Jack the Jackdaw

Were you lucky enough to have a beautiful sunny weekend? We were, although as a family we actually prefer Winter!

Once the intense midday heat was gone we got our shoes on to take Albie & Kizzie for a walk. As we were leaving the house, I turned to Leigh and said "I'm just going to run back into the house and grab a spare lead, I have no idea why but I just have a funny feeling". Great we both thought, another one of my 'funny feelings'....

We made it safely to where we walk them but as we pulled up saw the biggest flock of crows I have seen in a while, they were all mobbing one another and we thought were fighting over some food left on the ground. We got Albie & Kizzie out of the car and walked into the field when I spotted something in the grass, I turned to Leigh and said I thought there was something still on the ground... there was. A little baby crow (later found out to be a Jackdaw) was injured.

Poor Albie & Kizzie must have wondered what was happening, they had been out of the car for just minutes before we were bundling them back in! We got one of their blankets and Leigh placed it over the Jackdaw so we could scoop him up to get him to the local wildlife sanctuary. He was clearly injured and although a baby he needed help so taking him away from his mum was the right thing to do. 

Off we all went with Albie diligently helping us take care of crow.

And Kizzie too!

We decided it was a girl so named her Charlotte, then we thought maybe it was a boy so went with Charlie as that covered both sexes! But then when Leigh came back from the hospital drop off point and said it was a Jackdaw we decided on the name Jack!

We took Albie and Kizzie back to where we had been for their walk and after negotiating a few other dogs and a person randomly walking around taking photos (we still aren't quite sure of what!) another little surprise came along....

My dad walked in with their own Golden Retriever! So the 3 of them had a race around all together, playing, sniffing, finding puddles to drink from that had formed in tree roots before deciding they really were quite exhausted and enough was enough! They found a patch of shade to sit in (or if you are Albie lie down to get maximum benefit from the cool grass) and posed just long enough for a few nice photos.

On the way back home we saw 4/5 tractors, they were huge, some carrying hay that Libby & Chuzzlewit would have binkied endlessly for! 

I phoned Leatherhead Wildlife Aid yesterday for an update on Jack, sadly he had to be gently allowed into a forever sleep. His back was broken and he had a head trauma. The centre was very grateful to us for bringing him in, they said that Jack would have been in a lot of pain and that they were happy to be able to bring that to an end for him. We hope he is now flying freely in the sky, pain free and enjoying the warm rays of the summer sun.

RIP Jack.

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