Mortality

I'm living in a bird colony with nearly 1.6 million seabirds so dead birds is something I've begun to expect. Usually I can keep them at arms length and it doesn't bother me too much but sometimes it does get to me. I see deaths caused by man made structures and trees that the albatross are unprepared to deal with. I see mortality in the chicks which is not unexpected but is still hard when they are birds in my plots that I've dealt with several times a week for a couple months. Today was an exception. As I was leaving lunch I saw a chick that was struggling to get out of a hole beside an electrical box and was all covered with flies. It had scraped itself up so badly scratching to get out that it's bloodied feet had attracted flies. I rescued it from the hole but it was so weak I thought it would not survive the afternoon. This evening I checked on it again and it was bright eyed and ready to do battle. It had scratched against the cement so long that it's claws were worn to nothing but it looks good otherwise. Maybe it will be one of the survivors.