Just off the Peace River in Charlotte County is a lesson at work under the trees.

  • Peace River Wildlife Center is in Charlotte County
  • Veterinarians, workers heal injured birds
  • Most of the birds there were injured by humans

"Our main goal is to get these animals healthy again and release them back into the wild,” said Robin Jenkins, the executive director and veterinarian at Peace River Wildlife Center.

"Our secondary goal is education,” Jenkins explained, as a white screech owl sat on her right hand.

The center just outside downtown Punta Gorda cares for seabirds and waterfowl that need the kind of support only humans can provide after accident or injury.

"Maybe we can keep some other animals from being injured in the same way that these were injured."

Here, native Florida birds that need extra tender-loving care find it along the shady boardwalk — everything from bald eagles, pelicans and sand hill cranes, to that white screech owl sitting on Jenkins named Luma.

"It's entirely possible his parents or siblings pushed him out of the nest, because he would have been flagging predators to the nest,” she said of the bird that should be brown, but instead is the color of a fresh snowfall.

Each afternoon, the Peace River Wildlife Center makes a spectacle of feeding water fowl. The pelicans are like wide receivers and always ready to catch a fish. Visitors can have seat safely behind a fence and watch what looks a lot like baseball pitching practice. Volunteers lob fish into the gaping mouths of pelicans that sit attentively, ready to open their massive jaws.

One popular resident roaming around the pelicans is a sand hill crane known as Chickie. The bird standing about 50 inches tall has a “scissor beak”: The top and bottom portions of his beak cross over themselves, making it difficult for the bird to devour mealworms.

Jenkins said 90 percent of the birds here were hurt by humans and offers a final reflection.

"Just be cognizant that these guys are out there, and it's their world too,” she said.

The Peace River Wildlife Center is open seven days a week. Visitors are welcome from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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