16
THE DAVEY BULLETIN
|
November/December 2019
BIRD RESCUES ALL IN A DAY'S WORK
Over 100 birds of all ages, including
eggs, were saved in Oakland,
California, thanks to the outstanding
collaborative effort between Davey's
East Bay R/C office and the
International Bird Rescue-SF-Bay-Delta
Wildlife Center.
A ficus tree split apart at a post office
in Oakland. The tree housed a rookery
of snowy egrets and black-crowned
night-herons. This tree was the highest
populated nesting tree for these birds
with over 100 birds in one tree, said
Joe Berg, district manager, East Bay
R/C office.
Ficus trees are dense, fast growing
trees and have weak branch
attachments, Berg said. In this case,
the tree had a weak connection at the
base, which caused a fourth of the
tree to split apart. This left the tree
INTEGRITY
unbalanced. The removal was a
two-day project for Berg's office.
"Part of the tree was hanging over
the street and needed to be removed,"
Berg said. "But I told the post office
we weren't touching it until California
Fish and Game, or another agency,
signed off that the work could be
completed due to the fact these birds
are protected."
That's when the International Bird
Rescue-SF-Bay-Delta Wildlife Center
was brought onsite to guide Berg's
team during the removal – including
giving bird catching lessons to the crew.
"The guys were amazing, they were
the perfect crew for this job," Berg
said. "My guys weren't trained
whatsoever in any kind of bird
catching. They were bringing these
cardboard bird boxes in the bucket
truck with them and carefully catching
these birds."
On top of catching the birds was the
removal of an unstable tree, and that
Left: Toward the end of the removal, the crew members couldn't catch all of the birds
before they started jumping out of the tree. There were roughly 15 volunteers on the
ground catching birds in sheets.
Below: Andy Bruce, climber, Efrain Estrada, foreman, Jose Martinez, climber, and
Jose Santana, climber, assisted in the rescue of the birds and the removal of the tree.
Below right: The birds were safely placed in bird boxes for the International Bird Rescue.
proved difficult. When half the tree
was removed, they had to resort to
using handsaws. The chainsaws were
scaring the birds and causing them
to flee the tree.
"This was like going back into old
school Davey days when we were
using handsaws for everything," Berg
said. "We wanted to make sure the
birds were safe."
