by Christine McPhail
Recently I stumbled upon a baby bird along the canal (A mallard duckling or gosling?…still working on identification skills) and I knew that although some baby birds that are learning to leave the nest should be left on their own…this baby was weak and would usually be following behind their mom in the water and I couldn’t leave it there by itself in good conscience.
I got in touch with Safe Wings Ottawa and I was so impressed by my experience with them. A volunteer talked me through what I could do and even contacted a volunteer in my neighbourhood, who could take in the baby bird and arrange transport to the Ottawa Valley Wild Bird Care Centre.
I looked into the organization and realized that they are a branch of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists’ Club too, which made me so happy since I grew up being involved with the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists Group. Safe Wings is doing great work on not only increasing awareness of bird injuries related to window /architecture crash injuries but also caring for birds and documenting numbers, which is so important for creating bird-safe environments here in Ottawa.
It’s amazing what happens when people come together for good and change and if you can spare a donation to any of these organizations, they would likely really appreciate it.
