Wishing everyone nothing but blessings throughout the year!
Our December donation goes to the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, or CBCM, an all-volunteer bird conservation project.
This past July, I saw a pigeon crouched on the patio table out on my back deck. It was late afternoon and still quite warm, so I had the back door open, and kept watching through the screen door to see what it would do (my cat kept a keen eye too). After a few hours it still hadn't moved much, and I realized it may be hurt or ill. So I googled around and found the CBCM. They were very helpful and a volunteer told me they were heading out to the western suburbs the next day, to a pigeon sanctuary. She said if I could get the bird in a paper bag and deliver to a drop-off point in the city, they would take it and give it any medical attention it needed.
Sadly, I'm fairly certain that when I gently picked it up off the table it was not alive anymore. But I brought it to the drop point anyway. I'd never experienced anything like that before; I was really sad but touched that it had passed in peace in my quiet little corner of the outside. I am grateful for this organization and its dedicated volunteers.