By James MacKenzie

Special to Black Press

It鈥檚 that time of the year again: early summer. While tubers careen down the river and schoolkids enjoy their newfound freedom, scruffy and barely feathered fledgling birds have also been recently cast into the big world.

Instead of returning to school in fall, migratory birds will face a perilous journey en route to their southbound destination, travelling thousands of kilometres on wings only created a mere few months prior. But that would be getting ahead of ourselves as, unfortunately, many fledgling birds never make it to their first migration.

Before we talk about the dangers that fledgling birds face, we must first define a fledgling and make sure our reading audience feels comfortable telling the difference between a fledgling and its previous developmental stage: nestling. One of the key differences are feathers. Nestlings are usually completely naked or with just a tuft of feathers and are typically unable to move without awkwardly dragging themselves. The clue is in the name: nestlings belong in the nest. Fledglings are much more developed than nestlings, covered in down feathers, and able to hop or walk. These awkward young birds are meant to be on the ground and are being closely watched by their parents. A healthy fledgling on the ground is best left ignored, as its parents will do a much better job raising it than you or even those of us at the Mountainaire Wildlife Rescue Society (MARS).

At our wildlife hospital, early summer is the busiest time of the year and fledglings make up a huge portion of our intakes. The majority are admitted due to cat and dog attacks, so be sure to keep your pets inside and away from vulnerable wildlife, especially during baby season. Another common reason for fledgling admission is kidnapping, or birdnapping if you will. Occasionally, young birds do need human intervention (being stalked by a cat, walking into traffic), but it is important to make sure intervention is necessary - most of the time it鈥檚 not.

Some well-intentioned people see a 鈥渉elpless鈥� fledgling in their yard or the park and scoop it up into a shoebox. If those birds are brought to MARS right away, we will do our best to make sure they are raised and released, although their parents will always do a better job than us.

Sometimes, people attempt to raise young birds themselves and in addition to being illegal, this doesn鈥檛 provide the birds with enough nutrients for a healthy life. So, in summation, if you see wildlife in distress: make sure to follow this credo: Wait! Watch! Don鈥檛 Touch! Call! If you do feel the need to intervene, call MARS Wildlife Rescue first (250-337-2021) and be sure to bring any injured animals our way.

James MacKenzie is the MARS Wildlife Rescue education and volunteer co-ordinator