As soon as I arrive for my appointment with Cindy Daily, the Executive Director of Discovery Bay Wild Bird Rescue, another car arrives, and a woman pops out carrying a small shoebox. Cindy recognizes her immediately, as she has delivered many birds to Cindy’s care over the years. Cindy thanks her for taking what was a 30’ drive, and takes the box containing a small bird the visitor found injured on the side of the road inside and places the bird gently into a cage with a few other birds of similar size. “There, she says, it’s moving around. I think it feels a little bit better already.”
As we walk around the site which has over 40 outdoor enclosures that can accommodate a wide assortment of birds,, the barn where there are a gaggle of geese, a small clinic where a local vet makes rounds when necessary as well as a quiet room where the birds can be treated for less major injuries, Cindy and I find a shady place to talk.
I asked Cindy, “What drew you into wild bird rehabilitation in the first place?” She answered, “Well, birds, mostly,” giving me my first indication of her quick sense of humor. Indulging me, she continued to say she always had a desire to work with more exotic species of wildlife, and given the dearth of places where injured birds could be treated, she developed a particular interest in the medical procedures and healing diets.
Cindy’s interest in rehabilitation was backed up by a rich resume of talents: a focus on biology in school, graveyard shift dispatcher for the Albuquerque police department, zoo docent, and, whenever possible, spending time with local veterinarians. All skills that come in handy when taking in and releasing hundreds of wild birds each year, ranging from the tiniest hummingbirds to native songbirds, crows, ravens, all types of seabirds and waterfowl, to owls and large raptors such as bald eagles and hawks.
When I asked her why she felt her work was important, she said that given all the forces working against wildlife today, it was important to educate and familiarize as many people as possible, children in particular, about how wildlife is being affected. She told me, “It’s really important for people to be aware of what’s going on – the increase in cat attacks and car and window strikes and for them to be able to have a place to put their compassion by picking the bird up and bringing it to us. I’m a service to people who want to help wildlife.”
Cindy’s busiest season for injured birds is now, during the summer when their chicks are born, and fledglings leave the nest and head into an ever more challenging habitat. But soon, come September, she’ll enter into a different kind of busy season when she will head into classrooms, where she feels the real inspiration happens; where these beautiful, wild creatures are, in a sense, humanized for the children – where the birds can become personal and relatable. Where, as she says, “The kids start caring for the birds, and that feeling ripples out into the community and into nature at large.”
And I say to myself, ah, the kids are being convivial with nature.
A raptor needs to be moved from an aviary needing some repair so I make ready to leave, but as Cindy is walking me to my car, she drops one more nugget reflecting why her work is so important.
“ We get a fair number of orphaned raptors here – red-tailed hawks, osprey, great horned owls, and barn and barred owls – they are away from their parents, and we can’t get them back up into the nest, so they come here to be with captive adults of their own species. To be raised by their own species so they can learn and know what they are. They do not imprint on humans. All of these birds go away wild, ready to hunt, prosper, and have progeny of their own. And to be, you know, successful.”
I’m not sure what “success” means in the animal world, but I do know that what these birds are doing, what Cindy with Discover Bay Wild Bird Rescue is doing, is a gift which generates sufficiency for us all.
If you or someone you know would like to support Discover Bay Wild Bird Rescue visit their website or contact Jefferson Community Foundation to learn more about the many ways to share your gifts.
