September 2017

September was very wet in Penang, which seemed to set the tone for the month. Parts of Penang island were badly flooded after a morning of heavy rain. We are not affected where we are.

There were no photographic outings as most of the month was centred on crow minding.

I had rescued a young crow before as it sat stunned at the edge of the road. I had placed it in a glass tank outside our lounge door. The logic was if it could get out and get into a tree it may survive. It stayed for a few hours and then seemed to get active. It got out of the tank and flew/hopped to a shrub. A check an hour later revealed it was not on our property. It had to had over 6 foot hight walls to get out. I think it was a fledgling that may have had an argument with a car. Coco growled at it repeatedly.

Fast forward a few months and Helen returned from the supermarket saying that there were two crow chicks that had likely been tipped from their nest by tree pruners who had been butchering trees in the road behind our house. I gathered both chicks in my net and placed then in the same tank. One was somewhat older than the other and it appeared the young one may have a broken wing. If they survived the night I would look to feed them in the morning. 

The young chick passed away in the night but the older sibling was still with us. Helen was thawing some mince beef and the chick ate a few strands were fed into its gaping beak. I looked around the supermarket for some food….chicken livers………cheap, soft and should be nutritious....... for crows. I sliced them into pieces and offered them……the hungry chick gulped them down. Like human babies they are little poop machines that need feeding every few hours. Over the next few days the chick grew and became quite demanding. Coco treated it with curiosity and a bit of jealousy. The chick would answer Coco when she barked at passing dogs going for their evening walk. The wings were exercised regularly. The tank was left outside but covered at night to prevent cats from getting an easy meal. Several days later the chick flapped up onto the side of the tank and perched there. We noted around dusk the crow was a bird on a mission….to find a perch where it would roost for the night. The tank then came indoors at night. On the following morning, the chick got out of the tank and hopped around the lawn and garden exploring. I noted it was being observed by a ginger cat hiding behind a flowerpot. The next day I could not find the chick and finally caught up with it as it was standing by the front door……four feet away was the same cat!!!!.

The next objective was to get the crow flying. Perches of various heights were set-up and laced with liver when the chick was hungry. Flying progressed very quickly. At night, it would glue itself to one of the perches for the nocturnal roost. For a few days I brought the perch plus bird inside….then felt happy to leave it outside. By day 25 post-rescue the crow was free to go and was flying well. It had sustained a few injuries initially with two claws missing and two primary feathers from the left wing missing. They should all grow in time and it appeared the flight was not greatly hampered.. Currently he roosts in one of the surrounding trees at night and soars down for a feed in the morning. He then heads off again before coming back hungry around 4-5pm. I am hoping he will find more of his own food and integrate with crow society....so my feeding may become mean.

The video of the progress of the crow chick can be seen here.

On the quiz front our team has had various members away but we managed to win 4 from 4 during September (it has not been so good in October so far).

Helen is preparing for a 10km run and has been to several functions. We attended a mixer evening which was too crowded and the finger food was not great.

On the sports front the All Blacks won the Four Nations unbeaten but were inconsistent in their games. They beat the Springboks 57-0 on week and a few weeks later won by a solitary point. Clearly Coco was not impressed this time.