Yesterday, Chalo and Valerie rescued 14 egrets who were desperately in need of help. The birds ranged in age from about two-weeks old to nearly adult size (probably more than 6-weeks old). About half of them, the larger ones, had broken limbs. Today we rescued 5 more.
Since the heat and pollution are not letting up, the presence of very young birds now can only mean that things are about to get worse before they get better.
We put out several troughs of water around the rookery, and the birds are using them. We saw one healthy bird actually sitting in the water, cooling off, yesterday afternoon. If the water in any of the troughs looks dirty, please replace it with clean water from the faucet by the side of the faculty parking lot. We will leave a bucket there for the Society’s use.
Please, please, everyone, try to make a rescue trip around the rookery at least one day per week, no later than 4:00 p.m., and around lunchtime if possible.
Bring along gloves and a box lined with paper towels, and park your car (if you’re in one) by the Memorial Garden. If you send an e-mail message before noon to “birdintrouble” to let us know your intentions, we can try to coordinate your trip with anyone else who has volunteered to do the rescues. They work better if pairs of people run them.
Also, if you find that you absolutely cannot deliver the birds to the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center on a particular day, let us know at “birdintrouble”, and we will figure out some way to get them to Hutchins at 4:00 p.m.
The campus police know about us and have not been quizzing us as much this year as in the past, but if they should stop you and ask what you are doing, tell them that you are with the Heron and Egret Society and that you are rescuing distressed birds and plan to take them to the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
They are generally satisfied knowing this.
In 2006, the last birds left in mid-September. One more month to go…