Emil

I came across some old pictures the other day, while sorting through some folders full of university lecture notes (which I ended up throwing all away). Most of them were family pictures spanning around 35 years, the kind that mean so much to you, but when you show them to someone else their reaction is likely to be a fake-polite "ah, that's cute...". (Or sometimes nothing).

Anyway, among those, there were some pictures of Emil the Sterling. I found him and his sibling in a sailing club I used to frequent (and race some J's). I took them to my place (well, it was not really mine, I had a German flatmate, but he deserves at least one entire post of his own, if not more), but the other guy didn't make it through the first night, so I was left with Emil in my care.



I used an old cardboard box to make his new nest, two lamps to provide heat, and I would come back from my lab every 3 hours to give him water and feed him.

After 3 weeks I decided that he needed more professional care, so I took him to the Chesapeake Wildlife Sanctuary, where they told me that apart from some dehydration (ok, you try making a 3 week old bird drink enough water, and then tell me about it), he was just fine.

Parting with Emil was a lot harder than I expected. Embarrassingly so.

About a month later I received a "certificate" from the sanctuary, telling me the date and location where they released Emil back to the wild. I remember feeling a lot more proud than I really deserved to.