QUECHEE — For around a decade, Pat Tivnan has been volunteering at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science to help care for baby birds.

During her four-hour shifts, she’d feed the tiniest patients at the Center for Wild Bird Rehabilitation and Ambassador Care at VINS, a Quechee-based nonprofit organization known for its bird and wildlife programs.

But this summer was different: VINS cared for 503 baby birds from Memorial Day to Labor Day, a new record. By comparison, they took in 345 in the previous summer.

“You’re just finishing up one round and you have to start back in again,” Tivnan, of North Sutton, N.H., said in a phone interview.

The dozens of birds needed to be fed every 30 minutes from morning to night. Volunteers worked in pairs during three four-hour shifts every day of the week beginning at 8 a.m. and ending at 8 p.m.

“In the really busiest of times, you never take a break,” Tivnan said.

The baby bird record wasn’t the only one VINS broke: As of Nov. 21, the staff had cared for 1,185 birds of all ages.

“Historically, May through August is always the busiest because that’s peak baby bird season,” Grae O’Toole, director of the Center for Wild Bird Rehabilitation and Ambassador Care, said in an interview at VINS.

In July alone, the center took in 283 birds, which was another record. In those four summer months, 888 birds were cared for at VINS, which amounted to around 75% of the center’s total intakes.

“I think 10 years ago, 400 to 500 is how many we get for an entire year,” said Bren Lundborg, the wild bird rehabilitation center’s assistant director.

“We’re starting to see that in just a month or two,” O’Toole added.

Part of the increase can be attributed to knowledge, Lundborg and O’Toole said. People know more about VINS and the work it does. The public might also be more engaged with nature: During 2020 and 2021 — the peak years of the COVID-19 pandemic — more birds were brought into the center. One of the theories is that people were working from home more and paying more attention to their surroundings.

The type of patients vary: The top five baby birds taken in this year were American Robins (97 babies), Eastern Phoebes, European Starlings (42 babies), Chimney Swifts (22 babies) and House Wrens (19 babies).

“For the most part, I would say a lot of them are coming in just because their nests have been disrupted in some way, primarily, I think human-related,” O’Toole said.

Many of their patients “have fallen from their nest and found themselves in situations that are not so great for them,” she added.

Some come in with bird-specific diseases. Others are victims of cat attacks, injuries sustained from flying into windows or being hit by vehicles.

Climate change has also played a role. Warmer winters where there are ice storms make it harder for Barred owls to break through the ground to hunt, Lundborg said, which can lead to malnourishment.

“You can’t hunt through one-inch thick ice,” O’Toole said.

Songbirds, which feed on insects, have also faced challenges. “As soon as it’s warm, the bugs will come out,” Lundborg said. “And if that happens a week or two weeks before the birds have evolved to have their peak nesting when there’s the most food available, it means the adults have to work harder to find food.”

The window where the insects and baby birds align can become shorter. “It’s not something where suddenly you just see tons of more baby birds, but it just makes it a little bit tougher for them each year,” Lundborg said. “And I think those effects just add up over time.”

Staff members evaluate each bird that is brought into VINS. Baby birds tend to start off in incubators; when they start to use their wings, they’re moved to larger enclosures. Volunteers feed them using tweezers or in some cases syringes. Some birds are eager eaters while others take a little more convincing, Tivnan said. Sometimes whistling a bird song helps.

Robins are Tivnan’s favorite birds to care for. “They’re very cooperative. They’re always hungry. They do not fight, they line up in a row,” she said.

Grackles, on the other hand, tend to be a little more difficult. “They think they should have everyone’s food,” Tivnan said.

As the birds grow and get use of their wings, they gain confidence that sometimes comes in the form of trying to escape their enclosures. Woodpeckers have climbed up on Tivnan’s legs, treating them like a tree.

“It’s a lot of fun being with them, but you always respect the fact that they’re wild and you should try to minimize all touching,” she said.

Most birds stay between 30 and 40 days, O’Toole said. Baby birds could stay up to around 50 days and are released once they learn how to forage for food. The center’s release rate is around 40%.

“Despite the fact that we’ve doubled the number of birds that we’ve taken in, our release rate has remained pretty much the same, which we’re pretty proud of because that can be difficult, given that we have a lot more that we’re taking care of and we’re releasing them at the same rate,” O’Toole said.

Before the birds are released, the staff makes sure they can fly and have all the skills necessary to fend for themselves in the wild.

“It’s different from a pet where you can have a dog that will limp and can still live for another six or 10 years at home. The birds, for them to get released, they have to be essentially perfect,” Lundborg said. “If you release something like a hawk or an owl that can’t fly that well, that has to fly to hunt, then you’re basically just setting it loose to starve to death.”

Many birds are brought in by concerned citizens. While the majority are from Windsor County, they’ve also taken in birds from Grand Isle and Franklin counties. VINS has volunteers throughout Vermont, New Hampshire and even Massachusetts who transport birds to get the care they need. The organization also works with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.

“It’s just really not anybody who can be a rehabber,” Jillian Kilborn, a non-game bird biologist with the department. “You have to have the knowledge and you have to have the training to do it.”

Helping and caring for birds can also lead people to connect more with their environment. VINS helps “connect people to wildlife and species on our landscape,” Kilborn said. “People really care about wildlife, they find a bird, they bring it into VINS and it leads them down a road” to learning more about other species.

There are things people can do to help make sure birds do not become patients at VINS.

“We understand it’s tough for people to keep a cat inside, but that’s certainly a big one,” Lundborg said. “Doing reflective decals or doing things to reduce window strikes is a big one.”

People should also refrain from throwing trash on the roads.

“I know some people, you eat a banana or something, you throw the peel out, and that attracts mice that then attract the owl that then gets hit,” O’Toole said. “So it does have a domino effect.”

Lundborg and O’Toole also recommend that people with bird feeders clean and disinfect them every couple of weeks, which can help stop the spread of diseases among birds. Cleanings should be done away from any food prep locations, as many birds carry salmonella.

Tivnan, the volunteer, said she plans to return next summer to help the baby birds in any way she can.

“We know they’re not all going to make it, but without us none of them would make it,” she said. “It’s part of the challenge of the job. We’re just grateful for the ones we could help survive.”

For more information about volunteering at VINS, visit https://vinsweb.org/volunteer/.

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.