Saving a Hermit Warbler in San Pedro

As I mentioned last Saturday, I went on 5-day vacation on board the Monarch of the Seas, one of the older and smaller ships among the Royal Caribbean fleet. Yes, the stateroom was tiny, but I still had a lot of fun, because of all the ports of call that we visited, the fine(-ish) dining that we experienced, and some really cheesy production shows to boot. I don’t know if you’re a believer in karma, but something very interesting happened on the first day that we boarded the boat.

After going through the several security checkpoints, we made our way to our stateroom, dropped off our bags, and proceeded to explore the cruise ship, checking out the different things that it had to offer. We had a look at the business center, the on-board shops, and the swimming pool. One of the neater features found on the Monarch of the Seas is that it has a climbing wall on the top deck, near the back of the ship. The climbing wall wasn’t open on the first day, but while we were getting a good look at it, we saw one of the local birds go flying straight into a nearby window. It hit the glass with a fairly loud THUMP!

Susanne and I were concerned, naturally, so we went over to investigate. The bird — which Susanne believes is a Hermit Warbler — seemed very dazed, but still alive. It was so shocked, that we had no trouble picking it up in our hands. Upon initial inspection, it looked like one of the feet was broken and possibly also a wing. It was also quite strange that the bird had its mouth open for quite some time. Here’s Susanne holding the Hermit Warbler in her hand. Yup, it was a tiny little thing.

We tried setting it back onto the bench and it managed to stand on its own. The bird stood there, basically motionless, for several minutes. It would close its eyes every once in a while, as if it were wincing in pain. Eventually, when we went to try and pick it up again, it finally started to hop away from us. Moments later, it took the skies in a very disoriented flight pattern, nearly bashing itself back into the same pane of glass. Thankfully, it didn’t, and it happily flew away back to wherever it came from.

Anyways, pictures are great, but here’s a video for you to check out too. Oh, and by the way, this was before the Monarch of the Seas cruise ship even left the dock in San Pedro, about 20-30 minutes south of LAX airport.