Open up wide, I silently tell the tiny birds while gripping a tweezer to drop morsels of food into a throng of gaping beaks. It was my turn to feed the little critters as a volunteer for Appalachian Wildlife Refuge (AWR). The half a dozen orphaned wrens need to be fed every 45 minutes and, as a fledging volunteer in the bird room, I’ve been handed this simple task along with cleaning out feather-littered cages.
Not a glamorous job but one that made me feel good—very good—about what we can do to support wildlife, especially animals orphaned or injured, most often due to human activity. Volunteering for wildlife rescue and rehabilitation is a meaningful way to make a difference—not only for animals but also for natural habitats, ecosystems and even ourselves.
“It’s my happy place,” says Sue Massi, a longtime AWR volunteer and former board member of the 11-year-old nonprofit. “We are blessed to live in Western North Carolina with its incredible diversity of wildlife. As a volunteer working with animals, you learn something new every day about their behavior.”
This was certainly true after only a few stints of bird-feeding duties. Soon I learned what foods the little critters ate—tiny worms and mushy seeds seemed to be favorites—and that furiously smacking beaks meant they wanted more. I began to identify the species—wrens, robins, finches, sparrows and woodpeckers. Best of all was watching them quickly grow plump and lavishly feathered, ready for release back into the wild…