Sunday, May 29, 2005

Li'l Scrawny still lives ...

... as of the afternoon of Sunday 29th May. We are keeping a close watch on him. His parents are still feeding him, but I believe they're not keeping up with his appetite. He's spent most of the day perched at the edge of the nest (pic will follow later today), his head occasionally drooping. He has a little habit of resting his chin on a nearby twiglet, which looks very sweet but is perhaps a sign of terminal fatigue and hunger. Sometimes he chirps quite energetically, othertimes, it's a barely audible little cheeee ... He did preen himself at one point, which is a great sign, but he's still rather bedraggled to look at. Hardly any head feathers to speak of, smaller than the siblings (who have flown to the bamboo in the front garden) and very unsteady on his feet. I am unwilling to intervene directly by e.g. feeding him -- besides the tedium of having to run around catching insects (not something I am skilled at doing) I fear that any interaction might put his parents off stride and that would be a disaster. *sigh* It is all so DIFFICULT.

2 comments:

Hurree said...

Oh, I hope s/he makes it. I have an instinctive sympathy for runts of the litter: one of the two cats who own us was a little guttersnipe who wasn't expected to survive and who's now nine imperious years old, and I was pretty runty myself as a baby!

Good luck.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Hurree! Good luck gratefully accepted. It's been a harrowing three or four days. I figure Tuesday's gonna be the last 24 hours in which we'll see him, coz after that he'll either have flown off to join his sibs in the front-garden tree (where we can't keep an eye on him) or he'll throw in his feathery towel.