Long Talk With WCA Volunteer

Tuesday morning, I called the Wildlife Care Association, and asked to be called back. Being a decentralized volunteer organization, W. called back three times from her house while I was delivering Baby Blue to the WCA baby bird nursery in Carmichael.

Finally, Tuesday we talked. She was much more sympathetic than the officious clerk I had dealt with earlier. We both agreed that Scrub Jays are remarkably agreeable birds to work with. We discussed the foods that young Scrub Jays should not eat (avocado, and probably not the salty smoked salmon I had been feeding the bird with) and the foods they should eat (hard-boiled egg yolk rendered into a paste, stringed-chicken baby food, bananas).

One reason she began volunteering to help birds was the experience she had of saving a Scrub Jay, only to fail in adequately socializing the bird with other Scrub Jays. The bird vanished one day, likely in the claws of silent death (a circling hawk the Scrub Jay never properly learned about from other Scrub Jays).

I asked if she would let me know how Baby Blue is doing at the WCA. She said she would do that for me. I look forward to the occasional updates!