KatysBlog

I was able to talk with the
Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley (WCSV) today about Biff, the wild baby
bird we found by our back door on Friday. After looking at the photos
I posted in my
3 June 2007 blog entry, WCSV said they thought Biff was a House Finch, not a
European Starling. European Starlings are not federally protected in the U.S.
(some states require a special permit to keep one). House Finches are protected
by U.S. law and cannot be kept as pets.

Biff’s eyes were not opening properly so John and I just drove him to WCSV. They will care
for him and give him antibiotics for what they diagnosed as a contagious eye infection.
If Biff survives, he will be raised with other House Finches who will teach him his
proper behavior and songs. (WCSV calls this rehabilitation.) Eventually, if he grows
up and can care for himself, Biff will be released to the wild. WCSV gave us a
tracking number so that we can check up on Biff and see what happens. Biff was
ugly and demanding but I miss him already.

Friday afternoon, we were adopted by a baby bird. My son Paul saw a ball
of grey brown fuzz on the bricks outside of our backdoor and realized it
was a half fledged baby bird. Because we live on the Guadalupe River, there
are a great many cats in our area so I put the little guy in a box and we went
to look up wild bird care on the web. I think he is a European starling and I found
an excellent website:
Starling Talk on how to care for them. We have not been able to contact the
wildlife rescue person for birds in our area so we have been taking care of the
baby as best we could. For now, we are calling him Biff.

Biff probably fell from the big ash tree over where we found him but we haven’t
been able to locate any nest. His feathers were only starting to come out of the
sheath and he was very red and unresponsive when we first found him. The website
said first to get him warm and rehydrate him. We followed the
instructions and put drops of Karo corn syrup and water with a little
salt on top of his beak until he sucked it in. He eventually started begging
for food. He is eating smashed up cat food, eggs, and applesauce (with a drop
of bird vitamins once a day). Biff eats every hour for half of the day but sleeps
at night. He looks like a drab ball of fuzz except when he opens his yellow
beak so that you can see down into his big red mouth. He feet look like
delicate pink threads.

Biff is doing fine for now. We took him to church with us this morning (since he
needs to be fed regularly no matter what our schedule is) and Biff got blessed by
our priest. He was 0.4 ounces the first day, 0.5 oz. the second day, and 0.6 oz. today.
Biff now weighs as much as 3 U.S. quarter coins. He sleeps on a half sheet of crumpled
paper towel in a plastic bowl on a heating pad in a small cardboard box. Biff poops regularly
and tries to back up each time so that the poop goes outside of his nest. His white baby
fuzz is mostly gone and his new feathers are almost out of their sheaths. He cheeps
when he is hungry, even when he is asleep.

Our 12-year-old grey cockatiel, Princess Birdie, does not seem to mind Biff. She observes
him from her big cage above my desk. Biff’s box is on the file top next to the window
so he can get some sun and listen to birds outside. My daughter Jessica has the first day
of her summer job tomorrow but if she gets permission, she is going to take Biff in to work.
Biff is going to work with me tomorrow.

Here are some early Biff pictures:

Biff the starling on hand:

Biff the starling eating:

Biff the starling wanting more food:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson

I remember that exactly a year ago, on
3 June 2006,
I wrote a blog entry in which I said that my son Paul and I were exactly the same height.
Today, at almost-15-years, he is 5’10”, four inches taller that me! Paul is delighted to
be so tall already and looking forward to growing past 6′ soon.

My son Paul is in his Freshman year at Paly
High School. The Palo Alto school year runs later than that of
Harker from which my daughter just graduated
so Paul is just starting to prepare for his final exams. We were surprised and
delighted last week to get a formal invitation from the Paul’s Math teacher to
attend the 29 May Annual Mathematics Department Awards.

The evening started with a speech by a Paly Grad who had gone on to become a Math professor.
This interesting talk was followed by each teacher presenting certificates to their notable
students. Paul was given an Excellence in Mathematics certificate for being consistently
at the top of his Algebra class. Some of the certificates were of the “most improved”
or “best attitude” variety but others were for the “first perfect exam I
have seen in 20 years as a teacher” or for the “first A+ grades I have ever
given”. I was very impressed by the passion and dedication of Paly’s Math
teachers. The students were about evenly mixed between boys and girls. One of the
teachers did point out that she was about to bust some stereotypes and then called
up her three best advanced Math students – three girls with long blond hair.

Each certificate had the student’s name, what they were honored for, and signatures by their own
teacher and the head of the department. At the bottom was the round Official Seal
of the Palo Alto High School Mathematics Department. In the center of the seal was
a picture of a little Greek ship plus the letters

π α λ ψ


μ α θ

The evening was full of similarly geeky math jokes. One teacher got up and
said that he was the median presenter that evening and that if we didn’t know what
that meant, we were in the wrong place. Paul loved it.