Alpena’s Bird Center Flight Cage Fundraiser

My name is Ashley Kolnowski. I am currently a subpermitee for wild bird rehabilitation, but working towards getting my own permit. Part of the process is building my enclosures before submitting my application. After submitting, the DNR comes for an inspection to approve my enclosures.    This journey started when I found a baby bird that was orphaned. I found out that there was no one permitted to take birds within 2 hours of my house. I realized that there was a need for a bird rehabber in our area. I did 100 hours of training with another rehabber last summer. I also passed the basic wildlife rehabilitation class in March 2022.     I am needing a 12x50x12 (WxLxH) foot cage to rehabilitate raptors. This needs to be made of wood so they are safe from predators and won’t damage their wings, like they would with wire cages. The bottom is solid wood because they need to be tested to eat live prey so this prevents escape of the prey. I will also need a second flight cage built for songbirds. Smaller species will use this enclosure for conditioning before release back into the wild. Like robins, cardinals, and multiple other songbirds. That cage will need to be 13x20x8 foot. This will be made with wood and/or netting/screening. I am excited to start this journey and help our injured and orphaned wildlife stay in our area.     Sadly I was caring for a barred owl that was hit by a car. The owl was scheduled to have eye removal surgery on April 13th but due to the Avian Flu It had to be euthanized because I did not have the ability to fully rehabilitate it. Right now rehabbers are being advised not to accept or transfer any birds right now. If I would have had this enclosure I would have been able to fully rehab it and it would have likely been released after proper flight conditioning and hunting testing. I believe this is a needed community project so I am working towards getting my 501c3. Thanks in advance for anyone who is willing to donate and help me rehabilitate our wild birds in need.