Volunteer Newsletter / April 2025

Timecards are due to Erica for volunteer hours between Apr 1, 2024 and Mar 31, 2025. On the excel sheet, please enter the Dept code and the number of hours you worked each day. I’ve received many timecards from baby bird feeders and transporters already, thank you. Let me know if you have any questions! Erica Tucker, etucker@vinsweb.org 

Attach timecard excel 

Department codes: 

• 400 On Site Special events (Owl Festival, Forest of Lights, Hoots and Howls)
• 400 Nature Center Docent
• 450 Wildlife Ambassador volunteers
• 500 VINS School Programs
• 530 Camp
• 550 CWBRAC (baby bird feeding, scrapping enclosures)
• 555 Research

Announcing a new volunteer position: Nature Center Docent! 

Training Monday, April 14, 5-6 pm at VINS

Let Erica know if you’d like to join this team!

Description: Share your passion for the natural world by engaging and educating visitors at the VINS Nature Center! Our docents help guests interpret the environment around them, and are trained to deliver the highest quality environmental education in our Raptor Exhibits, Reptile Room, and Forest Canopy Walk. You’ll work closely with our Education staff, and have access to lesson plans, fun learning activities, and touchable “biofacts” to make each visitor’s experience unique. You’ll even have the opportunity to work with our reptile ambassadors, and after a year’s service, dedicated docents may eventually learn to work with the avian ambassadors. 

Commitment: Nature Center Docents volunteer for a minimum of one 3 or 4 hour shift per month. A minimum of 12 hours must be served before docents may learn to work with the reptile ambassadors. A minimum of 120 hours must be served before docents may learn to work with the avian ambassadors. Docents working with live animals is at the discretion of the Director of Wildlife Ambassador Programs and is not guaranteed for any individual. 

A day in the life of a VINS Nature Center Docent…

There are two shifts per day (morning and afternoon) that change slightly in duties and timing between summer and winter. During each shift there are a variety of scheduled public programs that happen at set times, a few of which a Nature Center Docent may teach or be involved in teaching. 

Outside of scheduled program times, three of our exhibits (Raptor Exhibits, Reptile Room, and Forest Canopy Walk) may be staffed by a Nature Center Docent who is present to answer visitor questions, interpret using lesson plans or touchable “biofacts,” and talk generally about the educational content and history of the exhibits. 

Morning Shift, Summer: 10:00am – 2:00pm

• 10:30am – 10:50am: Turtle Time 
• 1:00pm – 1:30pm: Reptile Encounter
• *11:00am – 1:00pm, Raptor Exhibits, Reptile Room, or Forest Canopy Walk.

Afternoon Shift, Summer: 1:00pm – 5:00pm 

• 2:30pm – 3:00pm: Raptor Feeding Time
• 4:00pm – 4:20pm: Hawk on the Walk Docent (Friday, Saturday, Sunday only)
• *1:00pm – 2:00pm, & 3:00pm – 4:00pm, Raptor Exhibits, Reptile Room, or Forest Canopy Walk. 
• 2:00pm – 2:20pm: Songbird Aviary Tour 

Morning Shift, Winter: 10:00am – 1:00pm

• 12:30pm – 12:50pm: Songbird Aviary Tour
• *From 10:00am – 12:30pm, Raptor Enclosures, Reptile Room, or Forest Canopy Walk. 

Afternoon Shift, Winter: 1:00pm – 4:00pm

• 2:00pm – 2:20pm: Reptile Encounter (Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday only)
• 2:30pm – 3:00pm: Raptor Feeding Time
• *1:00pm – 2:00pm, & 3:00pm – 4:00pm, Raptor Enclosures, Reptile Room, or Forest Canopy Walk. 

Special Events

Nature Center Docents may also wish to participate in the many Special Events VINS offers, each with a different natural history theme. There are games, crafts, and education stations that all engage our visitors on these special days. The majority of these events occur on Saturdays, with a few on Sundays or evenings during the week. 

Winter Special Events

• Forest of Lights (November – January)
• Great Backyard Bird Count (February, President’s Day Weekend)
• Winter Wildlife Celebration (February)
• Owl Festival (April)
• Earth Day (April)
• Forest Fairy Scavenger Hunts (various) 

Summer Special Events

• Science Symposium (May)
• Green Up Day (May) 
• World Migratory Bird Day (May)
• Remarkable Reptiles Day (June)
• Incredible Insects Festival (July)
• Magnificent Mammals Day (August)
• Fairy House Festival (August)
• Autumn Wildlife Celebration (September)
• Hoots & Howls (October) 
• Forest Fairy Scavenger Hunts (various) 

Center for Wild Bird Rehabilitation

Total Patient Number – 108 patients so far this year

Patients Currently in Care – 25 patients currently in care

Intake Highlight – We are currently caring for two patients that were found on the VINS campus. American Crow 25-84 was found hopping around the CWBR yard with an injured wing. There was a large, chronic wound on the wing of unknown origin. It has been healing well, but there is some possible feather follicle damage, so we don’t know how flighted it will be. The second bird is Barred Owl 25-94, who was acting lethargic and unafraid of people. It was emaciated, with corneal ulcers (scratches or abrasions on the surface of the eye). It has made it through the emaciation recovery period and has moved to an outdoor enclosure, so we’re hopeful for release in the coming weeks. 

