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Laura Quinn and the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center
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Photo (c) Neala Schwartzberg
The Keys boasts several people and groups committed to saving injured wildlife. The most northern of these sanctuaries is the Florida Keys WIld Bird Center, just south of Islamorada in the tiny Key of Tavernier.
The Center, located at mile marker (MM) 93.6 bayside, is the labor of love of Laura Quinn, affectionately known as the “Bird Lady,” who founded and runs the center.
Quinn had little intention of becoming the savior of the birds, that was Bob Foley's calling. “Everyone took the hurt birds to Bob Foley and he’d give them out to anyone who’d offer to take one in.” Bob was veterinarian Dr. Robert Foley - and Quinn started as one of the dedicated volunteers. It turned out that she was so dedicated she eventually decided to create a formal shelter.
The facility’s stated purpose is to rescue, rehabilitate and release ill, injured and orphaned wild birds, but in fact Quinn has end up feeding hungry birds who know to show up for food, cats who have taken to calling the sanctuary home, and the nurse sharks from the bay. The basic premise seems to be feed the hungry. The nurse sharks have started to show up since the bay has become too filed with fertilizer and farm runoff to support a healthy fish population.
Today the birds are mainly those that are too seriously injured to be released.
Show up around 3PM daily and you can watch the wonderfully informal and sometimes chaotic feeding.
The land itself is a mangrove swamp so a boardwalk takes visitors around the cages housing wild hawks, ospreys, spoonbills, egrets and more. At the end, the bay spreads out just past the mangroves, offering a stunning vista.
The Center is free but donations are very much appreciated and appropriate.
Learn more about visiting the Floriday Keys
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(c) Neala Schwartzberg, all rights reserved
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