6-Feb-2012 - Rescuing the Birds Many Love to Hate

Visted 1 times

Jennifer Dudley, 44, a strawberry-blond opera singer, studied the corner of a mail distribution center entrance. A rumpled pink bathroom towel stained with bird feces lay on the ground. Nearby were NHL jerseys supply a splay of cracker bits and the bottom half of a crudely cut plastic cup. “They probably told him to shoo,” Ms. Dudley said, hypothesizing that building security had ushered the wounded pigeon from its resting place. Another clue: “This should be green,” she added, standing above a mound of dark excrement a few steps away. “He’s definitely sick, but not starving to death.” Pacing down the street, she pointed to a grate. “He came down this way but didn’t stop because he knew he could get caught.” She turned the corner and smiled. Tattered and ill, head burrowed into its chest, the pigeon shivered in a building crevice. Its left wing hung lamely. Ms. Dudley reached into her bag of tools and removed a pair of towels. She snatched the pigeon before it could hobble away, held it to her bosom and stroked its head with her finger. The bird put at ease, she examined its flaky skin, pried open its mouth to find signs of dehydration, massaged its throat to check for lumps and then lowered it into a paper shopping bag for transport to a rehabilitation center. The amenities at the building had been left the night before by the person who reported the bird to New York City Pigeon Rescue Central, the group to which Ms. Dudley belongs. The city provides virtually no official services for its ubiquitous and little-loved gray birds, first brought here from Europe as food by settlers. So the rescuers fill a niche. The group, one of a few in the city dedicated to pigeon welfare, functions through a Yahoo message NFL jerseys board, active since 2004. Membership officially exceeds 400, but the core is a fastidious, perpetually concerned team of about dozen pigeon lovers, animal activists and eccentrics, some perhaps finding meaning in fighting for a neglected cause. The board hums with constant discussion about topics like the ethics of euthanasia and tips for fostering baby birds. New Yorkers who spy wounded pigeons can fill out a “Bird Down Report” online or can call the rescue group’s hot line, which leads to the voice mail of one of the group’s founders, Al Streit, who also helps run the rescue and advocacy group Pigeon People with his wife, Gela Kline. Other requests are referred to Mr. Streit by groups like New York City Audubon and New York City Animal Care and Control. Ms. Dudley said the group averaged about 20 rescues a month, more during the spring and summer baby seasons. Not everyone deems the group’s mission a worthy cause. Rescuing a single injured animal can have a meaningful impact on the population of an endangered species. “If you rescue a whooping crane with a broken leg, that’s going to make a difference,” Dr. Charles Walcott, a former director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said; but pigeons are not whooping cranes. “I think it’s very nice that someone is nfl headset willing to take care of these sick animals in the city,” Dr. Walcott said, “but as a nasty biologist I think it probably doesn’t make any difference in the big scheme.” But, he added of the rescuers, “This is their connection with nature, and I think that’s totally laudable.” Not far from the scene of the day’s rescue, Ms. Dudley sat at a diner eating eggs, her fellow customers oblivious to the wild bird nestled comfortably in her bag. “He’s in heaven,” she said, peering in. Ms. Dudley was born in Maine, studied theater at New York University, fell for opera and is now a freelance mezzo-soprano soloist. A state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator, she fosters several pigeons at home. When she leaves her apartment, she likes to keep classical music playing for them. When asked what pigeon fanciers are often asked — “why pigeons?” — she offered her meditation. “Lots of us see how pigeons are maligned and ignored,” she said. “If you have that thread running through you, you know what it’s like. I know what it feels like to be ignored. At worst, maligned. I think lots of us feel that way, even if they won’t say it.” She checked the time on her smartphone; the bird in the bag was soon due for its appointment.

Comments (0)Post Comment View Whole Blog