I was driving Daniel to school, hurrying because we were a little late, and suddenly I saw the car to the left of me run over a robin, on Rosemont Avenue. We were all going about 45 to 55 mph (even though the speed limit is 40). I turned around and came back and as I was trying to do something for it I saw two more cars run over it, with it between their wheels--feathers flying. (I don't know how many more cars ran over it while I was turning around. Probably a few. I saw it run from the left lane to the right lane in my rear view mirror after I passed it, but then it got stuck in the right lane, not moving.) A fourth car was about to run over it and maybe do a direct hit. I didn't know what to do so I pulled my car over into the oncoming traffic in front of the bird and stopped the traffic. The woman who had been about to hit the bird made a mad face at me, but I got out of my car and went back and picked up the bird and as she went around me in the next lane I showed it to her cupped in my hands and she made a sorry-and-now-I-understand face.
Then a police man pulled up, facing my car head on with his car (since I was facing the wrong way in traffic). But I showed him the bird too and explained that I was saving it and he said ok and that he would stop traffic while I turned around (which was a good thing since it was rush hour) and that there was an animal shelter up the road. So I gave the bird to Daniel in the front seat and he held it very gently and I turned around and drove to the shelter. But they were going to call the officer to take it to the only wild animal vet to be evaluated for either being helped or put to sleep and they said I could take it to that vet instead. So I decided to take it there myself. (At this point we knew Daniel would be late for school.) So I ran back home (we were only about 3 miles away) for something and I took a couple of pictures and low and behold, it flew out of the box!! I was so glad it could still fly. It landed on Doug’s dresser. The picture I took was blurry. Then I gently captured it again and took it to the vet. I think it had an injury on its tummy, but I sure hope it was okay and that they fixed it up. At least it didn't have a broken wing.
On a side note, after we dropped the bird off at the vet (Daniel said he wanted to go with me to the vet before going to school), we took Daniel to school, and it turns out he wasn't late at all. In fact, he was way early because school was two hours delayed because of the extreme cold (below zero F with wind chill). But if I’d checked my email and realized school was delayed, we wouldn't have been able to rescue the robin.
Here are pictures of the robin (as well as other birds I've been photographing this year)
