"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it brings."

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Flyaway - A book review.

Anyone that reads my blog on a regular basis knows that I'm a bird lover. I am fascinated by watching the birds that visit my yard. I've done as many things as I can to attract as many species of birds as possible. So, when I was asked to review the book "Flyaway" by Suzie Gilbert I was very excited to do so. Suzie Gilbert is a wild bird rehabber and since my only bird rehab experience has involved scooping a small bird that flew into a window into a shoebox and then placing it up in a safer spot, I was interested to see what a real rehabber does.


Suzie started off early on being a bird lover. She tells of her childhood experiences with birds and about reading a book that taught her how to actually gain the trust of Chickadees to eat from her hand. Through different life experiences she eventually was led to work in a raptor rehab center where she enjoyed getting to know the birds and watched as many were healed well enough to be released back into the wild.


Eventually Suzie decided to start a bird rehab center in her own yard as a place to help songbirds that needed to spend time in a flight cage to strengthen their wings and practice things like foraging for food. She first decides she will not accept injured birds at all, but as the calls for help come in, she has a hard time saying no to people that need a place to bring injured birds. It's not too long before not only her songbird flight cage begins to fill, but so does her bathroom where she keeps everything from baby ducklings to a heron before she can find the appropriate bird rehabilitation center for them. Being someone who has a hard time saying no when it comes to animals (just ask my husband), it was easy for me to relate to her situation. I enjoyed reading about how her husband and two young children become involved with the birds too. The children took part in naming and caring for nestlings (baby birds too young to leave the nest). The amount of time and work that is required to feed them was exhausting just to read about. At one point she is called to help an injured Peregrine Falcon, an endangered species, whose beak has been split after flying into a window.
Many of her stories telling of how the birds behave with each other are quite funny. One of my favorites was about the turkey vulture and the pigeons who she named Jerry Garcia and the Deadheads. Unfortunately some of the stories have sad endings, birds that died from injuries or would never be released back into the wild again.
In her book she frequently mentions what humans have done to cause the need for so many birds to require being rescued. Everything from pesticides and habitat destruction to flying into windows and domestic cats causing them injury. She has a lot of information on how many birds are injured or killed each year by domestic cats. I found the numbers to be quite shocking. As a former cat owner I had always kept our cats indoors for fear of them being hit by a car or injured by a raccoon or coyote. I had never really thought about the impact they could have had on birds. After witnessing our neighbor cat catching a hummingbird, which thankfully was fast enough to get away, I can understand her reasons even more for encouraging cats to be indoors.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I learned so much about birds and how they are cared for and why wildlife rehabbers are so important. I had no idea how much was involved; time, money and emotions. I highly recommend this book if you are a nature lover or if you just want to learn more about what is involved in rehabilitating wild birds.
If you visit here you can read more about Suzie Gilbert and Flyaway, Inc. her non-profit wild bird rehabilitation center. There is also an interesting video of her releasing a female red-tailed hawk.

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25 comments:

  1. Catherine ~ That sounds like a delightful book. You gave a lovely review.

    FlowerLady

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  2. I imagine caring for nestlings would be a 'round the clock task. What an array of birds she has cared for over the years. Interesting book.

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  3. Brillaint post...!!..me too ..a bird lover just like you..fabulous..thanks for sharing that excellent info and your wonderful passion..I so relate! Yay..great book!
    Kiki~

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  4. People who work with animals and save and rehabilitate are just total saints in my book. Suzie definitely qualifies.

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  5. Sounds like interesting read, Catherine! Raising baby birds especially is more than raising a human baby. I wish I can get a hold of this book once it's published.

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  6. Wonderful review. I always enjoy reading books by people in love with what they do. It's infectious. Thanks, again.

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  7. What a good book review! Now I am waiting to get my hands on that book! It is sad that humans are the cause of birds needing rehab. By the way Catherine, I tried my hand at taking a bird photograph this afternoon, and I have a presentable picture.

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  8. Another bird lover reporting in here! The book sounds like one I would enjoy. My own garden is rather wild and very bird friendly.

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  9. What a great book review. As my garden matures, more and more birds have decided they like it so I'm just starting to learn more about birds. I've got feeders and lots of bird baths so we can enjoy their antics.

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  10. That sounds like a book I would be very interested in reading Catherine. You did a great job on the review. And you reminded me of the time that the stray cat that was living in our garden at the time dropped a hummingbird at my feet. Thank goodness, the hummingbird was only stunned and I was able to hold it for a few minutes, while taking around to the other side of the house to release it, out of the way of the cat.

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  11. What a good book review, I love books about animals! I am a bird lover too, both of my current cats are indoor cats, although one of them would very much like to be an outdoor cat. I'm trying to make my garden bird-friendly too, with all the native berry-bearing shrubs I'm planting.

    I'm wondering if you have a lot of birdhouses, and how you have them mounted? I have several, but I am trying to figure out where to put them, how to mount them and on what, how far apart they need to be, etc. Have you done a blog post on birdhouses?

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  12. This sounds like a wonderful read! Our cats showed up from our back woods as strays. They would hang out under the bird feeders and I would cringe when I saw them catch a bird for dinner. I could not blame the poor cats as they were only hungry. I soon tamed the cats and took them to the Vet to have them spayed. They never went outside again! Now our neighbors cat OJ visits us but I try to keep him away from the birds. I really wish they would keep him inside but I do love that cat visiting me in the garden…

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  13. Very nice book review! I will be keeping this in mind as a future read :)

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  14. How interesting! What a life that would be. Joy and sadness combined. I too love birds. And I may just check out this book and read for myself what it is like to help the maimed fight for life!
    Brenda

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  15. Catherine, This sounds like my kind of book. Thanks for introducing me to it; I'll put it on my "to read" list.. -Jean

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  16. Allison - I haven't really done a blog post on my birdhouses, although I think there is an old one that might show some of them. I have a few mounted on posts in my garden. The one by my pond is used the most. A couple are on the fence posts. I've had wrens start nests there, but never stayed. I think most birds like some privacy so a house further from the house is good, but then I've had them make a nest in a hanging basket right by my front door.

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  17. Great review of what sounds like a great book! How nice that you were asked to review it. It really sounds wonderful, as does the author. Congrat's on a job well done:-)

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  18. Thanks for highlighting Flyaway. Sounds like a good read for spring. Just found your blog. It's fun to read.

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  19. Sounds like a great book. We have an animal/pet columnist in our local paper who used to work at the Lindsay Wildlife museum, which rescues and rehabilitates birds and animals. He often tells touching or hilarious stories about his time rehabilitating birds. It's interesting to see what happens when animal instinct and the human environment interact.

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  20. Sounds like a great book Catherine...I always enjoy reading about your bird encounters...your posts have definitely broadened my bird horizons!

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  21. Sounds like delightful reading Catherine. Thank you for sharing.

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  22. Okay, I want to run out and buy the book. Your review is so very encouraging to do so. I hope the author gets to see the great review you have done. All those bird facts are very interesting.

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  23. Looks and sounds like a great book Catherine.

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  24. Of course we luckily have bird rehabbers around here. We saved a baby quail from our cat once and delivered it to one of the rehabbers.

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  25. Catherine, this is a lovely review! As heartwarming as it sound, it also seems quite eye opening. Thanks for being on the tour! I'm so glad you liked the book. :)

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