Very lucky chick

Last Thursday night (ok - super early Friday morning) I was laying in bed trying to sleep, when I heard this 'cheep cheeeep cheep cheeep' coming from somewhere in my bedroom.

Of course, I climbed out of my waterbed and turned the light on, only to find this -

Luckily it was caught by the youngest cat in the house (Gremlin) and he had only carried it inside and was watching it 'cheep' on the floor of my bedroom. It was uninjured as far as I could tell so I picked him up and put him in a box with hot water bottles and stuck him under a lamp to keep him warm.

TBH, I didn't expect the adorable little critter to survive the rest of the night, since in my experience birds don't tolerate shock real well. I figured that if he survived I'd drop him into the vet in Townsville since I was heading that way later during the day. At the time we were thinking that chick was a baby kookaburra or kingfisher.

Off to bed I toddled again, and Master R. and I were pleasantly suprised that the baby bird was still alive and still 'cheep cheeeep cheeping' in the morning. I refilled his hot water bottle, took the above happy snaps and loaded him and his box into the car. I then enjoyed his little 'cheep cheeps' for the hour and a half drive to Townsville after dropping Master R. at school.

When I took him into the veterinarian's, the ladies on staff cooed and aahed over the poor little mite. They took him off my hands and put him onto a heat pad - that was the last I saw of him. The vet nurse that I gave him over to told me that he was most likely a Curlew, like this. Looks like we have these beautiful birds nesting in the area around our house, since Gremlin doesn't usually travel to far from home.