Mick came across a tiny magpie (or what we believe is a magpie anyway - it's really too small to tell) chick when he was leaving work on Tuesday. It was on the ground just near the footpath outside of a construction site squawking up a storm and its little nest mate was smashed flat beside it. Of course, there is no way this situation could be walked away from so Mick scooped it up and put it in his shirt pocket.
We decided a tiny helpless thing with such a strong will to live needed a strong name so we called him Hercules. Hercules loves to eat and he isn't shy about letting anyone within earshot know. After a brief Google search on the dietary requirements of tiny birds, we were off and running with a revolving buffet of oatmeal paste, dog food paste, crushed up fruit and even a minced up snail. He never met a blob of pasty type food that he didn't love.
It is unfortunate that Hercules found us when we are less than two weeks away from the arrival of the Wombat as we would've loved to have hand raised him. But we thought this may not be the absolute best time to try and hand raise a tiny creature who needs to be fed every 10-15 mins. However the one thing he had going for him was sleeping all through the night, until his feathered friends outside start up at 4.30am anyway.
This morning Hercules went to live at the Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. We were sad to see him go but he'll be in excellent hands there - and will probably be better off as he'll get rehabilitated back into nature instead of as a quasi-pet in our backyard. Magpies (if that's what he is) can live up to 25 years so here's hoping he has a long and happy bird life.
Here are some Hercules photos
Mealtime! He lived in a hat for the first day..
Bodhi was totally intrigued.
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