Rupert, the Sick Lorikeet

Yesterday while taking the bird seed out to fling on the driveway for the pigeons and doves who can't compete at the feeder with the galahs, I heard a 'plop' from off to the left in the paddock.  Was going to ignore it but realized it didn't sound like a branch falling and the huge silky oak tree growing there doesn't bear fruit.  So what could make that ripe-fruit-falling sound?  Upon investigation I found a juvenile rainbow lorikeet.  He'd fallen from the tree and although screeching and trying to 'run away' by flopping his wings, it was obvious something was seriously wrong.

I don't know what's wrong.  Nothing is broken.  He's in fair condition, not emaciated but not plump either.  His eyes are liquid, not overflowing and they're clear, but they look too wet, if that makes any sense.  As lorikeets have liquid droppings anyway and I no longer have microscope to look at poo samples, I can only guess what's wrong with him. I've put him on coccivet which if he has coccidiosis, a distinct possibility, will help, and if he doesn't, won't hurt him. 

Yesterday looked for food and probably had about 10 mls during the day although I noticed a tendency to head shake, as if taking in the food bothered him.  This morning, with much work, managed to get 1ml down.  Had to wrap him in a towel to make him concentrate. 

When I returned from riding, I glanced at him while leading Balthazar to the yards.  He looked dead; all stretched out on the bottom of the cage.  Well, I thought, we tried.  But when I came up later, he had moved.  I'd made up my mind that if he didn't willingly eat I'd crop feed him, as, if he's going to overcome what ails him he has to keep his strength up and he's noticeably weakened since yesterday.  But lo and behold, he took 3ml, albeit slowly.  Perhaps all it is is coccidiosis.  I pray that it is for it's very curable.  Possible too because we had all that wet weather, conditions which seem to bring it on. 

He's in the sun during the day and at night I've got the terracotta pot over an incandescent, ie warm, light bulb.  We'll do the best we can. 

I've called him Rupert.

Snake Story

A cranky carpet snake bit my hand this morning.  Not that I blame him.  I had his tail in one hand while the other was making a grab for his head.   He was on top of the galah aviary and I wasn't tall enough to reach.  He moved, I grabbed further down his neck rather than just behind his head and he quite justifiably turned around and fastened his mouth on my hand.   I've got the prints to prove it; a semi-circle of punctures on the fleshy mound beneath my forefinger and a matching set on top.  Bled like a stinker too which is probably good. I've been bitten before while unwrapping a magpie caught in the coils of a somewhat larger python.  He showed his displeasure by puncturing the back of my hand.  That time, after the excitement was over and the magpie had flown, seemingly none the worse for his expeience, I had to put my head between my knees, a primal reaction to being bitten by a serpent I suspect.  The bite didn't hurt that much.  Today I didn't get dizzy.   And he was a smaller snake, only about 3 feet.  We popped him in a feed bag and let him go in the bush far away from our birds.

The birds behaviour this morning was the reason we started looking for a snake.  This fellow had been in the bauhinia tree next to the shed yesterday morning.  The wild birds made such a fuss I had to investigate, plus I know the snake alarm call for magpies and there was a magpie doing just that.  They have a distinctive grinding gurgle, for want of a better description, when they sight a snake.  The other clue is many different species of birds will come together, chief among them mickey birds but also blue faced honeyeaters, grey crowned babblers, willie wagtails, magpies, pee wees and yesterday, even a kookaburra.   So I knew there was a snake in the area.  This morning when I took the rainbow lorikeets their breakfast they were nervous.  Two months ago a carpet snake had got between the wire and the colourbond.  Richard had to unscrew the colourbond walls and roof before I could catch the snake.  The rainbows are snake savvy.  When I opened the door to let the galahs out for their morning graze Obama came out screeching and flapping.  I didn't pay too much attention.  I thought he was spooking at the watering can I was carrying.  He's the most nervy bird I've ever met, panicking at the slightest provocation.  But it was Marvin who carried the biggest sign.  He tiptoed over the threshold literally looking over his shoulder.  Marvin is big bold brave and cocky.  Timid is not in his nature.  But me being me, I sat down and drank my coffee and didn't think anything more about it until noticing a curvy looking branch on top of the aviary.  Too curvy, too sinuous, too, on inspection, snaky.