19 two nights in a row and 3 in of snow night before last. Cloudy, cold for three days and fine mist of ice last night.
Let the cocker out this am and he finds a white wing casualty, which we notice after the fact when he doesnt bust bsck in after painting the snow.
I chase him down (wifes dog), scare him, pitch mouthed dove over fence and we come in.
A few later i hear a loud thump, like when our resident aplomodo attacks our flock of a hundred or so Incas, morning, white wings and ringnecks as they devour a quarter gallon of hen scratch my wife puts on the picnic table twice a day, as when one tries to fly through a closed window.
I go out and it's sitting on the back porch with its head tilted over to the right a bit. The left eye is open but its right, along with its entire right side is covered in ice near an eighth inch thick.
When i bent to pick it up i was going to dehead it but not wanting to get in trouble from some of the gang for killing a dove out of season i straightened its ruffeld rt wing feathers a bit and brought it in.
Holding it in my hands a bit the ice started thawing and i was, after a bit, able to pick it off. It would not take water drops from my finger though i dont know where they can get water in this weather. Figuring its pretty cold i sat it in a soft recliner and laid a towel over it and where it now awaits while, i supoose, we both contemplate its future prospects.
I had initially thought it had a broken neck and would join the mess of blue quail i got last weekend but it may be that carrying the weight of ice on its head all night is the reason its head was tilted to the right.
I guess i'll check it in a while after it wsrms up and try to see if it wants water or hen sctratch before putting it out on the downwind side.
Im thinking it was ok but when trying to fly for the first time today it just could keep an even keel.
Birdy, any advice.
