Today was a bit of a sad day and on reflection, having turkey rissoles for dinner may not have been the best idea, but I wasn't to know about Chirpy until too late and turkey rissoles it was.
If you haven't guessed it, Chirpy is the little baby bird in the picture on the left, and I wont fill you with false hope and string you along, Chirpy died this morning, as I suspected he would.
So how did I meet this cute little ball of fluff and how come he came to be in my temporary care?
Chirpy, like so many other birds, had fallen prey to one of my housemate Fran's cats, the dreaded Misty. Misty is an absolute demon at catching birds and drags them into the house to torture them until she gets bored. I heard Chirpy in the dining room when I was making my turkey rissoles and rescued the poor little thing from Misty's dangerous paws.
Only what to do with Chirpy now? Now I have a moral dilemma, I can't keep Chirpy, it just isn't possible, but Chirpy is too young to fly and has probably fallen from its nest before its unfortunate capture. I don't know where the nest is and Chirpy is hungry and frightened.
I waited until my friend Laurie came over (he was bringing me cake) to see what he thought. How could we best keep little Chirpy alive?
Our first plan was to try feeding it. By cutting a Biro up we mad a very thin straw and managed to blow small amounts of egg into its mouth. It seemed to quite like the egg white especially and was looking much chipper after a good meal - unfortunately, this was more of a dying mans' final meal, but we were trying our best.
We then decided the best thing we could do was put Chirpy somewhere relatively safe, ie on the garage roof, near to the trees so that at least its mother might find it and feed it for a few days more until it was capeable of staying airborne. I think we both knew his chances were small, but what other choice did we have.
When I got up this morning Chirpy was back in the kitchen, only this time he was dead. Misty doesn't go on the garage roof, so I assume he must have fallen off and been caught again, helpless on the ground.
So goodbye Chirpy and I'm sorry I couldn't do more, your desire to fly was just too strong.
Cake Blog
Laurie brought over some of his Mum's fruit loaf. Very nice with some butter on. Fruity and malty too.
Menu
Turkey Rissoles
Hash Browns (Frozen I'm afraid, I was too busy with Chirpy to make anything else)
Turkey Rissoles
500g Minced Turkey
2 Rashers Bacon
2 Green Chillis
1 Small Red Onion
1/2 tsp Celery Salt
Few Fresh Coriander Leaves
Few Fresh Flat Leafed Parsley Leaves
Black Pepper
2 Eggs
Breadcrumbs
Vegetable Oil
Preparation
Finely dice the onion and mince the chillis. Chop the bacon into small pieces. Mixthe turkey, bacon and flavourings together. Roll into sausage shapes, egg and breadcrumb (twice for extra coating) fry gently in a little oil until turning brown and then transfer to an oven for 15 minutes to cook (180c)
