Video documents release of female Red-tailed Hawk after she recovered from a broken wing. Her recovery took a little over two months and the release occured where she was found.
SUZIE GILBERT grew up in Oyster Bay, New York, and graduated from Columbia School of General Studies. After moving to the Hudson Valley she began working at an animal hospital and bringing home abused and unwanted parrots, which led to volunteer work at a rehabilitation center for birds of prey. She wrote the environmental column Bird’s Eye View (Taconic News Media) and the children’s book Hawk Hill (“the finest natural history title of the year” – Smithsonian’s Notable Books for Children, 1996.) She opened her own non-profit bird rehab organization, Flyaway, Inc., in 2002. Flyaway: How a Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found Her Wings was published in March, 2009.
Through adolescence and into adulthood, Suzie Gilbert struggled to find her calling. But when she took a job working at the animal hospital near her home in New York's Hudson Valley, her passion was born. She began bringing abused and unwanted parrots home and volunteering at a local raptor rehabilitation center, activities she continued for the next eleven years, even as she started a family. Then came the ultimate commitment to her cause: turning her home into Flyaway, Inc., a nonprofit wild bird rehabilitation center.
Gilbert chronicles the years of her chaotic household-cum-bird-hospital with delightful wit, recounting the confusion that ensued as her husband and two young children struggled to live in a house where parrots shrieked Motown songs, nestling robins required food every twenty minutes, and recuperating herons took over the spare bathroom. Gradually, however, the birds came to represent the value of compassion and the importance of pursuing even the most unlikely of dreams.
Often funny, sometimes painful, Gilbert's encounters with these beautiful creatures reveal profound truths not only about animals but also about our own lives—lessons of birth and death, suffering and empathy, holding on and letting go.
Original, lyrical, and highly entertaining, Flyaway will forever change the way you see this amazing member of the animal kingdom.
When a lonely boy who loves birds begins to share in the rescue of injured raptors, he finds hope, friendship and a profound connection with wild creatures. The striking paintings, paired with an eloquent text, make for the finest natural history title of the year. - Smithsonian
A wealth of information on raptors can easily be absorbed from this readable story of a shy boy who becomes a helper at a wildlife rehabilitation center. This is a fine introduction to the world of raptors and to the patient work of the nature lovers who care for the wounded and helpless birds. It satisfies both as a narrative and as a well-researched source of information that can be used with science projects or read aloud to a class. - School Library Journal
Suzie Gilbert is available to speak to both children, adults, and mixed groups.
Rehabilitators see the side of wild birds that most people don't, as we provide the hands-on care that allows them to recover from injury or grow up after being orphaned. While species of birds may share various traits, each one is an individual, and every bird I have cared for has been memorable. I show photographs of the facilities of my non-profit bird rescue organization, Flyaway, Inc., as well as some of the birds I have rehabbed; with each photograph I tell a quick story of the bird, its injury, its behavior during recovery, and then give tips on how to avoid injuring birds in that manner. Although the decline of bird populations is a serious subject, I try to make a good deal of the presentation funny, as I find that humor is an effective way to reach people's hearts and minds (there's a lively sequence on the expressions that can cross a wild bird's face.) My goal is for people to see wild birds in an entirely new light. - Suzie Gilbert
• Audubon, nature, library groups
• School programs tailored to grades 1-12
(Can schedule several programs back to back for different age groups within the same school)
• Member of the Westchester BOCES list of Environmental Educators
• Available for creative writers' groups and writing students
Suzie Gilbert presented a program for the Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon Society during a special author's event. She was terrific: engaging, funny, warm and full of life with wonderful wildlife tales to tell! Her program was so well received that we plan on having her back for a monthly members meeting!
- Stella Miller, President, Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon Society
Dear Suzie,
Thank you so much for coming to our school. You got rave reviews from all of our students in the Lower, Middle and Upper school divisions. Our students were amazed and delighted by your stories, and impressed at the depth of intimate knowledge you manifested, as well as the clear evidence of your long-term commitment to bird rehabilitation. All of us at BWL truly appreciate that you took the time from your busy life to show us a better way.
- Roger Frary, Science Dept. Chair, Birch Wathen Lenox, Manhattan
Suzie Gilbert presented to our first graders for the first time this year and we'd love her to come every year. Her presentation was wonderful! It was well paced, informative and age appropriate. She had complete command of her audience and was able to be responsive to their questions and concerns while still managing to cover her material. Our first graders sat in rapt attention for the full 45 minutes!
- Karen Freede, First Grade Teacher, Fieldston Lower School, Bronx
I attended Suzie Gilbert's presentation during one of our Authors' Day Celebrations. Students and teachers were spellbound as we listened to her talk about rescuing and rehabilitating wild birds. Suzie's personal warmth immediately put the students at ease, and at the conclusion the overwhelming response was that we all wanted more. I have been teaching for more than thirty years and Suzie's program was one of the best I've attended. She left a lasting impression on her audience.
- Cynthia Forrest, Art Director, Garrison School, Garrison
