Erin Visits the Condo

It was a warm weekend albeit a little rainy at times when Erin and Jake arrived after noon on Saturday.  In conjunction with her job with the St Clair Region Conservation Authority, her mission this weekend was to find some minnows of various varieties to place in the public aquarium in Strathroy. Our daughter never ceases to amaze me, so I hid my skepticism of her ability to catch darters with a small bug catching net that she brought with her.

 Picture from: Field Guide to Birds of North America

In her quest for little fish around the condo docks, she came across a young Common Grackle that had somehow crashed into the water and was drowning. It was making an attempt to swim but because of the continuous seawall around the condos, there was no place to exit the water. Erin scooped the poor dying bird up with her bug net. She called the owner of Salthaven, Brian Salt on her cell phone for advice on how to resuscitate the little urchin who was now making a clicking sound indicating the bird's imminent expiration. Erin has worked as a volunteer with Brian for several years.

Erin took the bird up to our condo and with the use of a hairdryer, a space heater  and some window screens created a warm environment for the now dry little bird in the bathtub of our lower bathroom. She kept the bird there all night with the light off to try to calm him down and allow him to regain his strength. Sunday morning to our amazement the little thing was still alive and to even Erin's surprise, flew from our balcony to a nearby branch, said "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" and flew off as if nothing ever happened.

We spent a few hours on Sunday in the dinghy (in the rain) mucking along the banks leading to the Guildwood lagoon. Our efforts to catch minnows with a net proved  ineffectual even for Erin so she chalked that up to experience, with me promising to check out dip nets next time I'm in USA at Gander Mountain. We spent an enjoyable time in spite of the rain and as Erin said

"Summer's too short to let a little rain dampen your fun."
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