Bird sanctuary’s summer funding has flown the coop

Le Nichoir Bird Rehabilitation Centre learned earlier this month that it will receive 60 percent less funding from a federal program that it has counted on each year to help pay specialized summer students, most coming from veterinary, wildlife or biology programs at area universities.

Under the Federal Canada Summer Jobs Program run by Service Canada, non-profit organizations like Le Nichoir pay summer help, while students get often invaluable work related experience.

Small for-profit companies and public sector programs can also qualify for aid.

According to Le Nichoir co-founder Lynn Miller, the sum adds up to an estimated $20,000, of their total $30,000 salary budget.

Up to five full-time workers earning minimum wage are usually employed each season by Le Nichoir.

In addition to first-hand work experience in their chosen fields, the centre also commits to take students to at least one related conference each year.

When she first came to the rehabilitation centre six summers ago, Susan Wylie said she wasn’t specifically interested in working with birds.

A McGill wildlife biology student at the time, Wylie said she just wanted field experience.

“Hands-on work was really critical because for three years we didn’t do anything (in school) with wildlife,” she said, adding, “There needs to be more to education than reading books.”

In the end Wylie fell in love with the birds she had learned to care for and has not left the centre since.

Now Le Nichoir’s Director of Operations, Wylie said they will have to hire fewer students this summer.

Though Le Nichoir has neither the man-power nor the funding to go out and retrieve injured birds in the region, it does field between 50 and 100 calls a day and care for the ones that are brought to the centre.

“Eighty percent of all problems between wildlife and humans can be solved over the phone,” Miller said.

The key, however, is having people answering the phones that “really understand the issues and can resolve them with a positive outcome for the wildlife.”

In addition, a minimum of two or three staff members must be on duty each morning to hydrate, clean, feed and move sick or injured birds.

They also clean cages, assist with surgical procedures and make daily concoctions of specialized bird meal, all while fielding a constant stream of new arrivals.

For many of the workers, the summer job is also a lesson in growing up.

“The kids are trained in physiology, but sometimes our birds die even after we’ve given them the best care we can. That’s a hard but real lesson,” Miller said.

For now the centre will try to secure additional funding to cover summer work expenses. If not, says Miller, the work force and services offered may suffer.

Le Nichoir has been operating as a non-profit Hudson wild bird rehabilitation centre to sick, injured and orphaned birds on an as needed basis for the past 14 years.

For information or to contact Le Nichoir call: 450 458-2809

Susan Wylie (left,) Greg Rand, Erin Harris, Laurie Weigel, Amanda Scholefield, Michelle Saint-Martin