RutlandHerald.com - We Are Vermont

'Rehab in action'

VINS invites public to see birds healed

QUECHEE — Wildlife experts are seeing and treating a high number of baby birds this season, and the public is invited to come and watch.

At the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, employees and volunteers are working hard to handle the influx of baby birds, said Meghan Oliver, lead wildlife keeper.

"Between now and September, we'll get birds every day," she said. While some are admitted following an animal attack or collision with a car, many of VINS' recent patients are suffering from salmonella poisoning.

Oliver said some birds are eating feed on the ground beneath a feeder. The feed is covered with droppings from the birds that eat at the feeder, and the dropping-covered feed is poisoning the small birds, chiefly American goldfinches and pine siskins.

Symptoms of salmonella poisoning include a general swelling of the body, squinty eyes and not taking to flight when approached, Oliver said. Anyone who finds a bird that is sick or injured is encouraged to wrap it up in a cloth, put it in a box and bring it to a licensed wildlife rehabilitation center such as VINS.

Two full-time employees, three interns and volunteers are caring for the sick and injured birds at VINS, and the public is invited to watch them through one-way glass as part of their "Rehab in Action" program. Other patients include a baby mallard duck and a ruby-throated hummingbird that is fed nectar through a syringe.

"The issue we had coming out of winter was with pine siskins, and it's not just statewide but region-wide, especially in Maine," said Steve Parren, rare species biologist for the Fish & Wildlife Department. "At my house, I went from having 100 pine siskins to five or six."

In addition to bringing in a sick bird, the public is encouraged to take steps to prevent outbreaks among small flocking birds. Homeowners with bird feeders should rake up old feed and empty the feeders and wash them with bleach and water. By now, however, homeowners who value their safety and the safety of their pets have already taken their bird feeders down.

"We recommend people take down their feeders from the end of April to the start of November," said Fish & Wildlife Department spokesman John Hall. "Bears are attracted to them and once they learn to seek food at the feeders they'll look around for other sources."

Oliver cautions the public against bringing every bird they find to a wildlife rehabilitator.

"A baby bird on the ground doesn't mean it's injured," she said. "Sometimes the best thing to do is put it back in the nest."

Parren noted two out of every three baby birds perish.

"A lot of birds just don't make it. Young animals just don't have high survivorship," he said.

josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com