The new modular building, lime green in color, arrived on Aug. 21 at Indigenous Park and will house the Key West Wildlife Center’s (KWWC) new avian clinic. The elevated, hurricane-hardened structure will replace the center’s old and badly decaying building within the 7-acre park at the end of White Street near Higgs Beach.
For more than 25 years, the KWWC has provided 24-hour emergency rescue services for wildlife in Key West and the Lower Keys. Many Key West residents, at some point, have come upon an injured bird, one that can’t fly away. One that lets people get uncommonly close. One with a bum wing, or leg. Or one that’s too exhausted to move. We typically watch the bird for a bit, practically willing it to take flight and assuage our concerns. Perhaps we walk away for a few moments and then go back to check on it. When it’s still there upon our return, we pull out our phone and call for backup — from the KWWC, a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates birds to release them back into their natural surroundings — while making us feel good about ourselves for making a call to help a creature in need.
A human always answers the phone at KWWC — 24/7. They’ll listen with a practiced ear to our decidedly non-expert descriptions of the bird and its plight and then take action to help, prepared to dispatch a rescue team at a moment’s notice to help pelicans, pigeons, egrets, herons, roosters, hawks, mockingbirds, you name it.The new clinic building will help the center continue its mission — and allow it to help us feel good about ourselves for making a simple phone call. More information is at keywestwildlifecenter.org.
