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History
In 1981, the plight of an injured hummingbird
captured the heart of the Wild Bird Care Centre (WBCC) founder, Kathy Nihei.
With the successful overwintering and subsequent release of this hummingbird,
the Centre took root and began to flourish.
Today, the Centre is a registered charitable
organization that operates it's program under the authorization of Ontario's
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife
Service.
In the Spring 2002 copy of WINGBEATS, the
Centre's newsletter, Kathy reflected back on the 20 years since the begining...
It all began in 1981. My phone
rang one fine autumn day...it was my friend, Lisette, who lived across the
street. There was panic in her voice. 'Something' was in her
driveway, a bird or maybe a large moth. It wasn't moving.
I went over and came home with an
unconscious, tiny female Ruby Throated Hummingbird cupped in my hand. In
my heart, I held no hope. Her wing was fractured. But 'Pip' had
other ideas along with a fierce will to live. Pip over-wintered and was
able to be released safely the next year. Years later I wrote this in
one of our newsletters...
Little 'Pip' who could charm and
humble one's soul with her incredible trust as she 'tasted' freckles and
buzzed around contentedly from room to room, flew back to her world of
sunshine and flowers, the following spring, leaving behind sad smiles, happy
tears..
and the beginning of a dream...
I often wonder how the course of events
would have been altered had 'Pip' not survived that winter...and am amazed at
all that has happened as a result of one tiny boarder!
Certainly, if we could have seen into
the future at the time she arrived, we would never have named her 'Pip'; we
would have named her 'Snowball'...because snowball it did!
Today, over 3,500 birds a year pass through
the doors - over 60,000 birds since that first rescue in 1981!
What we do...
The primary mission of the Wild Bird Care
Centre is to assess, treat, and rehabilitate sick, orphaned, or injured wild
birds before releasing them back to the wild.
As well, the Centre strives to alert the
public of the threats to wild birds and provide information on ways we can help
prevent unnecessary injury and consequently, further damage to our already
fragile environment.
Kathy, with Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn, at
the Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Canada
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and Why we
do it...
Wild birds are one of the world's most
precious assets. Their remarkable beauty, effortless flight and cheerful
songs have touched the soul of probably every individual that has ever walked
the earth.
Their benefits to mankind can be seen in some
obvious ways: they act as seed dispersal agents, they suppress the numbers or
rodents and insects through a "predator shift" tendancy, they act as useful
scavengers of human garbage and they serve to alert us to environmental
imabalances.
Their impact with our modern world may not be
as obvious: feathers were used as a prototype for present-day pens, exploration
of outer space can be traced back to man's first efforts to simulate the flight
of a bird, many of our 20th century fabrics are based on the insulation
qualities of birds' feathers, etc.
While this natural heritage is often taken
for granted, the sad fact is that wild birds are faced with increasing loss of
habitat as well as loss of life through expanding industrialization, urban
development, collisions with cars and buildings, poisoning of the air, land and
water (oil spills, acid rain, pesticides) and other forms of infringement,
pollution and predation.
The number of birds being treated at the
Centre now exceeds 3,500 annually. The demand for our specific service is
greater than ever. The Centre also plays a leading role in bettering our
environment.
In 2001, the 'Grace & Gordon
Casselman Resource Centre' opened in the Wild Bird Care Centre.
Visitors are now welcome to view the displays and educational materials that
promote a deeper appreciation of the role of birds in our fragile environment.
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