Revelations and resolutions...
We came home after (more) Christmas shopping and passed another car on our road. It's a short dirt road, prolly six properties in all.
Round the corner and there is a young kookaburra in the middle of the road.
Stop. Hazard lights, etc and go and grab this little guy in a rag. Guy, well, maybe not, for the purposes of the story it will do. He couldn't fly away. An injury on the back of his head said "hit by a car" to me. Did the car we passed hit him or just drive past him in the middle of the road? This troubles me...
12 Years of OR/ER experience says the bird has concussion, but hey, I'm not an ornithologist so what do I know.
Called wildlife rescue who couldn't get a volunteer to collect him for three hours.
Rescuer arrived later and agreed prolly concussion: she'll take him home, hydrate him, give him some food and possibly bring him back tomorrow. His parents are going crazy in the nearby trees any time he calls out. Experience says if he can be released near where he was hit his parents will come and get him.
Okay. Good story, but three hours is a long time for an injured animal to wait for assistance. So, I'm going to investigate becoming a wildlife rescuer. I'm good with people trauma, so I should be able to do mammals. Snakes, hell no, but mammals, prolly okay.
Living in an environment like this is a privilege, and every animal adds enormously to the ecosystem we occupy. So this is my big goal for 2022 - Make myself available for wildlife rescue.
I'll find the time for it somewhere.