Author: gbrawn1

Service Blog Post #8

by gbrawn1

In my time with Wild Nest Bird Rehabilitation I have been able to help with baby birds, juvenile birds, and adult songbirds. I have learned how to feed baby birds worms and formula, how to catch an escaped bird, and about the diets of the many species of songbirds that are in our city! I think seeing firsthand how many species of songbirds are in our city has been extremely interesting. As baby season is now upon us, I have definitely found being in the baby room to be the most satisfying and fun task. The baby birds are on 15, 30, and 60 minute feedings and there are so many of them! It can be very tiring to feed all of them because as soon as you finish feeding them you have to start the entire process over again, but I really enjoy it. It is very calming to be in a silent room with only the sound of baby birds chirping. I did unfortunately witness a Blue Heron get put down. It was definitely the sad part of volunteering with Wild Nest. Unfortunately not all the birds can be saved and putting suffering birds down is the most humane thing to do. Rounding on all of the birds is also very interesting. Everytime I have gone into  volunteer something is different. Birds grow up so fast and this makes it so you can follow a birds journey to recovery, which is extremely rewarding. 

I do feel that my time with this organization has made an impact. Wild Nest is such a busy organization, so I feel that every volunteer that is able to contribute any amount of time is absolutely helping with the mission of Wild Nest. There would truly be no one to do what is done everyday at Wild Nest without volunteers. This has made it so I feel that I am actively helping with the mission of Wild Nest everytime I am there volunteering. I am very hopeful that our project will contribute to Wild Nest. Bird collisions are such a major contributor to bird deaths nationally. While it can be easy to blame the big glass buildings in our cities there are far more houses that have glass. Raising awareness of the windows and glass in our homes and how they harm birds can hopefully have a dramatic effect on reducing the amount of birds that die because of these windows. Allowing access to our powerpoint, that will include important statistics on window/bird collisions and the things everyone can do to prevent bird deaths from window collisions, I believe would further Wild Nest’s mission. This would hopefully reduce the amount of deaths and injuries from window collisions and allow for our bird population to improve. I wish I could include images of all the beautiful baby birds, but I am not allowed to. We have as of Wednesday baby woodpeckers, nuthatches, mockingbirds, blue birds, cardinals, and robins to name a few. They are also so tiny and so amazing to be around!

Blog Post #6

by gbrawn1

I have been volunteering with Wild Nest Bird Rehabilitation and have already learned so much in my short time with them! On a normal day volunteering we round on the birds in both the juvenile room and adult room as well as any birds that may be in the outdoor aviary. We check to make sure each bird is well and has adequate amounts of food and water. Some of my favorite birds to see up close and personal, so far, have been the hummingbird and the American crow. It has been very eye-opening to see how many birds are brought in because of injuries sustained from cats, window collisions, and car collisions, to name a few. Window collisions are the third leading cause of death for songbirds and learning this information prompted our interest in doing a project about this topic. 

In addition to volunteering with Wild Nest, I have also been able to speak and learn more about the issue of window collisions from Adam Betuel, who is the director of Conservation with Birds Georgia. He told me how window collisions cause 365 million to 1 billion bird deaths each year. He also went through different factors of glass that can make them more likely to confuse birds. As more and more buildings are being built with large amounts of glass this issue is becoming ever more pressing, but more details on this will be shared in Diane and I’s project :). 

I was also able to attend the event at Legacy Park called “Humans and/as Animals”. The event was very interesting! We walked around the lake where Wild Nest is located and heard from several professors from Emory University, Georgia State University, and Morehouse College as well. The panel discussion was about how we can all be more in tune with animals and essentially be grounded and reminded of the fact that we too are animals. Carolyn, Professor Finck, and I also shared our stories of volunteering with Wild Nest at the end of the event. I have attached pictures that Professor Finck took from our walk around the lake. I would include pictures of the birds as well, but we are not allowed to do this. 

So far, I have been able to hold a few birds such as the American crow and several mourning doves. I really enjoy being in the exam room with the new intakes and seeing how different, yet similar treatment of birds is to human treatment. I have also been able to help prepare a lot of the foods and formulas that are needed for the different types of songbirds that Wild Nest helps. I even witnessed several birds being tube-fed! 

Introduction: Grace Brawn

by gbrawn1

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.