News

Bird in the hand ... wakes up, flies off

Doc Lampley used a gentle hand to revive stunned woodpecker.

By Bill Moss, Published: October 14, 2012

It's not unusual, the bird watching Lampleys say, for a winged visitor to whack their large picture window.

The Lampley home has a picture window in the living room and one directly across in the dining room. The family speculates that the birds look clear through and don't recognize the glass barrier. Whack!
Redbellied woodpecker lived to dine another day.Dr. William "Doc" Lampley said the family gets a bird casualty about once a week. A red-bellied woodpecker that smacked the picture window on Sunday afternoon was the second crash that day.
"They usually get up and fly off," Doc said.
This time, no. Doc's sons Bill and John raced outside to check on the male woodpecker, a good-sized 10-inch bird.
"He was motionless except his eyes were blinking," Bill said.
In this case, a bird in the hand — if it is a hand that has used its healing power for more than 60 years — is better off.
"Bill and John brought me out there," said Doc, who uses a wheelchair but is otherwise of sound mind and body at age 92. "It was limp, out cold I guess for a couple minutes before it started to come to. In a couple of minutes, he started to move a little bit and gradually grabbed my fingers with his claws."
Doc's Mary Ann, said he has healed critters before with his "magic hands." One was a small dog that got chomped by a Doberman. The woodpecker was one of several stunned birds he's gently stroked back to life.
"I held him and stroked him and made sure he didn't have any broken wings or anything," he said. Even as he came to, the woodpecker seemed hesitant to move.
"I had him for about 20 minutes," Doc said. "He sat on my hands for about 10 minutes, then he just flew off into that tree."
Dr. Lampley started practicing in Hendersonville in 1953 at the old Patton Hospital and was among a core of local doctors who helped found Pardee that same year. "I'm the only one left," he said.
"How many surgeries?" he said, repeating a reporter's question. "Human? God knows. Several thousand. I have no idea." Over 42 years, counting his military service, he figures he averaged 200 a year, which would be around 8,400 surgeries. Healing birds comes natural.
The Lampleys' front yard in Druid Hills is a bird-attracting diner. The yard has four regular feeders, two hummingbird feeders and a suet block, and stays busy with red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, hummers, cardinals, finches, mourning doves and other feathered visitors.
Even a close brush with death did not prevent a return to the scene. The Lampleys were sure that that the red-bellied woodpecker that flew in to dine on Monday afternoon was the same one that whacked the glass on Sunday.