The Blog
SAT, MARCH 06, 2010Scouting: a great partner for Wild Bird Rehabilitation
Posted by Carol Kershner, Executive Director
Eagle Scouts have helped WBR with various projects for many years. One of the first projects was caging designed for our Big Bend facility. This cage gave many of our birds the space to grow. Soon we had a aviary project designed for us by a Girl Scout as her Gold Award. Watching all these scouts going through the process - designing, getting approval, leading work groups and finishing these projects, reinforced my belief that there are a lot of talented and dedicated young people willing to help their community.
Boy Scouts celebrate their 100 year anniversary this year, and Girl Scouts their 98th. Thought you might like to see what they’ve done for us.
1995 - John Kerber – Cage unit
1996 - Kara Elliot – (Gold Award) – Crestwood Park Aviary
1998 - Mario Gallagher – storage shed & perches for Big Bend site
1998 - Timothy Stecher – addition to Park Aviary
2004 - Andy Spencer – Cage unit
2007 - Ryan Holstad – moved Park Aviary to Midland location
2008 - David Bean – Flight cage
2009 - Ed Theobold - Landscaping the backyard of Wild Bird Rehabilitation
FRI, FEBRUARY 05, 7:26 PM
The boundary between dinosaurs and birds gets smaller with this latest discovery
Posted by Michael Pisula, WebmasterAn article on Live Science describes a recent study of a creature called Microraptor gui. The research shows evidence that dinosaurs in some cases lived in trees. This strengthens the connection between birds and dinosaurs. Microraptor which lived about 120 million years ago, had feathers that were probably used for flight. Its feathers near its hind legs were nearly seven inches long. The researching scientist thought it to be unlikely the bird was even able to manuver on the ground at all because of those hind leg feathers. What is most likely according to researchers is that these dinosaurs leapt from the trees into flight.
WED, FEBRUARY 03, 7:02 PM
New Website Design
Posted by Carol Kershner, Executive DirectorI'm sure you have noticed our brand new web site design. Kudos to Mike Pisula and all his work donating his design talent. He recently moved to the Saint Louis area from Chicago, and works a day job doing search engine marketing. He graduated from Western Illinois University with majors in Graphic Communication and Fine Arts. If you are interested in his logo, graphic, or web design services you can call 314.973.6425 or visit michaelpisula.com.
SAT, JANUARY 09, 6:45 PM
Green Heron almost ate us out of house and home!
Posted by Carol Kershner, Executive Director
Green Herons are beautiful creatures. Like most baby birds though, they are very vulnerable out of their nests. In August, we received our third nestling heron. These are neat birds to work with and, once they catch on to fishing, are no problems at all to raise. But, to coin a phrase, there’s the rub. Our August youngster threatened to literally eat us out of house and home - 60 to 70 small live fish a day! Fortunately you responded to our last urgent appeal and we were able to keep the fish coming. The heron was released late September.
It has been that kind of year. The joy of a beautiful bird. The reality of inadequate funds. Relief after the response of our kind supporters.
We are working hard to get our funding to a more secure level and are offering a variety of ways for people to help. All of them depend on you and your willingness to help us as you can: volunteering your time, using the eScrip card at Schnucks or shopping on line through OneCause; donating items from our wish list, attending our garage sale or Trivia Night/Silent Auction; bringing in a donation with the injured or orphaned bird; responding to our Newsletter and appeals.
We truly appreciate all of the support you have given this year. All at Wild Bird Rehabilitation wish you a happy and healthy New Year!
TUE, SEPTEMBER 29, 6:45 PM
Trivia night and Silent Auction a Success!
Posted by Carol Kershner, Executive Director
WBR’s first annual Trivia Night with a Silent Auction on November 14th was certainly a success. Tables over flowed with food and everyone had a great time. Ed Kappeler, sporting a beautiful bird tie, kept things flowing as emcee. The trivia questions had people scratching their heads and lots of discussion. Congratulations to the winning table: Marit Sherry and friends. One lucky auction bidder won 4 tickets to the Rams game the following day, one of the over 70 items available in the Silent Auction. Some of you out there are going to have some great presents coming your way! We expect to have just as much fun next year, and have heard the requests for fewer tough questions. Hope to see you next year on November 13th; same time, same place.
TUE, SEPTEMBER 29, 6:45 PM
Keep your backyard birds healthy this winter
Posted by Carol Kershner, Executive Director
Set up your feeders early to prepare for winter. Choose sheltered areas of your property, hanging feeders under eves and beneath boughs of evergreen trees to protect feeding birds.Water is important for bids during the winter as well. There are electric and solar heated bird baths and water bowls for birds during freezing weather. Check with your local bird supply store.Keep suet, fruit, nut and seed feeders filled throughout the winter. Make a point to check your feeders daily. If you plan to travel, arrange for someone to care for your feeders while you are gone. If the seed gets wet, it is important to 
replace with clean, dry seed. Old seed, or wet seed molds quickly and can poison birds. Feeders should be cleaned periodically with a bleach solution to avoid spreading disease.
Consider installing a seed catcher beneath your feeder. Many birds, such as Cardinals and Doves will use these trays to feed from. Sweep or rake beneath the feeders regularly to clean up moldy seed or bird droppings.
By following the steps mentioned above, you will enjoy watching many birds from the comfort of your warm home.
TUE, SEPTEMBER 29, 6:45 PM
We still have many needs!
