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How you Can Help
Whether it’s helping hawks or hummingbirds, water birds or songbirds, there’s plenty to do at the Center and many ways you can put your skill and energy to work.
The Response Team:
Team members often provide our first line of contact with the public whether its answering phone calls or doing an ‘in-take’ for injured birds. Response Team members receive birds and collect appropriate information from the public. This work is critical in helping the hospital staff to evaluate the bird’s condition and hopefully prepare it for eventual release. Working at the admissions desk volunteers also serve as a source of information regarding upcoming events and volunteer opportunities.
During baby bird season, this team plays an the important role helping ‘bird finders’ evaluate and decide if a young bird can be safely left where found; should be replaced in a nest; or needs to be brought to the Center. At any time of the year, volunteers may assist someone with a bird caught in their warehouse, trapped in a chimney, flying into a window or in need of our assistance in some way. Response Team members often reap the rewards of a great feeling of satisfaction that they have helped both the caller and the bird.
This is a great opportunity for those of you who may not feel up to being on your feet for a 4-hour volunteer shift in the bird hospital or who just enjoy helping people and birds in need. Training is provided.
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Field Rescue:
We receive calls from all over Sonoma County and the North Bay area and need individuals located throughout the area to participate in rescuing birds in the field. People who find birds are sometimes unable to bring birds to the Center or in the case of a raptor or large waterbird finders are unable or unwilling to attempt capturing the injured bird. Field Rescue volunteers are trained to evaluate situations to decide whether a bird needs to be captured and brought in for treatment. (For example during baby bird season, it might simply be a youngster taking its first flight.)
Field Rescue volunteers are valuable ambassadors for the Center. They can provide explanations and assurance to the finders as well as help the public to better understand and appreciate of the importance of Bird Rescue for both the public and birds.
This is a great activity for those of you who enjoy driving through Sonoma County, getting out into the field, evaluating situations and interacting with the public. The experience is ever changing and ever challenging. Training is provided.
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Rehabilitation Hospital:
Volunteers provide the hands-on care so necessary to our patients. During baby bird season the majority of the effort centers around feeding babies and preparing them for release. However, injured birds are in need of treatment year-round. We have an excellent veterinarian who woks with us, but all follow-up care and treatment are performed at the Center.
You will have the opportunity to work with birds of many species as you learn how and what to feed; techniques for bandaging wounds; skills to safely handle raptors and large waterbirds; performing physical therapy and many other procedures required for rehabilitating birds. The work can be intense, particularly during baby bird season, but the rewards are many. Knowing that you personally helped to return a bird to the wild is a wonderful feeling.
Training is provided. Individuals who show particular aptitude for working with volunteers and mastering techniques and skills required for rehabilitation may advance to a supervisory role.
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Resident Bird & Raptor Handling:
The Center maintains a group of non-releasable birds for use in educational talks and outreach events. These are usually birds that have recovered from an injury but have sustained permanent damage, usually to a wing, making them incapable of surviving in the wild.
Volunteers with the resident and raptor program are responsible for handling the birds, keeping them fed, cleaning their cages and maintaining the equipment used for handling them. Volunteers learn how to handle the birds on their fist, tie them to a perch, box them for transport to public events, etc. Once the necessary handling skills are perfected, volunteers are eligible to participate in our educational and outreach activities.
Participants in this program experience a unique opportunity to interact with birds usually only seen and observed from a great distance. It is a very special experience to work in close contact with these birds. Interested individuals must complete a training program to participate.
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Educational Programs:
Through our educational programs we interact with children and adults, providing vital information about our local ecology, the significance of human impact on that environment and the birds that share it. We are often accompanied by our ‘educational ambassadors’ our resident birds. Whether we talk one-on-one with the public at a community event; stand before a classroom of wide-eyed children; or reach a larger groups at public lectures, we strive to give everyone a new appreciation for nature and wild birds.
Education volunteers receive the support and training they need so they can share their love and concern for birds and the environment. If you enjoy meeting the public, working with children, helping other teachers, or just spreading the word about the work of Bird Rescue Center you will experience the great rewards of
being a Bird Rescue volunteer.
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Administration/Facilities:
At our Center we house our administration offices, the rehabilitation hospital, the bird ‘mews’ or cages, as well as a small museum and a garden area. Like any facility maintenance and improvements are on-going issues. If you have a special skills or willing hands and time to share we welcome your help. Become a member, attend an orientation and let us know about the contribution you want to make. You’ll meet new friends and reap the satisfying reward of giving back to your community.
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Board Membership:
The stewardship and guidance of a strong Board of Directors is critical for any organization. By sharing their professional expertise and experience board members provide the oversight for the financial, operational and strategic development of the organization. While keeping a hand on the realities of today the Board also helps create the vision for the future and connect the Center to the larger community.
Interested persons are invited to contact the Center to learn more about its activities and to discuss the process for nomination to the Board of Directors. Please contact Board President for more details.
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Adult Volunteers
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