Rehabilitation Fact – When we get emaciated raptors in, we have to be very careful about how we provide nutritional support. Instead of immediately feeding them, we give them subcutaneous (under the skin) fluids, since many are severely dehydrated. We then slowly introduce food by gavaging (tubing) them an easily digestible liquid formula. It is a hydrolyzed protein source, basically meaning the proteins are partially “pre-digested”. We gradually work them up to solid foods over the course of a week. This is all because of something called “refeeding syndrome”, which is a potentially fatal shift in electrolytes and fluids when a starving animal (or human) is fed too quickly. In a nutshell, the body goes from using its own nutritional stores to returning to normal metabolism from diet. If this happens too quickly, a lot of complications can occur that can lead to death. When this happens, it’s usually during days 3-5 of care, and if birds make it past this period they usually survive. Many also come in with old injuries and heavy parasite loads, so antiparasitics, antibiotics and antifungals to prevent an opportunistic infection called aspergillosis are frequently a part of treatment. We use bloodwork to help give us a more objective sense of their nutritional state, and to help monitor progress along with weight gain. Often, it’s almost impossible to say at intake whether these birds will survive, but with careful care, and discipline to not overfeed, many of them do.

Saying Goodbye

Grae O’Toole, Director of the Center for Wild Bird Rehabilitation and Ambassador Care

I think many volunteers are aware of this, but for those who haven’t heard, I have decided to move on from VINS.  My last day is Friday, May 2nd.  Since that date is fast-approaching I wanted to write a little something to all the volunteers so you all know how much I will miss you.  First of all, you all are AMAZING!  I cannot speak enough about how much you all have meant to not only VINS, but to me personally over the years.  I’ve said it before, but it’s always worth saying again, VINS could simply not function without all of you.  I hope you all know how important you are!  I think you all can feel it especially in the heat of the summer if you have ever walked into the rehab building and seen CWBRAC staff running around doing 8 million different tasks simultaneously.  For those who haven’t, know you are SO valued.  

One of the things I will miss the most about VINS is all of you!  I have known volunteers in a few different capacities over the years.  Exhibit care volunteers, baby bird feeders, and volunteer transporters.  All helping CWBRAC stay afloat in different ways.  Your dedication to VINS and the work you do is so inspiring.  From the bottom of my heart thank you for all you have done and will continue to do.  Getting to know all of you over these past 10 years has been one of my most favorite parts of my job.  When I felt stressed and overwhelmed getting to interact with all of you kept me sane.  Your curiosity and enthusiasm for the work we do in CWBRAC reminded me how amazing my job is.  It injected positivity into my day that I sorely needed to keep myself going when I felt like I couldn’t any longer.  For that, thank you.

You all are not only so hard working and fantastic at VINS, but also so accomplished and fantastic outside of VINS.  Your life experience, your intellect, your enthusiasm, your passion, and your kindness in and outside of VINS has truly motivated me to do my very best every day.  Many of you have offered advice, guidance, kindness, and encouragement to me over the years and I will never be able to put into words how much I appreciated that.  How much it meant to me.  You all have taught me so much about myself and how to be a better person.  You are more than volunteers, you are friends.

It is so hard to say goodbye after all these years.  I have loved working with all of you and I hope to still be connected with VINS after my departure, likely as a volunteer myself!  I’m sure I will see many of you for years to come, but don’t hesitate to reach out.  I will miss you all SO much.

Keep up the good work. Goodbye my friends.

-Grae-

Exhibit Ambassadors

Hi Volunteers! A big shout out to all of you who help us stay afloat and help keep me (Spencer) sane on busy days – that’s a job all by itself! I’ve only been in the position as Wildlife Keeper for 4 months now, but since I started we have already added 14 new birds to various enclosures. You volunteers are the ones who make it possible for us to continue to provide excellent care to our residents. An extra big shout out to the Exhibit Volunteers – in our care we have 66 animals (67 including your weird “boss” Spencer) as part of the Exhibit team!

