The Rioting Rosella

A very bedraggled looking crimson rosella was brought to my house one day.  As is the usual, he was found on the side of the road, stunned, and as well as obviously having concussion, he had also managed to lose most of his tail feathers, which meant he would probably have a bit of trouble steering, when he started flying again.  I put him in a box so that he could recover from his headache, handling him very carefully, because injured as he was, he was still very cranky, and those beaks can do a lot of damage!  I checked on him from time to time, and made sure he had plenty of food and water.

After he had been in care for 24 hours, I took him out of the box (I covered him with a towel, and then picked him up still wrapped in it, to save injury to my fingers, and sat him on the edge while I changed the newspaper, and got rid of the uneaten seed, and replaced it with fresh.  He still looked slighty off with the pixies, and made no attempt to escape, so I put him back in for another 24 hours.  I did the same thing the next day, with a similar reaction, so back in the box.  However the next day, his eyes seemed brighter, but he still made no attempt to fly, but I thought, maybe tomorrow.  I didn’t put him straight back in the box, I thought I’d leave him for a while and see what transpired, so I went off to do a couple of things.

Five or ten minutes later I came back, and I must have startled him.  He rose in the air like a helicopter, and then took off at a rate of knots through the house, straight over the top of the cat who was asleep in a chair.  The cat woke up, and looked around trying to find out what on earth did that.  The bird meanwhile had landed on top of the piano, and sat there looking rather pleased with himself.  I picked up the towel and advanced on him quietly and slowly, but he watched me the whole time.  No way was he going back in that box willingly.  He flew from the piano to the nearest chair, but he slid on the top of it, and landed on the floor underneath it, then waddled underneath it, and then underneath the chair the cat was on.  The cat was clearly puzzled by all these proceedings….first birds swooping over his head, and now they’re walking underneath him!  Good grief, is nothing sacred??  Just as I was about to drop the towel over the bird, he took off, and flew onto the top of the airconditioner, which is placed high on the wall over the window.  Oh wonderful I thought, now I cant get you at all, without climbing on the table.   Oh well…… but as I approached he took off again, this time executing a beautiful right hand turn, and heading off down the hall, and landing on the venetian blinds, which of course didn’t hold him up, and he slid down them, and I was able to throw the towel over him and get him back into the box.  Having noticed how well he took that turn, I thought, he’s right……if he can turn like that he’ll be okay back in the bush.

I secured the box, grabbed my purse, and off to the car we went.  I drove out to near where he was found, and kept going a little way till I found a place where I could release him that would be well away from the road.  I parked the car, and headed into the bush, box under my arm.  When I reckoned I was a safe distance from the road, I put the box on the ground and opened it.  The bird took off straight away, almost taking my head with him in his eagerness to be away, and flew about a hundred metres and landed about 20′ up a huge gum tree.  He walked up and down the branch a few times, then started calling.  In the distance I heard similar cries, so I knew it wouldn’t be long till he was back with his flock.

I picked up the box, and headed back to the car with a big smile on my face…..it always feels so great when you get to let one go…..