Who am I?
I am a rehabber of all things feathered and have been for decades. I am affectionately called “The Crazy Bird Lady”. I am the one to call when you find a bird and don’t know what to do.
What is this site about?
I have gotten calls at all hours of the day and night. I have gone to terrible places to pick up a bird. I have crawled through the mud to grab an injured bird. And I have encounter some of the funniest people and situation, just like all my rehabber cohorts have. We all have good and terrible stories to tell and this is where we can do it.
Don’t use real names, we don’t want to piss people off but tell me about the nutty guy or the funny lady that… and let’s all share and get a laugh. I just rehab birds but that didn’t stop the guy coming to my front door and handing me a pot belly pig to rehab! No I didn’t keep it.
What is my experience?
The first bird “rescue” was over thirty five years ago as sub-permitee under Pierre and the late Ann Bradshaw of On the Wing Again. The first bird was a Kestrel that was toxic from fumes in a newly painted warehouse. He recovered and flew off without so much as a thank you. Soon I was bird rehabbing permitted by Texas Parks and Wildlife and US Fish and Wildlife. I handled medical care, flight conditioning, raise rats for raptor food and rehabbed song birds until release. A chance encounter with an avian vet, who asked me to take an unwanted exotic bird, that changed everything. From that one has come so many more.
About five years ago, 2016… I decided I was too old to work with birds any more. It was a lot of work because at one point we had 150 parrots, plus the hawks and owls for rehab, the song birds, the 26 goats, the horse plus dogs and cats. That didn’t last. I missed all the madness. So I have gone back to my first loves, hawks and owls, sub permitted through Blackland Prairie Raptor Center.
I have lots of stories. Tell me yours.
Jean Bergere-Gibson, Founder of Bird Tails, Texas USA