Rob the Dunnock

The next day, the 21st June, at 6:45am we found him crying out for his breakfast (well little cheeps anyway!), and starting to stand more. We still couldn't see any birds nesting in the garden and couldn't really release it back into the garden as there were no parents to feed it. Also the local cats were nightly visitors and I don't think it would have lasted long once it had been spotted on the ground by one of them on its early morning and late evening hunting forays through the garden.

As time moved on his feeding increased and when feeding he got evermore vocal. Come the next day (22rd June) he wants to be fed about every 20 minutes

He also starts to become more adventurous, that day he was moving round is box more, exploring it and looking up at the box brim.

To keep up with his feeds we had to enlist the help of our son and his partner to keep up the routine.

The following day, he started to preen himself more and we expanded his diet to include crustaceans (water slaters) out of the pond. It became quite an exercise over the next few days going out to the pond a couple of times a day to root around the shallow end under the weed and rocks to catch them.

We putt them in a shallow dish in his box, he caught on straight away and was soon devouring them. It was around this time that we started to think that Rob was not a Robin as we first thought, but a Dunnock. He didn't have the long legs and upright posture we had seen in young robins that had fledged in our garden a few years early.

The evening of the 24th June was a special time for Rob. We were sat watching England v Australia at cricket, I don't think Rob was that bothered but his box was on the floor in front of the telly in the lounge. While we were sat there he was busily hopping round his box and suddenly he was up on the edge of his box!.

We managed to catch that moment with a phone camera. He was not quite sure himself what to do from here and hopped back down into his box! However he was soon back up on the edge now he had the idea and hopped over to us to have a chat!

Just to control his movements a bit more when we were not about we got one of the old hamster cages out so we could put a top on it if needs be during the day and at night. However because he needed feeding so often it was not on often during the day.

His new home also had a few little extras, some branches to hop on as well and a tray of water slaters.

A stellar day in Rob's life was just 5 days after his rehabilitation on June 25th. We took him outside for the first time to see how he got on. He hopped onto the grass and made a B line straight for the Juniper bush to cover and to peck around.

He was good for a few minutes and even aroused the curiosity of a juvenile Robin who flew down to root about in the fallen juniper flowers for things to eat. I am not sure how we could ever have thought that Rob was a Robin when you saw the two near each other!

Hopping about and pecking soon tired him out though, and he failed his first basic safety course - he went to sleep on his feet by the side of a chair in the open :).

Within the house we didn't keep the top on his box while we were about, and even altered the alarm settings at night so that he could hop about the garden room in the morning without setting off the house alarm before we got up.

With this freedom Rob chose to explore the parts of the house he had access too and within his hopping range vertically. He rested often - and chose to fall sleep in some funny places in house in evening - a good example was under the candle on fireplace hearth!

As the next morning came (26th June), he still didn't seem to be that interested in drinking water form a bowl and we had to encourage him to drink from a syringe more after he seemed a get a bit of bird 'pooh' stuck in his bottom as it seemed too dry to come out. We pulled it out with a pair of tweezers - a bit like you see bird parents pull fecal sacs from the bottom of the chicks. We made a special effort to try him with water after every meal.