My Connection with Nature & Birds – Cash Henselyn, 13

Since a young age, I have always been connected to birds. Every year my dad and I would go to the open house at the Bird Rescue Center, where we would get to be introduced to some of their resident birds like Poe, the Raven, and Wowl, a Great Horned Owl. Knowing I had to be 13 to volunteer, the years seemed to go by so slow. Then finally I was 13, I signed up to volunteer and started my training. Just as COVID started, and I had to stop again due to shelter in place. I wanted to be up there so bad I found ways to stay connected and continue to help rescue the baby birds. Lucky for me, the breeding trees are blocks from my house. The Snowy Egret, and Black Crowned Night Heron are a few of the birds that are known for breeding on W.9th St. just blocks from my house. My neighbor and I would travel to check on the birds that breed in these trees up to 5 times a day. Sometimes we find babies that have fallen from their nest with no way of getting back, some are injured or even killed by the many cars that travel down W.9th St. My neighbor and I have been able to save many birds just this season alone, by delivering them to the Birds Rescue Center of Santa Rosa. Once the birds are stabilized, my mom and I will also help transfer them to other care facilities around the North Bay. Being my first year of being able to help and be connected with the Aviary world, its been a challenge. But I have not let anything get in my way and have found new ways to continue to live out my dreams of bringing medicinal services to the aviary world.

Hear Cash describe his personal connection to nature, which led him to volunteer with the Bird Rescue Center: