Mary:

I applaud you in your actions. No birder could bring themselves to
just ignore the plight of the poor bird, I would think. With regards
to the "let Nature take its course" perspective, none of the potential
threats to the Murre were natural predators, and didn't need to kill
the bird for their own survival, so I think you did the right thing.

Chris Duke
dukec at cc.wwwu.edu
Bellingham, WA

MaryK wrote:


>Hi Tweeters,
>
>I was down at Ocean Shores today, won't go into detail as it wasn't much
>of a trip for me. Anyway, at the jetty abt 2 hrs (?) after high tide,
>there was a Common Murre on the sand, struggling to get to the water.
>It didn't appear to be injured, just wasn't doing very well on land,
>surprise surprise. I asked someone about it, and he said he'd been
>watching it for about 30 minutes trying to make its way to the ocean.
>Stagger, stagger, face plant. After abt 5 min I couldn't stand it
>anymore and picked up the bird and took it into the ocean. It cruised
>away unscathed, so far as I could tell. The main reason I did it was
>'coz there were large and small people running/walking by it, and
>several dogs a few yards down the beach. You can imagine the gruesome
>scene that could've played out.
>
>Would it have been better to leave it alone? Let nature take its
>course, etc. Or was it OK to carry it its final 20 feet or so?? It was
>heading there anyway...
>
>Mary
>
>Mary E. Klein
>bassclef at seanet.com
>
>
>