“Keep Them Flying”

Janthina Images offers newly redesigned White Egret Greeting Card for online sales – share of proceeds to be donated to Laura Quinn’s Florida Keys Wild Bird Center to help “Keep Them Flying!”

The White Egret Card image was captured in April of 2007 on a bright, beautiful afternoon in the Florida Keys!  I’ve always loved it for the tangible softness of the feathers against the very soft blue sky and the green leaves of the branch it is perched upon. In designing the card I capitalized on those greens with the bottom border detail and extended the sky across the back of the card for an overall soft natural look.  The inside has a muted sky with a feathery decoration. I loved preparing it and hope that you will enjoy it too!! I wish to offer a percentage of the sales of this card to the place which made it possible and needs funds on an ongoing basis to maintain its special role as a wild bird rehab facility and educator of the plight of many Florida birds.

This image is not a brand new capture, but it has over time remained one of my very favorite images. It was taken at a very special place. I discovered the Florida KeysWildBirdCenter in 2007 when my husband and I were having the tee top put on our boat. I’d seen the sign at Mile Marker 94 on Tavernier several times during trips to the Keys and always ran out of time to stop and see what it was about. So while we were waiting for work to progress on our boat, I was restless and took the opportunity to visit the center which was nearby the tee top shop.  It was truly love at first walk through! The first thing I saw once past the bird infirmary area was a Woodstork looking back at me with its black eyes, flinty neck, and bald head. Of course then I didn’t even know what I was looking at and wandered on. There were wild birds perched everywhere and of numerous species ranging from the White egret as pictured on the card, Brown pelicans, Roseate spoonbills, Great blue herons, Reddish egrets, Turkey vultures, the magnificent Great white heron, Louisiana herons, Snowy egrets…& much more. Accustomed to the presence of visitors, the birds were not alarmed (some less so than others) and so I had my first real chance to take pictures of wild Florida birds up close. That visit was probably the seminal influence for my love of bird photography. I did a lot of learning there over the course of several visits. Not just photography either! But, also why you ought to walk by a pelican perched above the boardwalk with its derriere towards you….quickly!!

Walking along the boardwalk on one of my visits, I spied an elderly lady in a very stained T-shirt cradling an injured pelican in her arms. We spoke for just a moment and she allowed me to pet its incredibly soft yellow head. How may people have actually touched a pelican? It was simply wonderful! I thought she was one of the volunteers you will always see at the center. This was in reality true, as by that time she had been working there 365 days a year for over a quarter of a century never taking a salary. But, she was much more! The lady was in fact the visionary Laura Quinn, founder and director of the Florida KeysWildBirdCenter.

Reported to be a somewhat obstinate character more comfortable with wildlife than humans, Laura Quinn dedicated the last 25 years of her life to rescuing and mending injured birds. In the mid 1980s she’d sold her Evening Shade Motel on Lower Matecumbe Key with a plan to live out her days in retirement carving statues of Florida Keys birds. Her hobby led to the awareness of injuries to birds and increased dangers to them due to ever increasing development in the Keys, and that there was no one to fix them up. She sold her dream retirement home and purchased the land at Mile Marker 94 to house her burgeoning rehabilitation efforts. She may have been stubborn and prickly, but those traits have served the birds well as with any good effort there is the government, permitting, and various forces which will work against it. Not to mention the sheer need for operating funds for such an enterprise.

The “Bird Lady” of the Keys whose only mission was to “Keep Them Flying” died in September of 2010 just 8 and ½ hours before the celebration of renaming the sanctuary as The Laura Quinn Wild Bird Center. She died on her 82^nd birthday, September 18^th and lived to see the sign erected in her honor.

Quinn achieved remarkable progress with limited funds and by the end of her life others did step in to make sure the work would continue. It is important to note that there is no entrance fee to visit this remarkable place and that even with new organization and supporters your donations are still needed. Sharing the proceeds of a card designed with the lovely White egret they enabled me photograph, will be one way I can say thank you.

Please visit the wonderful Laura Quinn Wild Bird Sanctuary and see for your self the work they are doing.

THE LAURA QUINN WILD BIRD SANCTUARY ADDRESS: 93600 Overseas Hwy MM 93.6, Tavernier, FL 33070 [Click for map]

“Keep Them Flying,”   >>The place to order the card from Janthina is HERE<<

A selection of pictures follows from the Wild Bird Center! I love this place and hope you enjoy them!

Judy

Florida Keys Wild Bird Center as it was in 2007

3:00pm Feeding Time on Florida Bay at the Wild Bird Center

Patiently waiting his turn.

 

Blue Eyed Adult Brown Pelican with a Pouch full of Afternoon Snack!

 

Great White Heron in soft lighting at the Wild Bird Center

Reddish Egret with its shaggy mane

Snowy Egret with mating plumage in his ‘golden slippers’

Elegant Great White Heron in its “Flasher” pose…drying its feathers!!

~ by Judy on September 13, 2012.