White Pigeon Rescued from Metacom Avenue Bristol

PORTSMOUTH, RI—The middle of Metacom Avenue is far from pigeon-friendly country. So when a white pigeon was standing in the median along busy Metacom Avenue, Bristol, passersby noticed the bird and called the animal control officers.

According to Portsmouth's Kristin Fletcher, the Bristol ACO deftly removed the bird from oncoming traffic. The police then notified Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Rhode Island, and the snowy pigeon is now wintering in Fletcher's home.

The association is a number to call (Wildlife Hotline (401) 294-6363 or riwildliferehab@gmail.com) when a bird or another animal is in distress. Although the state Department of Environmental Management also has trained wildlife responders, DEM often can't free personnel to respond to a backyard crisis.

Fletcher's organization is all volunteers and relies on donations. They're now asking contributors to help with their annual appeal.

The pigeon, an eastern red bat and a goose are among several of the Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of RI's recent rescues, she said, although technically the pigeon isn't wildlife.

Fletcher said the bird was certainly someone's pet. But because pigeon isn't banded, it's pretty difficult to arrange a reunion. The pigeon could have flown here from Connecticut or from almost anywhere.

"One of the WRARI people- Blaine Hymel- drove to Bristol to get the bird," she said. "She is not banded but a domestic white bird that somehow lost her way from home. She was a little thin and may have been sideswiped by a car, no injuries visible. She is eating well and will hopefully be adopted to a good home."

Some animals are lost, while others are deliberately abandoned. People do make the mistake of sending pets and domestic animals back to the wild. These animals can't survive in the wild, she said. It's on a par with releasing someone's pet poodle into the woods.

Problems with lost or abandoned pets and domestic animals are not unique to Rhode Island, of course.

Earlier Wednesday, Boston Animal Rescue League, rescued domestic geese from a river in the Back Bay Fens.

Just rescued these 2 domestic geese from the Muddy River in the Back Bay Fens. We believe they were abandoned earlier this week. pic.twitter.com/9YirNx5SmR
— Animal Rescue League (@ARLBostonRescue) December" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/ARLBostonR... 28, 2016

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Fletcher's organization does steps up to help in cases where the animal is domestic. But the main mission is wildlife. Recently, she picked up an emaciated goose she saw struggling at Glen Farm, and took that animal to the clinic.

Also recently, a Portsmouth school janitor saved a young eastern red bat that had been spotted "clinging to an outside stone wall of a school in Portsmouth," she said.

"Having for some reason missed the window for migration (some species of bats migrate south in the winter), she clung to the wall until she was found at the base of the wall in some leaf litter where she had fallen following a cold night," she said. "With gloves, a janitor gently moved her in the large leave she was resting in, into a nearby shrub and WRARI was called. She is a very healthy little girl who prefers to be fed her mealworms twice daily instead of eating on her own and will winter with me (licensed to handle bats by the state) until the spring when others of her kind are coming back. At that time she will be released with two other red bats that are also being wintered at my home."

All the stories don't have happy endings, but The Wildlife Clinic of RI and The Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of RI this year helped "nearly 5,000 injured and orphaned wild birds and animals from across the state," she said.

"Though we are state and federally licensed, no funding exists to help wildlife," she said. "WRARI depends on private donations, grants and fund raisers like Wildstock to carry on our work." To help, go to https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-...