Jump to content

What an afternoon! Long Tail Tit update...


Recommended Posts

Looked out for my little mate all morning, and not a sight. It eventually turned up in the blustery wind, with its mate, but looking really worse for wear. It's eye seemed to be full of bloody gunk... no eye ball showing at all, and it spent most of the time fluffed up on a branch. I managed to grab a couple of photo's but not great ones as the wind is blowing everything to hell and back here today.

 

This first pic is how it spent most of the day:

poorly2.jpg

 

Next pic, bit blurry but you can see the extent of the damage the tick had done :(

poorly.jpg

 

Cutting a long story short, It started to turn dusk and the little mite was still there, rumped up outside my window. I had the crazy notion, that if I could lean out the window and reach far enough, that I might be able to grab it from it's blind side. Well, I got within about 2 to 3 inches and it turned and looked at me and did the obvious.

Bugger me if it wasn't back 5 mins later. I was cursing, thinking how the hell could I catch it to try and get this tick removed... then I remembered my fish tank net I have!!

Second attempt, soooo quietly opened the window, climbed up on the sill, and slowly approached it with my little fish net :D

Well bugger me if I didn't catch the wee mite!! :clapper:

 

Next bit was wrap it gently round with a tea towel with just its head poking out and remove that wretched tick. To be honest, I was sh*tting myself, but I knew this little bird wouldn't have survived many more days any way, or even the night.

Pulled the tick out with some tweezers and then set about so so gently wiping away the crap. I didn't think its eye ball had survived, but I cleared one lump, and you could just see it in there intact :) I used tea bags in tepid water to clean it all up. (something an old vet told me to use for infected eyes, on animals and humans)

He/she was looking a bit bedraggled but started wriggling, which it hadn't done since I caught it, so I took that as a good sign and thought I'd better let it go before it got too dark.

 

I managed to get the full number off the leg band too, but only had one hand, and couldn't change the big lens on my camera to get a decent shot of it. So I grabbed the old brick point and shoot, and snapped one, but its shockingly out of focus. I really didn't want to arse about and stress the bird any more...

(just to prove this isn't a load of bull! lol

tickgone.jpg

 

Glad to say it flew away perfectly, and now I wait with baited to breath to see if it appears tomorrow. I'm hoping and praying I haven't made things worse for it.

 

The offending :censored: that was duly chucked on the fire!!!

tick.jpg

 

Check by tomorrow for an update... and hopefully a good one!! :)

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Replies 35
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Posts

Looked out for my little mate all morning, and not a sight. It eventually turned up in the blustery wind, with its mate, but looking really worse for wear. It's eye seemed to be full of bloody gunk...

Thats great news...........Im sure the tit will make a full recovery... :thumbs:

 

 

 

and, by the way, LTT's aren't actually tits.....more babblers..... :victory:

 

 

Yet another example where THL members help out..... :notworthy::notworthy:

 

Happy snapping...JD

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well - Its made it through the night!!! :toast:

 

Thanks for all your lovely comments, I haven't slept half the night for thinking about it. I guess further infection is the only thing that could get it now, but from what I have seen this morning, its looking fairly clean :) Its eye lid is a bit out of shape, but when the swelling goes down it should hopefully go back to normal.

 

Thanks again guys :)

Toni

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.


×
×
  • Create New...