Acciadent

On Saturday morning while walking my orchard I saw a mistle thrush with one foot stuck nearly at the top of the ash tree in the picture below.  There was no way of helping the bird, short of cutting the tree down and this wouldn't have been popular with our neighbour who owns the tree and would most likely killed the bird as well.  Since there was nothing I could do to rescue the unfortunate bird I left it to it's own devices for a while, hoping that it would get itself out when I next looked.  If it hadn't I could see nothing for it but to put it out of it's misery, I am a reasonable shot and had no doubts that I could do this, but I like thrushes and didn't want to do it.  By the time I returned about an hour later the poor bird was dead, it's suffering at an end.

The next morning the body was spotted by a couple of carrion crows, in their efforts to eat it they managed to dislodge the poor bird and then left it strictly alone.  I have no idea what happened, I could see no signs of it having been caught up in any type of cord or line so I think it was unlucky enough to trap its foot in a natural crevice in the upper branches.

I left the body on the ground where it fell and there was nothing but a few feathers this morning to mark the passing of the unfortunate bird.  The natural world can be harsh sometimes.