Bird rescue celebrates new enclosure

CORRALES — Leadership Sandoval celebrated a new enclosure for the bird rescue On a Wing and a Prayer June 25 at the rescue’s Corrales location.

The Leadership Sandoval group, code-named Rio Rejuvenators, built a large enclosure capable of housing education birds. Rachel Aaker, leader of the Rejuvenators and Ra io Rancho Public Schools employee, introduced the team and talked about the project.

“We have spent the last year learning about leadership and the community in Sandoval County. It has been a fantastic experience to learn all about our community here, and we did this volunteer project. We’ve had a whole lot of sponsors. That helped to provide work labor and financial backing for building this,” she said.

She explained the project involved a lot of repurposing from another bird rescue that closed. Additionally, Don Chalmers Ford and Habitat for Humanity donated materials for the project.

“We thought it was going to take us just about a month, but it did take us three,” she said.

On a Wing’s leader Mikal Deese talked about the purpose of the nonprofit, which is coming up on 10 years of nonprofit status.

“We take in birds that need rehabilitation. These are wild birds. I’m permitted for any sort of wild bird except for an eagle,” she said.

“Basically if you find a bird that you can pick up and it’s in trouble, something else is going to come along and eat it. Otherwise if it’s hurt an injured but can still fly, you can’t catch it. But our whole purpose is to take these birds — injured or orphaned or ill — and see if we can figure out what’s wrong.”

Two such birds were at the celebration for educational purposes, perched on the arms of volunteers.

Weston the western screech owl was hit by a car and lost an eye and hearing from the injury, according to Deese. There was also a Swainson’s hawk that injured a wing.

Weston is taken to classrooms for education about the rescue and the birds they save.

“Everybody’s heard of owls, and not many people have seen that many. We now have four different species of owl,” Deese said.

She added that she feels it is important for kids and their parents to see the creatures that live in a “shared world.”

An issue the rescue is running into is funding.

“There is no local state or federal support. Luckily, people have been supporting us enough that we can do this. The food bill is around $1,500 a month these days,” Deese said.

She also said they need more food now because they are in the height of baby bird season. “We have at least 20 different species,” she said.

Deese spends most of her time taking care of those babies, feeding them in intervals of 15 minutes. Funding will help house and feed all birds in the rescue’s care.

The Rejuvenators team also included Central New Mexico’s Emily Grunberger, TLC’s Carlos Robles, Habitat for Humanity’s John Lewis, First Financial’s Sean Burton II, New Mexico Gas Company’s Daniel Peltier, Don Chalmers’ Darrel Cubilloos and Vision Works’ Amanda Estrada.

For more information, visit the On a Wing and a Prayer Facebook page.