January 5th

All were still alive at 4.50 a.m. !! during the feeding of the patients the tortoise-shell “Lapje” was looking full interest in our direction . . . . there is a pupil-reflex back in the good eye !! She is very affectionate; has meanwhile eaten, peed and relieved !! The silver Sparrowhawk showed having a penetrating piece of bone, due to which a lot of fluid had leaked. The Hedgehogs had eaten reasonably; only since there is a lower bowl with cat-biscuits that food is hardly touched anymore !! Coming back from bringing birds to their aviaries, our attention was attracted by a moving shade in the street > showed to be a HOUSE SPARROW, hardly capable of flying > so see over there. Because the little Tom-Cat “GerTi” was showing more and more masculine behavior, we have taken away in exactly 9 minutes the reason > see further at TOM CAT. We have shortened the penetrating piece of bone in the wing of the silver Sparrowhawk and the injury closed with 1 U-stitch. Showed having still poultry red mite > PINEX-spray was used again. We could remove again some dead tissue from the wing of the Pale Barn Owl. Has still a splint. “Máska” was treated again with Dermisol-cream; injury is cleaner and cleaner. The this morning taken-in House Sparrow was discovered not alive anymore at 8.48 a.m. The “University of the Aegean” in Mytiléne is busy with a report, for which they needed pictures of the two Lesser White-fronted Geese we had over here in 2001 and 2002 > we could send them those. When in the frame-work of socializing we had the tortoise-shell “Lapje” on our lap, we could detect some strange little lumps behind her right ear > so we could remove 4 hail-pellets from there (and they were situated close to each other > so shot from close range !!) > as if the other misery wasn’t enough for this little lady !! At 6.51 p.m. a phone-call from the big animal-food-trading-company opposite the bird-watching-post on the road towards Mytiléne: in the hall there was a “Geráki”, which had flown into the hall in the morning and which was till present over there. Because tomorrow the shop will be closed (it’s Epiphania = Epiphany), the caller thought it wasn’t wise leaving the bird over there. In the pitch-dark we turned out (on a road which was partly teared up). Very high against a window indeed a small bird of prey was present. The huge doors had to be closed and the two of us, with the assistance of a small cat and running over high-piled-up sacks of maize-meal at last we could force up the bird into a corner (in this case literally) so she could be caught with a . . . . . soft broom at 7.10 p.m. See further at SPARROWHAWK. Body-weight was only 213 gram (i.s.o. 280 – 320). And at 8.18 p.m. still a phone-call from the Police in Mytiléne that they had over there a Collared Dove, injured in a wing > one will try to send the bird tomorrow by coach, but it’s Epiphany, so . . . . ??