Recovery

Day 305: You might think that woodpeckers and sapsuckers have to have hard heads in order to jackhammer trees all day, but in fact the opposite is true. These drillers' skulls have a spongy structure called the hyoid bone which, along with a covering of muscles, cushions the brain against impacts. Never was that put to the test quite like it was a few days ago when this little fellow, identifiable by the development of his markings, smacked into my north-side living room window and dropped senseless into the flower bed below. I've nursed a lot of birds back to sensibility after window strikes over the years, so I dashed outside to see if the poor thing might have survived. The juvenile bird was conscious, if barely, but had its eyes shut and did not respond when I touched it gently. After a few minutes, it blinked a couple of times, so I went in the house to get a box, intending to protect it from predators and to move it to a shady location. As I lifted it carefully into the box, it squawked and snapped at my fingers and, once lowered inside the shallow protection, seemed to be struggling to get out. This was a good sign, so rather than leaving it in the box, I tipped the pro-tem shelter on its side to provide shade from the glaring sun. For the next half hour or so, I checked on my young charge every few minutes as the bird seemed to be coming back to its senses, eyes remaining open and turning its head. Finally, much to my relief, it flew into the nearby Sitka Mountain-ash which is always a favourite with my resident Sapsuckers. That was four days ago, and here's my patient, looking for lunch in the Mountain-ash, and obviously over what must have been a horrendous headache.