Friend of the feathered comes to their rescue
Dallas Morning News by Leslie Garcia

May 21, 1999 — Most of us probably see birds as merely a lovely part of life's scenery. Geri Wissinger used to, too. Then she began working for A and B Animal Clinic, whose practice extended to caring for sick birds. And the avian set began to fascinate her.

“They have a social life, families,” she says. “They have tempers. They're complex little beings.”

Now that spring is here, Ms. Wessinger feels particular affection for birds. After all, this is the time they lay their eggs…which hatch into babies…which sometimes fall from their nests.

At the veterinary clinic where she works during the spring, it's not unusual for people to bring in as many as 30 injured birds a day. One time, she says, someone brought in a nest with five birds.

“If you can secure it, put it back,” she says.

Similarly, if you find a baby bird on the ground and can reach the nest, gently return the baby, she says. Contrary to popular belief, you can touch the bird without fear the mother will reject it.

“Birds have no sense o smell,” she says.

Only four kinds of birds—grackles, sparlings, pigeons and starlings—can be legally kept in captivity, she says. Still, she doesn't know recommend keeping any.

“Birds die in captivity,” she says. “They need to be free.”

Of those brought into A and B, some are so badly hurt, they must be put to sleep. Others are sent to a bird rehabilitator, where they're freed once they can feed themselves and fly upward.

A select few—especially when they're brought to the clinic on Saturday morning—find their way to Ms. Wissinger's house for temporary safekeeping.

On a recent sunny day, she brings four of her foster feathered babies to the Dallas Arboretum. Preschool classes from various Head Start classes around the city will be there, and Ms. Wissinger wants kids to know about birds.

“I've learned so many fascinating things and want to share them with our children,” says Ms. Wissinger. “We are losing birds because of what man is doing. I want the kids to be aware and, when they grow up, to be champions of the birds sp we don't lose them.”

In addition to the baby sparrow, blue jay, grackle and shrike (which catches ridents by impaling them on barbed wire or cactus thorns), Ms. Wissinger has brought Little Peepers for Little People, the board book she wrote and illustrated.

The kids—dozens of them—sit on benches and on the grass under the arboretum's “story tree.” Ms. Wissinger softly reads her poems about Dodie Mourning Dove, Christopher Robin, Gary Grackle. Some of the words are too big for many kids to understand. The arboretum's beauty and frisky squirrels steal attention from others.

Still, as Ms. Wissinger reads on, some kids listen intently. When she tells about Stephanie Starling, 4-year-old Jacorian Sauls interrupts: “I've seen a starling,” he says.

And when she tells how Midge the Pigeon doesn't eat worms, Jacorian says, “I don't eat worms either.”

Jadarium Alexander, age 5, has a question: “How can birds walk?” Ms. Wissinger tells him that birds have legs as well as wings.

Vert Shed, who brought her class from Sunnyview Head Start, says she learned interesting facts today, too.

“I'd like the kids to know the birds are God's creation, “she says. “We're learning about transportation, and I told them birds can travel on land and on air.”

For her part, Ms. Wissinger hopes she helped forge in the children a lifelong interest in birds making their way through the arboretum.

“There's a grackle,” she says, watching a pair of birds that have landed under a bench. “And what's that? A brown-headed cowbird?”

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