INTENSE BIRDFEEDING (baby bird nursery volunteering, no animal death or trauma)
usually on my shift we have three volunteers and an intern, and not a lot of birds to feed, so we tend to get done with all the daily chores before we're halfway through the shift. today, we had--two volunteers! (nope, no intern!) it's a good thing we still didn't have a lot of birds to feed, but even so they kept us hopping, and we didn't manage to get through the entire day's chore list. (1/?)
INTENSE BIRDFEEDING (baby bird nursery volunteering, no animal death or trauma)
despite crows and jays being almost always enthusiastic eaters, the birds most likely to physically attack me for food are American robins and black-eyed juncos. we do tend to have more robins and juncos than other small birds generally, and there has been the occasional aggressive sparrow or bushtit, but robins in particular like to jump out of their enclosures and try to mug me for mealworms. (2/?)
INTENSE BIRDFEEDING (baby bird nursery volunteering, no animal death or trauma)
I also got to stick worms down the throats of several house swallows, assorted sparrows, a tiny and *extremely* enthusiastic wren, and a flycatcher, although I can't remember what kind specifically and there's three different plausible flavors locally. I also tried to entice some food into a young crow, but it was more interested in exploring the world outside the nest box. in all, a very good day! (4/4)
INTENSE BIRDFEEDING (baby bird nursery volunteering, no animal death or trauma)
fortunately, even full-grown juncos can fit easily in one hand, and robins aren't much bigger, so being attacked by them--especially as nestlings/fledglings--is more amusing than alarming, despite the occasional twitch of startlement. apropos, today I have been bitten by many juncos, a couple of robins, and a white-crowned sparrow. (3/?)