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Berkshire Bird Paradise

There is only one clear difficulty with this place: Peter Dubacher spends so much of his time caring for the birds and keeping things moving, there just isn't enough time spent on telling the story in anything like a slick, modern way. This is a great pity, because this is clearly one of the great stories of animal, especially avian, care — in every sense of that very powerful word.

What "slick" there is, is this video, effectively the introduction to a book about Berkshire Bird Paradise, about the birds, and about Peter Dubacher who brings it all together. Watch this first, then come back and we'll share our own impressions:


Our take

A couple of us rode up to this Vermont-border spot in Rennsalaer County with Dan Woldin; Dan in one of a small number of city folk who take city birds who are healthy and happy but cannot be released up several times a year. We needed a sheltered spot for some birds whose fate upon release was at best middlin', more likely poor. Our guys were joined by two lovely pigeons who could not be released and a trio of abandoned ring-neck doves — relicts of someone's ill-considered and ill-starred wedding or funeral. It's a haul — four hours up and four hours back.

It was entirely worth the day. [Partial proof: We slept more soundly that usual that night.]

You know you are someplace unusual; you spot emus on the way in. But this is an unassuming place — a small parking area, a barn off one way and a small farmhouse off to the right. An enormous closed-system wood-burning furnace is off to one side. [Pete explains, the cost of the entire installation, furnace and hot-water heat for all the birds during those cold back-end-of-the-Berkshires winters is not a great deal more than the cost of oil for a year. Wood, of which Berkshire Bird Paradise has a sufficiency in any case, is a renewable resource.]

{short description of image} Then there are the sort of quonset-hut looking habitats for the birds. And the birds are everything. Geese may be wandering around (along with one or two very friendly, even cuddly cats). Head off in another direction, there are Victoria Pigeons. {short description of image}
{short description of image} Sue was captivated by a pair of these East African cranes. Their dancing goes well beyond the usual ritual behaviors and is reported even by the most sober avian ethologists as an expression of joy and fun. Wings spread, the bird hops and calls. Sue spread her arms, hopped and called back; the birds responded. Best of all, it is something you want to do, it's fun and it would be a dull person indeed who didn't get into the spirit of the thing.

Off to the right is the "reception area" — not for people, for birds. This is warm and a bit dark — the sort of environment likely to be friendly to a bird coming in to a new environment. Intake is an important part of how things are done. The birds and what they need are paramount.

The welcoming committee, by the bye, includes a variety of parrots, including several who have clearly learned to talk, who must have been beloved pets at one time, but have now found a home at Berkshire Bird Paradise.
This turns out to be another special experience: Parrots that are unhappy develop self-destructive habits, and as a group have fragile personalities. I also confess, they make me nervous (there is that built-in can-opener on the front end; I would not want to deal with an unhappy parrot). These seem to be really happy birdies. The talkers are delighted to have someone to chat with. They come over, they get as close as they can and they carry on a conversation. They are affectionate birdies and one really wants to cuddle with them. They are handsome, sleek, well fed — no plucking, no apparent viciousness — jsut all the love a bird can give, and again, that special joyfulness that is the sign of a happy bird.

Parrots, then the intake area for pigeons and others. Shrouded in plant vines, given necessary privacy, along with some incoming chickens and the odd guinea fowl, here are a couple dozen pigeons of different sizes and types. Again, sleek. Again, being happy birds.

We are taken further up, further in. We are bringing pigeons and doves, so we are shown the winter enclosure where the pigones have been living. The summer enclosure — several times larger and open to the breezes, is not quite ready to receive them yet, and it's still a bit early, perhaps. But soon the connection will open and this large flock of well-fed birds — pigeons and chickens (who seem to cohabit comfortably — typical pigeons, pretty tolerant of the neighbors...) will be winging about in four or five times as much space. Even so, they do not seem crowded. Their place is clean, there is no odor of sick-pigeon poop. The birds are pigeons — perhaps less tame than folks in Tribeca are used to (but then, Tribeca pigeons have an unusually high regard for people); one wished for a seat-stick and some peanuts, to see if they would get over their shyness and come to visit. {short description of image}

Across the way: Red-tail hawks. They soar about, clearly being hawks and looking truly wonderful. Raptors are not nearly up to pigeons when in comes to soldiering on. But these guys were handsome and clearly having a great time as they glided about their enclosure. Blind in one eye, some folks would have killed them — those "environmentalist" types whose understanding of environment is flawed, whose knowledge of ecology is vanishingly small and whose moral sense is crippled. Peter Dubacher gives them a home, and care in that most complete sense: These birds — all of them — are not just O-that's-nice encounters as one walks in the woods, or even as one collects listings for one's "birding" records. These are entities, sentient beings who've risen from every-day things to each of them something special, caring for which is part of his way of being human. It's a rare thing, and entirely admirable.

{short description of image} These two images best capture my sense of Berkshire Bird Paradise, and of Peter Dubacher and his family (because this is clearly something to which the entire crew is committed — and that is truly wonderful). On the left, eaglets. Berkshire Bird Paradise keeps them alive and well (I gather this is distressing to some Powers-That-Be, auto décret experts). They are rare and beautiful birds. On the right, a pigeon — plain, ordinary little street birdy. Notice in both pictures, these are contented critters, held lovingly and they know it. {short description of image}

Do you have a bird you love, but you cannot keep? Do you have a bird you have rescued and brought back to health, but cannot release? Berkshire Bird Paradise is one of the few places that gets thumbs-up as a place that can help you fulfill your obligations to that bird.

So you have a bit extra in your pocket? Do you want to make a difference? Lots of people will take your money; lots of charities out there are working had to secure your contribution. Berkshire Bird Paradise puts its efforts into caring for the birds; send them a contribution and you have done a good thing, and delivered a welcome surprise at the same time. For more information: http://www.birdparadise.org/