By:Stephanie McClain
Spring 1998
The May evening sky is golden red and silence surrounds the S.P.C.A. The number of visitors has dwindled off, and many on the staff finish their jobs and go home. It is a quiet, reflective moment, a flat calm before the tempest. Then the wildlife room door is opened.
A cacophony of screeching starlings, grackles, blue jays and crows invades the ears like a sudden body chill. The birds, mostly orphans, are hungry again. They haven't eaten in 10 minutes. There are usually two or three volunteers in the evening that race to feed and quiet the nestlings. Baby bunnies, squirrels and the occasional opossum or fawn wait to be bottle-fed. After the birds are hand-fed, volunteers prepare the bottles.
After the feedings, the babies are all quiet for a brief period. The volunteers can now start the rest of the jobs. The cages, filled with pigeons, ducks, ring-billed gulls, occasional hawks, falcons, kestrels and owls are cleaned. The phones ring constantly; people are calling with questions about injured animals.
The wildlife volunteers with rehabilitation licenses arrive, often with dark circles under their eyes from a lack of sleep and the discordant songs of insatiable fledglings ringing in their ears. They share reports about the orphans they are fostering, or pick up more babies to bring home. And this is a typical day...just one day...in the life of an SPCA wildlife volunteer.
Towards the end of the summer, the rehabilitated animals are released back to the wild. At this moment, volunteers realize their efforts were necessary and successful. The hours of screeching and the chaos surrounding baby season seem to fade when volunteers watch a robin that almost didn't survive fly off into the late summer sky.
The rest of the year is quiet, although a wide array of wildlife still remains. Great Blue Herons, and eagle, hawks and several other species end up in the rehabilitation center. Very soon, the cycle will begin again.
Click for more information on the Erie County S.P.C.A
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