I found 'bubby' the seagull in an alley in town being pecked to death by an adult gull, so put in my backpack and took home with me.
Bubby had a bad limp, bugs/mites in feathers, open wounds to head, and was not making any sounds or calling for parents.
The plan was to allow time to heal and get strong enough so I can return it to original location, try and attract local gulls with food and see if bubby can find/recognise parents, all roofs are very high so I thought maybe try the top deck of the nearby car park. I had successfully returned a nestling to its nest about a month before, which is always best, but this situation was less straightforward.
I used diluted iodine applied several times to heal the wounds, bubby drank lots of water, ate lots of small raw salmon pieces (smaller than seen in beginning of vid), and mashed sardines, bubby got stronger, limp improved, and wounds healed fast. Still silent and not calling out for food. Used diatomaceous earth to treat the mites/bugs.
Vet would just euthanize, so thought I'd try and give it a chance. Was difficult as I was busy, couldn't source a proper enclosure, the local gulls are very territorial, especially the two who I feed regularly (this is their patch and they worked hard to carve this area as their own and were very agitated by bubby's presence), a local hawk noticed the new arrival, and cats were a concern too. So I'd let bubby go to favourite spots in the communal garden, and hiding place in the hedge but only when I could supervise or be near by, a neighbour also helped keep an eye and ear out, there were a couple close calls with other gulls.
After a week nearly time to return bubby to its home turf, constantly trying to escape, refused to spend another minute in the makeshift patio enclosure, went and slept in the bushes and returned over a day later for some food. I figured good to allow freedom, and time to stretch move grow and rehabilitate, eat some bugs and come back for food if and when it decides too, constant supervision and poop all over patio was challenging and I had to be away sometimes so allowing bubby autonomy to roam free and make use of grass and hiding places in bushes seemed like the best strategy. Bubby liked being at the far end of the row of patios away from where I feed the two adult gulls. Eventually one day bubby took the opportunity to escape and hopefully took flight and went to the very nearby park, I'm not sure where bubby went but hopefully has made a new life and is doing well. Never got the chance to try and reunite with family but maybe was family who had tried to kill bubby hence why never was calling out for parents? Was very strong willed and always trying to escape and wanted freedom more than anything so at least it got a fighting chance to make a go of it somewhere new. I did see a lone juvenile gull about a week later very near to here silently eating bugs in the grass early in the morning in the park adjacent to the gardens here, it was in the distance near trees and I'd ran out of food having fed other gulls, so I didn't approach but my hope is bubby is still here in the area and doing well.
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24 сен 2024
