New Project

When Eric was little he and his brothers had some pet ducklings. Eric's duck was named Louie. His brothers' ducks were, of course, Huey and Dewey. Little Louie got eaten by a dog when he was left in a side yard. Little Eric has felt guilty ever since.

Which is why he felt the overpowering urge to "rescue" a baby bluejay from the middle of the road yesterday.

Meet Ludwig.
The first worm Eric found was very skinny and went down without any trouble. Then Eric went out and bought some night crawlers. Little Ludwig had a harder time with those, but he did eventually get one down.

I am very skeptical. Mostly because I read that even in the wild something like 95% of birds don't make it. And the vast majority of "rescued" birds don't make it either. I also read about how that shoebox is supposed to be lined with paper towels. About how we are supposed to feed the bird every twenty minutes from sunup to sundown. For some reason I don't really see that happening. Not only because we aren't home very often, but also because. Sunup? Please. I was proud of myself for getting up before 9 this morning.

This is why I think we should deposit Ludwig in a bush near where he was found. According to the site, that is what you are supposed to do anyway, and if a parent is around, the parent will tend to the little guy.

Alas, Eric has an overwhelming need to redeem himself after the Lewey incident of the late 80's.