Baby bird

[worryingabit]

Hubby has felled 3 trees, now we have a baby pigeon. Someone has just told us it is illegal to cut down a tree with a nest in it. Is it? We had no idea there was a nest until the tree was right down. It was a very big, thick conifer.

And what do we do about the baby?

I think the parents will come back for it if you just leave it. Put it in a hedge close by out of reach of predators if you can.

We went out for a bit and when we came back the bird had moved to nearer a tree. Later that evening we saw mum flying around and knew her baby was near by. We didn't see her actually make contact though. First thing this morning I looked out and mum was in the tree and the bird has moved to the other side of the tree, still on the ground. Mum is currently on the roof of our house. A neighbour suggested I ring the RSPCA as there are quite a few cats aroiund and we don't want them to get it. Tried loads of numbers but you don't get to speak to a real person. What do we do? The advice is that they get a lot of calls about injured baby birds when actually it is just them learning toi fly and mum will feed them on the ground. Best to leave alone or move if in an exposed area. Doesn't really help tbh. The baby is in an exposed area but if we move him his mum won't find it.

Hang on! Ds1 just shouted. Mum has just been right by the baby and they made contact. Huge sigh of relief. Will leave alone now.

More developments but all good.

We put the baby in a box and put him in the shed for a bit as we were worried about the cats around here and one neighbour said theirs would definitely have it. I took DS1 out the front to play and took baby with us. Baby jumped out of the box which was a big shock but the parents didn't get near. It started raining so I put him back in the shed. I checked on him and the second time he had gone. The kids were disappointed but I told them his parents must have come for him.

Once the human babies were bathed and in bed we checked for the feathered baby. He had jumped out of the box again and was hiding. We decided he really needed to be near his parents so we made a nest by the tree and sheltered him from the cats as best we could. A few minutes later Mum, Dad and Baby are all on the pavement together. They saw baby across the road and the other (I can't believe I am telling you all this!!) side the kerb is really high so Dad walked along to the flat bit for baby to follow. baby decides to try and flew up the top of the kerb! Dad rushed back, and they three of them walked off together. Baby flew again on to a tree stump and his parents joined him. Just looked out and he is there on his own so hopefully he will be okay now.

I feel really proud we helped but also a bit like I need to get a life. I did get rather involved.

BTW it was a dove, not a pigeon.

brilliant! baby birds always worry me too.

we saved one from our cat a few weeks ago, it was v.small and fluffy and just 'hopped' a bit so we were sure it couldn't fly. no sign of parents either . we faffed for ages with it in a box, ringing rspca etc, they advised to put it as high up in a tree as possible - cue dh teetering on a ladder in a tree with the box - opened the box...... and the baby flew high into the sky and over our roof!! (it was obviously just in shock earlier or pretending it couldn't fly )

The wildlife and countryside act says you cannot trim hedges or fell trees between 31 Mar and 31 Jul, to protect nesting birds.

btw.... most private vets (& rspca,blue cross hospitals)will take them in for hand rearing if needed or will forward on to wildlife sanctuaries if you can't be reunite them with their parents.

Sorry, that was a bit abrupt! I was going to say, so taking the tree down when it had a nest in it wasn't actually illegal but doing it at this time of year is.

We would NOT have taken down the tree if we had known there was a nest in it, obviously.

It was a very tall, thick tree and the nest only became apparent once the tree was down.

The baby is back safe with his parents now anyway so no harm done.

I phoned lots of RSPCA and RSPB numbers and no one was answering.

worrying, don't worry (!) it's obvious you only did this by accident and you did amazingly well to reunite the family (sorry, that sounds patronising but I don't mean it to be). I really wish everyone took as much care as you did when coming across injured wildlife or in fact any animal.