Rare shelter devoted to rescuing parrots

‘ALL THESE BIRDS ARE GOING TO OUTLIVE ME,’ SAYS FOUNDER, WHO SEEKS CONTINUING SUPPORT

February 5, 2019 Raiza Giorgi Arts & NonProfits 0

By Isel Longoria

Contributing Writer

Shelters for dogs and cats are common, but bird shelters are harder to find. The Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary (SBBS) in Summerland is the only parrot shelter in the county.

The nonprofit’s mission is to “rescue and rehabilitate unwanted, abused, and orphaned companion parrots.”

Sanctuary director Jamie McLeod founded SBBS in 2004. Before starting the nonprofit, she was a bird breeder and owned The Menagerie, a parrot store, and she realized there was a need for parrot shelters in the Santa Barbara area.

“After about a decade it became apparent that there was actually more of a need to be re-homing unwanted birds rather than bringing new ones into the world,” McLeod said.

Now the sanctuary carries more than 60 large parrots with some of them available for adoption. The staff and volunteers help clean, care and cook for the birds.

“We don’t just feed them bird seeds. We actually cook for them and they get lots of fruits and vegetables,” McLeod said.

These intelligent, exotic birds are also avian ambassadors for the sanctuary’s Skylar Learning Center. It was named after Skylar Runswick, a little girl from Idaho who fell in love with the sanctuary’s birds and its purpose. Skylar’s family foundation provided grant funding for the learning center.

“The first program that we encourage (kids) to take is World of Wing (W.O.W) and that’s where I bring out each different (bird) and we talk about where they come from,” McLeod said. Other learning programs such as Conservations Adaptations Rescue Environment (C.A.R.E) and Parrots in Art, Literature and Science (P.A.L.S) also educate children.

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Migratory bird struggles for shelter as chimneys torn down

GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A crowd of several hundred people gathered in the growing darkness outside Chapman Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, before the first Vaux's Swift darted into view high above.

Minutes later, thousands of the tiny birds were swooping and swirling like a cloud of pulsating black ink as they circled a tall brick chimney silhouetted by the fading light.

The humans below, watching from a patchwork of blankets and empty picnic baskets, cheered as the flock poured into the chimney all at once, like water spiraling down a drain.

The swifts' noisy migratory stopover each fall has made this chimney famous with bird lovers as far away as Europe and is a quirky Portland tradition so embraced by locals that the school keeps the diminutive Vaux's Swift as its mascot.

But in recent years, fewer of the beloved birds have shown up. The birds were already struggling because of the destruction of old-growth forests and now some scientists believe they are being further impacted by the destruction of old brick chimneys along their migratory path.

The birds can fly for about 100 miles at a time between stops as they travel from Canada to Mexico and back each year and roost in large numbers in tight, enclosed spaces because their body temperature drops at night.

But the decades-old smoke stacks they've adopted are getting torn down and capped off along the West Coast because of redevelopment, seismic concerns and an urban annoyance with swift poop and noisy flocks. When a chimney that's been a major roosting site disappears, no one is sure exactly where they go.

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RSPB asks gardeners to leave natural areas to help wildlife

AS NIGHTS become colder, birds and other wildlife can be seen preparing for winter.

Wildlife charity the RSPB says most of our summer visitors, such as the warblers and swallows, have left to begin their migration south.

Yet their place will soon be taken by winter thrushes from the north that come to eat the berries left in our hedgerows.

Members of the tit family, like the coal tit, start to flock together and other species become quieter and no longer fight over territories and need warm roosts in the evening.

The RSPB is calling on the residents of Hampshire to consider the wildlife that may come to rely on our gardens for food and shelter.

Continued:  http://www.thisishampshire.net/news/9936802.RSPB_asks_gardeners_to_leave_natural_areas_to_help_wildlife/