About the 888 7th Ave. fledgling

Dear readers:

I was away yesterday, so just got into the loop of this story, Getting great numbers of calls and e-mails. Here's a summary of what I know:

1. The fledgling was in trouble shortly after leaving the nest yesterday, as fledglings very often are. If the bird had been in the country somewhere, the parents would have taken care of it until its flying skills improved, But it had landed on a crowded street, was surrounded by well-meaning but unhelpful people and ended up being taken in by the Central Park Urban Park Rangers. They, in turn, passed the bird over to a wildlife rehabilitator named Bobby Horvath - Massapeque NY. It appears that the bird was not injured, but I don't know this first hand.

2. This morning I spoke to Len Soucy, world famous bird rehabilitator and founder of the Raptor Trust in Millington NJ. He looked up Horvath -- found him in the book of licenced rehabilitators. Soucy agreed with me -- and just about everyone else-- that if the bird is uninjured he should be returned to Central Park as quickly as possible. I gave Horvath's phone number to Len, as published on the PaleMale.com website. Len said he would call him, find out what the state of the bird is, and whether a return to the park is imminent.

3. I also spoke top Regina Alvarez, Woodlands Manager of CP. She'll see what she can do.

This is all I can do for now. I'll let you know as soon as there are any new developments.