Close encounters of a bird kind

I looked out my kitchen window yesterday morning.  I spotted a beautiful blue Starling in the garden.  Stunning. A sure sign warmer weather is on it's way.

As I had a busy Sunday set out ahead of me, I went to finish up getting ready. While brushing my teeth, I had a thought, "I wonder if we have another tube of toothpaste?" So while still brushing my teeth I walked through to the kitchen to check.  As I looked out the window and saw the same Starling, but this time in my dog's mouth. No!!!
Not wanting even more mess to clean up I dropped my toothbrush on the counter and ran outside to get the bird out his mouth.  Then I noticed, the bird was watching me. It was still alive!!! Aaaargh.... Considering the size and power of his jaws, I was surprised to see the bird was alive.

By now my Koda (my one year old rescue dog), had gone to sit in the empty pond with his newly caught bird.  So down on the ground I go (toothpaste smeared across my face), and in his confusion Koda let go of the bird. But it didn't move. So I put my hand over it (to which Koda tried to have another chomp). He kept looking at me wondering why I was trying to take it away. But the bird had in the meantime grabbed onto the Ivy vines growing in the pond, and was not letting go. I tried prying it's claws off but to no avail.  All the while Koda kept trying to get a few more bites in. Knowing I couldn't leave the bird or Koda would surely finish it off, I wiped the toothpaste from around my mouth and bit into the vines. Yuck. What a sight I must've been!! But what else do you do? I could not leave the bird to become the next dog toy (last week was a stinky, dried HALF rat that he played with for days).

I picked up the terrified bird and tricked the dogs into going inside.  I put the bird down and it fell on his side. Not good... And it was covered in dog gob. And a definite injury somewhere close to the wing (as evident by the spot of blood on my hand).

I then opened the door to go inside, and this time the dogs ran out to see where I'd left the bird. Tricked them again, and closed the door.  Walking around trying to find a box (and not one that I had to still make - I only had one hand free).  I realized I was walking around with an injured bird in the cat's room, but because the bird didn't make a sound, they didn't have a clue.

I found a box and put the bird in. Again, it fell on it's side. So I propped it up with some soft material and closed the box.  I checked again about half an hour later. It hadn't moved and it's eyes were closed. Not jumping to conclusions, I closed up again and left the box in my bedroom for over an hour.

When I checked again, the bird was fully alert and sitting up.  Now that it looked further away from death, I sent a message on one of the animal groups I belong to.  I quickly got a reply to try the people from Wildlife In Crises.  I got hold of one of their guys who offered to come fetch the bird from me.  He checked the bird out (still clinging to ivy vines) and said although the wing was not broken it was hurt but should make a full recovery.

You can't see the stunning colour in the picture, but it is a beautiful bright blue.