Plus a huge coincidence related to my daughter Shannon’s accident and resulting brain injury.
Yesterday morning in northern Utah while I was driving slowly down an isolated road I flushed a Hermit Thrush near the road on my left. ‘He’ didn’t go very far and landed on the ground between two sagebrush where he was hidden from me. I slowly pulled my pickup forward in the hope I could find him again. After a few seconds I was barely able to see him through a narrow ‘tunnel’ of tall grasses and sagebrush.
He was on top of a low rock and I was very surprised to discover that he was laying down. In my experience it’s highly unusual for a songbird to lay down like this, especially so soon after being startled and flushed by a potential threat such as my moving pickup. Typically at this point they’d be standing up and on high alert.
I took several dozen shots of him laying down on the rock before he eventually…
put his wings out and…
began to move them up and down without standing up.
He did this with his wings…
four or five times. He wasn’t flapping fast and vigorously as if he was trying to take off – the flapping was too slow for that and besides, he still wasn’t standing up.
Eventually he raised his body off the rock but only slightly. Now for the first time we can see his right foot beneath him.
He never did stand fully erect on his legs.
But eventually…
he was able to take off.
Both times when I saw him in flight he seemed to fly normally but while he was on the rock something seemed to be… off. So after I got home I looked at my photos carefully to see if I could figure out what might be going on.
In this highly cropped version of the first photo we see the ‘ankle’ joint poking out of a gap in the feathers that to my untrained eye seems unusual.
And in this large crop of photo #8 that gap or hole in the feathers continues to look strange to me but I still can’t figure out what was going on, if anything. I wondered if he’d been hit by a car but on Sunday morning that remote road had no traffic at all. I didn’t see another vehicle for the entire morning.
Any thoughts from my readers? I wondered if some rehabbers out there would have any insight. When it comes to birds I do tend to become fixated on things like this so I’ll admit to being very curious.
Ron
PS – Six days ago I reported on the five year anniversary of my daughter Shannon’s accident that resulted in a serious brain injury from which she very nearly died. A recent event in the news has caught the attention of my entire family because it’s such a huge coincidence related to her accident.
Two days ago former Miss America, actress and TV star Leanza Cornett died from a similar accident. Following are the similarities between the two events:
- both injuries were caused by falls in the kitchen
- both accidents occurred in Florida
- both accidents caused traumatic brain injuries that required surgery – in Shannon’s case it was a craniotomy to relieve pressure from a major brain bleed and almost certainly it was the same surgery performed on Leanza.
- both Shannon and Leanza were relatively young, in their 40’s.
The difference is that Shannon survived and Leanza did not. My heart goes out to Leanza’s family – I think I understand their anguish better than most.
So be careful out there my friends – life threatening falls don’t happen only to the old and frail among us.
Hmm. I did write a reply but don’t see it here… but it seems to have gone away. Trying again!
At first, I was hoping he was simply enjoying the heat from a sunny rock, but if so, he shouldn’t have had such trouble getting up. It does really look like he was having difficulty getting his legs under him for take-off.
Yes – in the magnified photo, the right hock looks swollen to me – and the toes on that foot look off. Maybe something congenital in the foot has caused him to use that leg awkwardly, leading to arthritic changes in the hock? But it looks like the hallux is missing (not a fresh injury) and just some bumps there? Which means that when he would go to land, the foot might slip, causing the hock to twist each time. Great formula for arthritis.
However, as Dan Gleason said, usually they can get around for awhile fairly well on one good leg – I see that at my feeders. But – at least in larger heavier birds – relying too much on one ‘good’ foot, can eventually lead to ‘bumblefoot’ – the catch-all term for pododermatitis – in that good foot..
As has been said, I do not hold out much hope for him.
Louise, your first reply is here, below.
