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Operations

A behind-the-scenes glimpse of Daily Operations:
At the height of summer with “Baby Season” in full swing, we were often admitting a whopping 30 birds a day! Now that we’re in winter, it’s much slower. And that means it’s time to recoup from the hectic busy season and prepare for the next one. 

 

Late January and early February, which typically signal the beginning of Baby Season, will be here before we know it, so we use this time to work on:

•    Volunteer training protocol updates for our hospital and education programs
•    Alterations to the flow of hospital and education areas based on our experience through the first year of HPAI, the highly contagious avian flu
•    Continuing education conferences where we learn and collaborate with organizations around California, nationally, and even internationally
•    Updating medication protocols based on injury or species
•    Repairing housing of all types—from baskets that house flightless baby hummingbirds to our largest enclosures that could house an eagle
•    Adjusting enrichment and diets based on the species we see in the hospital this time of year—birds who overwinter here and those who are migrating through requiring increased calories
•    Designing, planning, and scheduling next year’s volunteer orientations and training 
•    Restocking items that were depleted during the busy season
•    Deep cleaning, organizing, and re-organizing to make the next season run smoothly
•    Repair and maintenance of the Quonset Hut for the wet winter months
•    Adjusting housing, heating, and dietary needs of our resident birds for the winter months
•    Preparing our Great Horned Owls Jazz and Vihar’s quarters for annual egg laying. They are very protective of their sterile eggs! (Much like chickens, they do not have mates so the eggs do not produce babies).

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You may notice the beginning of Baby Season in the new year with Anna’s Hummingbirds starting breeding activity in your yard!


Anna’s Hummingbirds are nearly always our first patients and signal the beginning of the next Baby Bird Season. 


Black Crowned Night Herons began arriving shortly after our first Anna’s Hummingbirds. They begin arriving from the West 9th Street Rookery in either in March or early April.

Here are some impressive and interesting stats from last year:

  •  May = 10-20 new patients per day (total of 222)

  • June = 20-30 new patients per day (total of 343)

  • July = 20 new patients per day (total of 275)

    • Biggest release week after the 4th of July activities = # birds back to the wild

  • August = 10 new patients per day (total of 147)

    • Start to wind down and usually have a few straggling Mockingbirds, American Goldfinches, and Woodpeckers

  • Sept – March = average 5 new patients per day
     

Overall season stats of release/renest/# babies

  • 80% release rate

  • Nearly 200 (198) were soft-released songbirds

  • 6 were ‘hacked’ (soft release of raptors) of raptors

  • 12 were reunited with their families

  • 119 were hard released (either crows or adult birds during baby season)

  • Raptors specifically during baby season –

    • 20 hard released

    • 10 reunited with their families

    • 6 hacked (soft release)

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2023 EDUCATION EVENT TRENDS
December 2022- 2
January- 2
February- 4
March- 1
April- 5
May- 4
June- 2
July- 2
August- 1 
September- 5
October- 6
November- 1 

26 events in winter and 9 in the summer
3x as many events during the school year than during summer months

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