Sparky
Sparky thought she had found the perfect spot to build her nest, inside a metal box with a sparrow-sized hole in the side.
But Sparky didn’t know that this box contained the wiring that controlled an emergency warning siren on a pole high above. Sparky kept bringing in dried grass, strips of paper, straw and other materials, about a half a bushel’s worth, until her nest seemed just right. She then settled in and laid four eggs.
Call For Help
The folks at Milwaukee County Emergency Management (MCEM) called the WHS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center for help.
It seems Sparky’s nest had shorted-out the wiring in the siren control box and they requested our help in removing the nest quickly. We wanted to make sure that Sparky and her nest of eggs would be handled humanely, so we met workers from MCEM at the siren right away. Our staff rescuer gently removed Sparky’s nest and its four eggs and placed them in a wooden nesting box we brought along for this purpose.
A New Home for Sparky
We attached the new nest box to the outside of the metal control box so Sparky could quickly resume incubating her eggs.
We then removed the rest of the nest material from the wiring in the control box. That allowed the siren to be used in the following few weeks to warn people of the severe storms and tornadoes that hit our area!