Hi, all. Yes the hock joint that we can see in the much magnified photo definitely looks swollen and the toes on that foot look off. However, as Dan Gleason said, normally they would be using the other leg to stand on, holding the injured one tucked up. I see that at my feeders sometimes. Sometimes, if the injury to one foot is old, the overuse of depending on the ‘good’ foot can lead to problems there – the classic ‘bumblefoot,’ a catch-all term for pododermatitis. But we see it a lot more in bigger, heavier birds.
Reviewing the photos again, I’m wondering if there might not have been some kind of congenital defect in the right foot – seems to be that the hallux is missing and there’s some odd bumps there instead. Maye there’s a problem in the other foot/leg as well? If so, I can’t imagine how he’d have lived this long. But otherwise, I’d suspect some problem with the left foot and maybe septic arthritis in the right hock?
Totally guessing here. Sad but I agree I don’t see him making it.
Thank you for your perspective. I am sad, but unsurprised.
Thanks very much for your input, Louise. I was hoping you’d weigh in on this.
Poor little thing. My heartstrings are yanked at along with EC’s. I hate to see any animal in distress.
Gentle hugs are definitely needed these days. ❤️
I agree, Marty.
I hope someone has a good answer. This is strange behavior. Usually, if there is an injury to a foot, the bird still stands and hops on the other foot and does not lay down like this. Both legs being injured or otherwise paralyzed may result in layiing down like this. I hope it recovers but witth both legs impaired, I’m not optimistic.
I’m not optimistic either, Dan. Life’s tough out there.
Oh Ron, this is a post which yanks on my heart strings.
I will tick for comments to see if anyone knows more about the thrush.
And my heart goes out to Ms Cornett’s family. In the midst of life we are in death.
EC, Louise Shimmel’s insights into the thrush were very interesting.
Like Haley said “hard to tell without the bird in hand”. Something is off.
I worry about our new home in St George. All the floors are tile and marble. Especially the bathrooms. Those marble floors are very slippery when you are wet. I slipped once in the huge master bedroom shower and luckily grabbed one of the bars. When we actually move in I will have to get some kind of custom bath mat for the shower floor.
“hard to tell without the bird in hand”
I agree, April. That’s why I went into so much detail and included so many photos but I’m sure it’s still a hard call even for the experts.
I hope Louise Shimmel chimes in here…she’s done rehab on probably nearly every kind of bird with so many injuries to be uncountable!? Before working with raptors she did work on all birds as well as animals, too, so I hope we hear some ideas from her…
Barbara, I had Louise specifically in mind when I asked the question but other rehabbers might chime in too. I have a lot of respect for all of them.
I have seen birds lay down like this during migration. On the Dry Tortugas birds will reach the beach and just pass out from the exhaustion and lay in the sand.
Interesting point, Kathy. Have you seen it with songbirds too? I never have but just because I haven’t seen it doesn’t mean much.
Kathy replied to my question on Facebook:
“Yes, to the point that they become easy prey for egrets and herons on the island. They are just picked up off of the ground.”
The leg on the Hermit Thrush does seem strange to me also…… Hope some clues from the rehabbers are forthcoming. Doesn’t look good for the long term survival of the bird.😞
I’d noticed the article on Ms. Cornett’s passing but hadn’t read it. Tight quarters, slick floors and/or shoes are not a good combination…..
“Tight quarters, slick floors and/or shoes are not a good combination”
Especially when those floors are unforgivingly hard surfaces like marble or stone (Shannon’s were marble).
The right foot looks odd. Is there a toe missing? The posture is that of an injured bird so it may have been damaged? And sad to hear about the young woman dying.
Arwen, I can’t tell for sure if the right foot is injured or not but to me one of the front toes appears to be curled up beneath the foot and pointing backwards.
Sad story about Ms. Cornett. Definitely very similar to your daughter’s accident and injuries though.
Can’t make a any comments regarding the Thrush. I would consider myself fortunate if I knew that it was a Hermit Thrush upon seeing it there.
Don’t feel bad, Everett. I didn’t know what species it was either – had to ask a friend.