Um...

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