Dear Bird Rescue Supporters,
First of all, please accept my wishes for continued good health and wellness for you and your families. We’re all in this together, and together we will endure and eventually thrive.
The health and well-being of our staff, volunteers, and the community are always our top priority. As in an oil spill response, human safety must be secured first, then we can focus on our patients. We are treating the current situation with all the care of our usual emergency response work.
We’ve taken steps to protect our staff inside our two California wildlife centers. Over the weekend, we began changes to our operations to minimize human interactions while maintaining high-quality care for the birds in our centers. At that time, we temporarily suspended our in-house volunteer programs and encouraged all administrative staff to work from home for all but critical banking and similar tasks. All business travel has been cancelled.
Yesterday, six San Francisco Bay Area counties (and the City of Berkeley) issued shelter in place ordinances. Importantly, veterinary hospitals are considered essential and are therefore exempted from mandatory closures. Because of this and the 70+ waterbirds currently in our care, we remain open daily to treat sick, injured, and orphaned waterbirds. As of now, the following changes are in place:
• Injured wildlife may be transported to us for treatment, but drop-off procedures have changed. Rescuers are discouraged from entering the facility; instead, a staff member will greet rescuers to receive the bird. If you’ve found a bird, please review this page.
• We are postponing or cancelling all upcoming public events through April 15th, and will continually reassess the situation for events planned after that date.
• We are exploring the option of providing educational webinars and live-video feeds to engage you and your families in the next few weeks. Please watch our social media (linked below) for updates and schedules.
While it may be easy to feel overwhelmed in these challenging times, we continue to work with injured and orphaned birds, one day at a time and one bird at a time, and we continue to release birds back into the wild as they become well enough. Every release matters.
No matter what our flock is facing, a common thread unites us: a deep love of birds and an appreciation for the natural world. At times like this, birds can give us a reason to keep looking up.
As we navigate this crisis together, we will continue to share updates and stories that heal, #lookup.
• Follow us via our website & blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and email, so stay tuned. Also, you can sign up for email updates in the right hand column >>
• You can watch our two live BirdCams to see what’s up at our two wildlife centers.
Thanks to support from people like you, Bird Rescue treats thousands of water birds in crisis each year. Like everyone, we are being hit hard financially by this pandemic, which means your support is essential, now more than ever. Where possible, we encourage you to maintain your annual giving, become a monthly recurring donor, or make a pledge that can be fulfilled by year-end. Together, we can inspire others to act towards balance with the natural world.
Stay safe and keep looking up,
JD Bergeron
Executive Director
International Bird Rescue