Students hatch bird from rescued egg

May 16 2006 By Tony Collins, Birmingham Mail

PUPILS at a city school displayed extraordinary thinking when they came across a vandalised bird's nest in their local park.

They hatched an exciting plot to rescue a victim of the callous act, which they discovered while on a weekend visit to Brookvale Park, in Erdington.

The four children, all 11-year-old pupils at St Edmund Campion Catholic School, in Holly Lane, leapt into action when they found an egg floating in the park's pond.

Pupils Fay McNamee and Michael Glasheen waded into the water to retrieve the egg as it began to sink.

Anthony Fitzmaurice gathered dry leaves to keep the egg warm and Curtis Wilson then rode home with it on his bike.

It was then left overnight at Fay's home - kept under a pillow to maintain its warmth - before being taken into school where staff in the science department amazingly managed to incubate it.

The bird, identified as a baby coot, has now been taken to a wildlife centre in Rugeley, Staffs, where it is making good progress.

Wendy Bradshaw, a senior lab technician at St Edmund Campion, said: "It is a very old incubator which we use occasionally to incubate hen's eggs as part of science lessons.

"Fay brought this egg in to me, which one of our biology staff recognised as a coot's egg.

"We didn't really think it would hatch because of what had happened, but after about a week this little beak started to appear."

The chick was given water and also offered a bit of scrambled eggs, which it ate, before being taken to the wildlife centre.

Fay said: "I saw this kid pick something up and throw it into the pond and saw it was an egg, so I waded in to get it out.

"When I took it home, my mum wrapped it in a cloth and put it on the radiator to warm it up. It was lovely when it hatched and I'm really glad it's going to be alright."

Science teacher Dr David Salt said: "We are very proud of our students whose fast-thinking saved the life of the baby coot."

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