Posted by Carol Kershner, Executive DirectorNew Volunteer Opportunities Abound! Handy People We'll need help with minor repairs and maintenance, such as painting, cleaning gutters and other minor jobs that always seem to accumulate on the "to do" list. If you can help, please contact us at 314-426-6400 Peak season for WBR runs from April through September. During these months, WBR treats and cares for 200 birds a day. The organization has been supported by a relatively small but loyal donor base. However, over the years hundreds of volunteers have donated precious time to clean, feed and maintain the bird population. Young birds are fed as often as every half hour throughout the day. Every cage is cleaned twice daily and the floor swept continually and mopped every evening. Cleanliness and disease management is paramount to good animal care. Please also see our contact page for email addresses.
TUE, SEPTEMBER 29, 6:45 PM
From Carol's Perch: Reflections on behavior
Posted by Carol Kershner, Executive Director
It always strikes me how very different each bird is. We know different species have different habits, but until you work closely with birds, you may not realize how personalities vary from bird to bird.
It seems the messiest birds are the robins and grackles in spring and summer. At Wild Bird Rehab, we try to guess how long it will take some grackles to destroy thier cage set up. One grackle carefully takes food from a dish, walks across the cage to the water dish, dips the food and eats. After three or four bites of food, the bird starts tearing strips of newspaper to dip. Then, the bird grabs the dish by the edge and flips it. No matter the size of the bowl or whether we put rocks in it - over it goes. Then all the birds in the cage join in tearin up newspaper and paper towels until the cage is a complete disaster.
Robins are also good at this game. Occasionally, we'll have a robin with definite nesting instincts. Strips of paper are carefully torn, rejecting some, keeping others. The approved strips of paper are carefully stuffed under the sitting birds in an attempt to build a nest. The particular robin might not get further than five or six strips, but works at moving those strips around and getting them just so. Meanwhile the others in the cage were bust eating pokeberries and tossing a few on the floor. In pokeberry season, our floors are covered in purple.
I recall a real brat robin. Sitting on the perch next to his cage mate, he would casually reach over, peck his head or grab a feather. Though they did occasionally get in a fight, he was usually just irritating his cage mate. It reminded me of two siblings - one picking at the other until he can't take it anymore.
The blue jays, of course, are so smart and always into something. If it's not bugging each other, it's hiding food and seed in all the crevasses they can find - always a joy to clean those cages!
The older birds show thier personality in other ways. While we feed appropriate food for each species, we find that some birds definitely have thier favorites! If you say flickers dont usually like oranges, the next one will devour orange slices. One young heron would only eat goldfish, the next minnows. The doves and pigeons get a basic seed mix: one will leave all the sunflower and thistle, another, the corn and a third, the millet.
When birds are moved to the outside aviary, some go straight to a perch and settle in. Others try to escape and bounce from screen to screen. One bird will eat whenever there is food; another of the same species will not eat unless the dishes are placed in a high position or a low position.
Some mourning doves are sweet-natured calm birds that quietly grow and heal. Some are wild and give an opportunity, these "wild ones" escape thier cages and charge toward any window or ceiling light. These birds always have scrapes on the edges of thier wings and the top of thier heads.
I love the diversity of birds that come into Wild Bird Rehab. We see more than 90 species a year. But seeing the individual personalities emerge adds even more fun. After a long day caring for birds, I sometimes find myself just sitting and watching a cage of birds across the room. Birds never cease to amaze me.
TUE, SEPTEMBER 29, 6:45 PM
Staff Spotlight: Doster welcomes the birds of spring
Posted by Carol Kershner, Executive Director
Nine-year Wild Bird Rehab veteran Diane Doster is looking forward to a busy spring after helping a few birds over winter for a spring release and tending to a relatively calm healing population.
Doster has been a volunteer with Wild Bird Rehab for more than eight years. This past year she accepted a paid position as center manager working three days a week. Her responsibilites include purchasing, daytime scheduling and training volunteers on shifts.
"I love working here," said doster. "Not a single day is the same and I'm always glad I'm here." When Doster first volunteered, she started in the fall and was acclimated before the spring babies arrived. "It's always best when volunteers can start in the winter and learn the routine and where everything is before we hop into spring."
In the spring, the baby birds are fed from 8am to 9 pm. "We need three shifts each day with four volunteers to be adequately staffed," said Doster. "We hope that people will consider helping us out - we just can't survive without our volunteers."
When volunteers work at Wild Bird Rehab, they not only help the birds but they join a communit of others interested in the bird welfare and in each other. "Our volunteers have such varied backgrounds. I have learned so much about them, thier interests and thier families. And I also know there isn't anything that they wouldn't do for these birds."
The past few weeks, Doster has been caring for the few pigeons in the outside aviaries. "We didn't think we would be able to release the female. She had a bacterial infection in a wing joint. She didn't fly and didn't even sit on her perch," said Doster.
Enter one handsome Mr. Pigeon. "The transformation was unreal. When she isn't sitting on her nest, she is perched next to him. Isn't spring great? Love is everywhere an it can help heal a sickly bird," said Doster.
Doster recognizes and appreciates each bird's very distinct personality. With so many types of birds that come to Wild Bird Rehab injured or orphaned, does Doster have a favorite? "Every bird that I'm working with is my favorite. The need us and St. Louis needs and organization like ours. Imagine if there was no place to take an injured songbird?"