Algernon- Algy's Newsletter

ALGY'S NEWSLETTER

Animal Anecdotes:
Led a Merry Dance.......By a CROW !

I was asked to go to Banbury to rescue an injured crow who had taken up residence in the tree and bushes around Morrison’s car park. The lady who rang me, Denise, worked nights at the store and had been feeding the crow and felt sure she could attract the bird to within netting distance.
We arranged to rendezvous at 8am one Sunday morning and duly met up to discover that the crow was in hiding, nowhere to be seen. In the rain we walked all round the car park peering into bushes and up into trees. No sign of Mr Crow. As you can guess we were about to give up when the crow suddenly appeared, in his usual place! We assumed he must have been in the nearby tree all the time, but hiding from us. Would that little blighter cooperate? Not a chance. He got me running hither and thither, brandishing the net (fish landing net, big net on long pole …) Whilst he couldn’t fly properly he could hop and flap his wings to jump higher and farther than I expected to keep out of my reach.
Suddenly he made a break for it, scuttled at unbelievable speed through the low growing shrubs alongside the road and off he went, lumbering Jane in hot (?) pursuit across the store’s entry road then to my horror across the adjacent through road. I was waving the net and my free arm like a maniac, trying to slow traffic. Don’t let me make it sound like a busy road, it wasn’t but, wouldn’t you know it, sod’s law and all that, several cars chose that moment to appear. Crow and I made it to the other side safely but by this point I had lost sight of him in my desire not to become a road traffic accident statistic.
I went down an entrance to industrial premises searching for the crow and luckily caught a glimpse of him disappearing behind some pipework. Gotcha! Second round to me I thought. I picked him up carefully to avoid mutual injury (he definitely wanted to peck me and I wasn’t sure where or how badly he was injured) and the I committed the cardinal sin of animal rescue – got careless at the last moment and put my face down as I bent to place him in the carrier and got pecked on the nose as a result! Ouch, or words to that effect. Third round decisively to Mr Crow.
Luckily for me it was only my hooter and not an eye! Bless him. I tell you, it bled profusely and was an ugly sight for at least a week. Just as well any vanity pretty much went out the window years ago.
I had also been contacted about a hedgehog so picked that animal up on the way home and took them both to my friend Margaret of the Ark Wildlife Hospital in Milton Keynes. Both survived and were later released I’m glad to report.