Operation Rescue: Tufted Titmouse

I’ve been enjoying the trail camera that I bought last February to spy on the wildlife on our property. Every now and then, especially during this season, I move the camera to a new location hoping to get footage of animals with their babies. I’ve not been overly successful.

On July 1st, I captured a doe with her nursing fawn on my trail camera. They were along the edge of the forest a bit far from the camera so they are hard to see. I’m hoping for a closeup.

A couple evenings ago, I saw a mama raccoon walking along the edge of the forest with her two little babies scampering behind her. They were nowhere near the camera–so I moved the camera. I haven’t yet gotten any footage of them. I’d like to also see a opossum with her babies clinging to her back.

Last weekend we saw a group of young Tufted Titmouses (Titmices?) visiting the birdfeeder near the house. They obviously had just left the nest because their flying was a bit clumsy and at least one of them kept opening its mouth expecting to be fed by its parents. Since then, we’ve watched the youngsters frequently flock to the feeders, acting like a bunch of chattering, goofing off children. It’s brought smiles to our faces.

Yesterday evening, sometime after 8 p.m., I heard a thump and went to check it out. I saw one of the young Titmouses clinging to the door in obvious distress. When it didn’t fly off, I went out to help it. It fluttered to my shirt when I tried to pick it up off the door. It clung so tightly that I couldn’t get it off so I walked around the yard with it clinging to my shirt for several minutes. I finally got it off my shirt and onto my finger where it held on tightly. I would have taken a photo/video of it on my finger but I was too busy caring for the little bird. Also, I had left my camera in the house where Hannah was, and I didn’t want to risk any incident.

I didn’t want to traumatize the little bird so with it clinging to my finger, I walked over to put it on a low-hanging tree branch–but it wouldn’t let go of my finger. After a few minutes, I finally got it onto the branch. I went away to get the chickens shut securely in the coop for the night and when I returned, it was still there, which concerned me–especially with night approaching. I told it that it needed to get home and I gently lectured it about practicing safe flight protocol. After several minutes it recovered, hopped around on the tree a bit, and then flew off. I’m so relieved it recovered! While it was sitting on the branch I took this video:

When I was a child, I always wanted to be like Doctor Doolittle and talk to the animals so I thought It was pretty amazing to hold a little Tufted Titmouse. I told EJ that if all goes according to a fairy tale, this little Tufted Titmouse will someday save my life because I rescued it.

This morning the group of chattering young Tufted Titmouses is back at the feeders so it seems all is back to normal.