"I know that you guys have shared about this rescue in the past, but since it’s that time of year, I encourage you to spread the word again.
I found a baby bird on a sidewalk on the side of a business in Sparks.
As someone who works in vet med, I had an extremely hard time walking away from it, though even with 10 years of experience under my belt, pretty much 0% of that experience is with birds.
I reached out to a couple of semi local bird rehabilitation places and neither one answered.
Rightfully so, as it was 7 p.m. on a Friday night, I called the Nevada Department Of Wildlife, and the man who answered the dispatch number told me to put it back where I found it.
I told him I found it on the ground, I told him that it is flailing around on the sidewalk.
He told me to find some grass nearby, and I told him all there was was dirt.
He told me to leave this baby bird in the dirt.
I absolutely did NOT love this answer, but what am I supposed to do?
I know my limitations. I’ve bottle fed neonatal puppies and kittens, and the mortality rate for even those is high.
So I was not the person for this job.
I felt horrible, but I left this naked little baby creature, on a napkin, tucked away at the base of a tree in the dirt.
Three hours later Suzette Feilen texts me and says she will take the bird.
I call her and tell her that I did what NDOW told me to do, against my conscience, and left it there.
I told her I was going to go see if it was still alive and call her back.
Against all odds, the bird was still alive, and surprise, there are two more on the sidewalk.
So I scoop them all up, I call Suzette back, and tell her that’s it’s better for the birds if I just drive them out to her tonight instead of trying to keep them alive on her instructions alone.
This absolute angel of a woman gave me her home address and took the three birds right into her house.
I am really grateful that there is someone like her, within an hours drive of Reno Sparks.
I am very familiar with the circle of life, it’s very much a part of my career, but if I can help, I have GOT to help.
I couldn’t have slept well tonight, knowing that bird (actually 3!) was going to die on a napkin in the dirt.
It just didn’t feel good, not matter how insignificant it may seem to anyone else.
So here is her flyer, the same flyer you have shared before. I think you should share it again because it is baby bird season, and NDOW doesn’t really have the greatest solution for “saving” the run of the mill, healthy population, not a danger to the community type wildlife.
This woman does this out of her home, she says she gets a few hours of sleep a night if she is lucky.
She didn’t try to convince me to keep the birds, she didn’t convince me that I even needed to drive them out to her tonight. She was just plain helpful.
Willing to walk me through it if I wanted to, willing to take them tonight if I was willing to bring them.
I am a single mom, I work part time, I go to school part time, and I didn’t have much to donate. I did though.
So if you could put this out there for your following to see, and maybe just get this lady a handful of donations, then I’ll feel like I at least did something to give back to her what she is freely giving to absolute strangers out of her love for birds.
If you got through my ramblings and made it this far, thanks for staying with me. Let me know if any of that made no sense to you, it’s late and I’ve got ADHD.
What I don’t have though, is a guilty conscience for leaving a newborn baby bird in the dirt to die. Thanks."
Our Town Reno, Citizen’s Forum, June 2025