Raptors – total 32:

• 2 Bald Eagles – Wyoming & Minnesota
• 1 Golden Eagle – Arizona
• 2 Peregrine Falcons – Chittenden & Fairlee
• 2 Great Horned Owls – Nassau & Sullivan
• 2 Barred Owls – Hyde Park & Richmond
• 2 American Kestrels – Bridgewater & Barnet
• 3 Eastern Screech Owls – West Virginia, Fairchance, & West Haven
• 2 Cooper’s Hawks – Fallston & Windham (separate of course)
• 2 Red-Tailed Hawks – Marlboro & Washington
• 3 American Crows – Brandon, Claremont, & Milton
• 2 Common Ravens – Woodstock & Tunbridge
• 2 Northern Harriers – Erie & Addison
• 2 Turkey Vultures – Poultney & Randolph
• 1 Black Vulture – Los Angeles
• 2 Broad-wing Hawks – Springfield & Waitsfield
• 2 Snowy Owls – Snowy & LaGuardia

Songbirds – total 29: (bet you didn’t know they had names!!)

• 4 Blue Jays – Bennington, White River Junction, Quechee, & Grafton
• 7 Robins – Piermont, Strafford, Hanover, Ripton, Barre, Plainfield, & Montpelier
• 1 Tree Sparrow – Essex
• 1 White-throated Sparrow – Danville
• 1 Pine Grosbeak – Bradford
• 2 Purple Finches – College & Killington
• 1 Eastern Bluebird – Canaan
• 3 Cedar Waxwings – Main, Vermont, & Gorham
• 3 Northern Cardinals – Rutland, Wilder, & Lisbon
• 2 American Goldfinches – West & Newbury
• 4 Mourning Doves – Washington, Plymouth, Windsor, & Crafts
• And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Reptiles – total 5:

• 1 Wood Turtle – Turt
• 1 Box Turtle – Jersey
• 1 Painted Turtle – Tippy
• 2 Corn Snakes – Wilmington & Marlboro (affectionately: Willie & Millie)

That’s a lot of resident ambassadors! It would take me forever to give you detailed reports on each individual, but I figured I might as well give a short bio and some fun facts for some highlighted animals.

From our resident raptors I am going to spotlight Springfield, one of our Broad-wing Hawks, since they will be moving back out onto exhibit in a matter of weeks. Springfield came to us in October of 2022 after being hit by a car in Springfield Vermont. They arrived with severe head trauma, a swollen eye, and clear damage to their right cornea and iris. On top of all that, one of the toes on their left foot (his D2 for my bird nerds out there) was fractured. Though some of the cloudiness eased from their right eye, they never regained any visual capabilities. Now for some fun facts about our Broad-winged friends!

For reptiles I thought it would be appropriate to spotlight our newest member to the team, Tippy the turtle! Tippy arrived at VINS on March 27th from the home of one of our staff members. Tippy had been raised from a young age in their care. Vermont and New Hampshire have different laws about what animals can and can not be pets. In New Hampshire once a reptile is taken into a home and cared for by humans for any amount of time, they can not be released. For that reason Tippy is non-releasable! He likely wouldn’t be able to survive by himself in the wild anyways. If you haven’t spent any time with him yet, feel free to come in and hang out, he is very social and constantly wants to be hand fed. Now for some more fun facts!

Education Ambassadors

Training Milestones – 

One of our newest ambassadors, Orange the American Crow, has been making strides in his training since joining our team in fall 2024. Since then he has learned how to crate himself by pulling his door open, entering the crate, and pulling the door closed behind himself! This is an essential behavior for him to be a confident ambassador able to attend programs and meet the public.

Highlighted Ambassador – Northfield (Broad-winged Hawk)

Brought to CWBR in June 2016 as a young nestling that had fallen from his nest. We found he had a dislocated right shoulder and a fracture to his right humerus near the joint. He was deemed non-releasable given the extent of the injury, but quickly found his place among the education ambassador team where he now educates our many visitors about Broad-winged hawk migration. 

Raptor Fact 

Speaking of migrating hawks, keep your eyes and ears open to see if you can spot the many species that typically return to the northeast during April and May. Did you know that Broad-winged hawks can travel upwards of 2,000 miles from their wintering grounds in South America back here in the Eastern U.S. every spring and fall? Northward migrations in spring are typically not as dramatic as during the fall because individuals are more sparsely distributed, often migrating at slightly different times and taking slightly different routes. 

Ask the Trainers – What kind of training do we do at VINS? 

Choice-based, positive-reinforcement methods are what we use to work with our birds to ensure that they are as comfortable and confident as possible while helping us educate visitors. What that looks like while training is that we always give the bird room to move away, to refuse a behavior, and we respect their decision at every step in the process. By being attentive to their body language we can assess their comfort level and react to their needs by moving away from something that might be scary, or returning them to their crate or enclosure if they are not able to settle in that situation. This results in ambassadors that we can be sure are choosing to step up, to get into a crate, to sit calmly on a glove, or even do free flights over audiences in the summer. 

If you have any specific questions about training, let us know and we can answer your questions in the next newsletter!