Entrance to Florida Keys Wild Bird Rehabilitation Center

I passed my New York State Wildlife Rehabilitator's Exam and became a licensed Wildlife rehabilitator in July of 1994. The following September and October, I was fortunate to complete an internship at a wild bird rehabilitation center in the Florida Keys.

The Florida Keys Wild Rehabilitation Center is located in Tavernier, Florida, just off Key Largo. It is run by a retired teacher, Laura Quinn, who devotes 10 hours a day, everyday to the rehabilitating and rescuing of wild and orphaned birds. The Center has been in operation approximately 8 years. It gets no federal or state funding and relies solely on donations from the public. Laura takes in approximately 1,000 birds a year. Her patients include pelicans, great blue and great white herons, egrets, ibises, cormorants, hawks, owls, magnificent frigate birds, vultures, gulls, terns, cattle egrets, little blue herons, white-crowned pigeons, doves, woodpeckers, night hawks, and many songbirds.

Laura tries to have two interns working at the center at all times, committing at least 6 weeks, but preferably 12 or longer. Unfortunately, because of schooling conflicts, she is sometimes without interns altogether. I was not a student and do not have a medical background but learned a great deal from Laura.

Florida Bay

The Center is comprised of a small hospital that is set up to administer anesthesia, perform surgeries, do blood work, and house about 20 birds. The property outside is covered with over 20 cages, some of which are as large as small houses. These cages can hold approximately 250 birds.

Had this center not been in existence over the last 8 years, many birds would have died. I saw some gruesome sights while working as an intern. More than 80% of the birds' injuries are caused either directly by man-whether the weapon be fish hooks, monofilament line, pollution or gunshot pellets. Laura has saved many animals from suffering and death. What follows are a few of my experiences.

The internship took place in the hottest part of the year. The temperature sometimes climbed above 95 degrees and the humidity was unbearable. There were weeks when we experienced torrential rain and some birds died. Most every day, we were eaten alive by mosquitoes and many times, we waded through ankle-deep mud to feed the birds.

There were nights when we were awakened after midnight by someone with an injured bird. I can remember waking at 3:30 a.m. to find Laura operating on a threatened white-crowned pigeon that had been attacked by a cat.

Feeding Time

It was a job that, at times, made me depressed and frustrated. I witnessed injured birds fighting for their lives, and I knew, sometimes, there was little that could be done to help. On other days, when a pelican or cormorant had recuperated enough to graduate into the cage with the other birds, I was happy to be there for the event. The best times were the release days, when a bird was ready to leave and we took it down to the water's edge to bid it goodbye; or when we noticed a once near-death pelican fly to freedom through the open gate in cage 7.

My internship was one of the best experiences of my life. It made me realize how much damage man has done to the wildlife and the wetlands. I learned that we need to change our ways to prevent the demise of these beautiful birds, and we are the only ones who can consciously make that choice to change. The internship also made me be thankful for people like Laura Quinn, who cares enough to help those birds affected by man's indifference and ignorance.

Susan Lindsay is a licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator, and a freelance writer. She resides in Lakeland, Florida. This article is part one of a series of articles that relates to Susan Lindsay's life as a Wildlife Rehabilitator.