Hi! My name is Grace Brawn and I am a Biomedical Science and Enterprise major and am minoring in Biology. I selected this course because I have wanted to become more active in the community, but did not know where to even start. In this course we have talked about what nature is, which is much more difficult to define than you might think, why nature is important, and how humans affect nature. We have been thinking about how our actions impact nature and what we need to do and change to create a better future for the world. We have been looking at different perspectives on nature and how our perspective impacts our relationship with nature. 

The community partner I am going to be working with is Wild Nest Bird Rehabilitation. Wild Nest rehabilitates injured and orphaned native birds and releases them back into the wild. The work they do is very important as thousands of birds are injured throughout the Atlanta and Decatur area annually. These birds are injured through human actions, such as cars, lawnmowers, cat or dog attacks, barbed wire fences, or road work, as well as non-human forces as well such as baby birds falling from their nest during a bad storm. While treating bird injuries may seem relatively simple, it is much more complex than people realize. This community partner does not just “fix” the injury, they fully rehabilitate these birds, mostly songbirds, so they can go into or back to the wild successfully. Wild Nest has trained and licensed individuals who care for these injured, orphaned, displaced, and/or distressed birds.  They have different designated areas to care for baby birds, juvenile birds, and adult birds. Their facility also includes two large outdoor aviaries for birds to grow their flying muscles and strength to increase their chances of survival once they are released. To care for so many different species of birds they have many different types of foods to properly nourish these birds that have such different diets. While Wild Nest does not rehabilitate all species of birds they can act as a temporary facility and care for other species of birds and direct these birds to a facility that is more properly equipped and that possibly specializes in the rehabilitation of these other species. I witnessed this at my orientation when a wood duck was brought in with puncture wounds. Wild Nest does not usually treat ducks, but they can evaluate them, start the general treatment process, and find a more properly suited rehabilitation facility to transport them to.

I am interested in this community partner as I have always loved animals. My grandpa and I used to watch birds and I have always wanted to learn more about them.  I am looking forward to helping with the rehabilitation of the birds. As someone interested in medicine, I believe it would be very interesting and beneficial to learn about the anatomy and physiology of birds. I also hope to learn more about how to keep the birds that live in our cities safe and healthy. I am hoping to do a project that benefits this organization and furthers its work. I feel that community outreach and educating the public is of major importance for this organization and hope we can create a project that helps fill this need. I also want to overall raise awareness of what they do, especially since they run exclusively on volunteers. I am sure there are other goals Wild Nest Bird Rehabilitation will have as well and am looking forward to learning and creating possible options for these goals. I hope to learn not only how to help birds, but how to help the nature that we do still have in our cities.