It’s spring. The buds and leaves sprout from the trees, the sun lingers into the evening, and despite our on-going pollution of water, land and air, the spring breeze somehow brushes in a bit of light, clean joy. And if you haven’t noticed it yet, in amongst the regular squaaawks and caaaws of your bird neighbors are the cheep-cheep-cheeps of hungry little mouths. It’s spring – and the baby birds are here!
This winter was difficult one for me. One night as I dug deep into the internet for something useful and fun to do, I came across a local ASPCA looking for extra hands from May through August. They needed, get this…. “baby bird volunteers.” They needed volunteers to help to feed and care for the baby birds that come into the center.
Need I say more?
I signed up one dark, February night and have looked forward to May several times a day ever since.
Last weekend I attended the orientation. In a room filled with kids looking for their volunteer credits, retirees, and what are probably bird-kooks like me who could be doing something more “useful” with our time, I sat and listened to Sue, a 20 year veteran of wildlife care, describe what we would do for the next several months. During the Q&A, someone asked how the baby birds arrive at the center. I’d like to pass along a few things I learned in her answer:
1. Spring is a terrible time to trim trees – if you let it go this long, you might as well wait until fall. Or at least look carefully for nests before you hack at the branches!
2. If you do manage to knock down a nest and the eggs have miraculously survived, leave it and leave the area. When mom or dad get back and see what happened, they might be able to figure something out. One lucky photographer documented an outraged pair of birds return to their decimated home and carefully carry each egg in their beaks one-by-one to a safer location.
3. Eggs need to be warmed and turned all the time. So if you do happen upon a nest of eggs with no parent squawking to draw your attention away, it’s probably too late. (Most centers don’t have the ability to care for eggs anyway – eggs take the love and care of a determined mamma or pappa bird…)
But the good news is, most birds have several clutches through the spring and summer, so there’s still hope that they found a safer nesting spot and are starting over already.
4. Once the eggs have hatched, most parent birds don’t spend much time at home – they just alight to deposit food to their fuzzy chirpies, then take off. (Human parents, don’t get any ideas!) Parent birds need to search for food all day, and their prolonged presence at the nest draws the attention of predators.
So if you see an “abandoned” nest of baby birds, watch the nest every moment – don’t blink, don’t make yourself a sandwich, don’t go to the bathroom – for at least an hour before you decide to climb up and “save” them.
4. Even when the baby birds are mobile and waddling their way to, say, the lake with no parents in sight, don’t think they’re abandoned. Mom and dad aren’t too far away – they’re just letting their kids learn and grow, and probably having some well-deserved food and personal time.
And finally…
5. Many baby birds spend 3-5 days on the ground hopping around before they “fledge” (learn to fly). So if you are lucky enough to see a few chirpies pathetically trying to get some lift out of their still-fuzzy wings, not quite making it to the lowest branch, don’t run over with a shoebox to save them. Momma bird in the branch overhead might swoop in and peck at your eye…
This concludes this public service announcement. Enjoy the spring and look for birds!
