Even when she was a small child Janice Enright knew animals would play an important role in her life. Her dream of working with wildlife has become a reality, as Enright is founder of A Wing and A Prayer, Muskoka’s bird rehabilitation centre.
“My sister and I were taught to respect animals and to give them their space. So much so that when my mother took my sister and I to our fi rst circus I went to pieces when I saw humans making lions and tigers jump though fi re hoops,” recalled Enright, who is also a mother of fi ve. “When they brought out the bears in tutus I lost it. They looked so sad and all their spirit of life was gone. I knew that at nine years of age. My mother had to take me home because I wouldn’t stop weeping. I have never attended any circus since that day.”
Born in London, England, Enright moved to Canada when she was three. Her family lived in Montreal for the next 10 years, and it was while living there that Enright had her fi rst encounter with an injured bird. The bird had hit the house window, and she made numerous calls to fi nd out how she could help her winged friend. She was constantly told to “put it out of its misery;” a sentiment that ended up having a profound effect on her life. “I thought, ‘What misery?’ I didn’t accept that. After rest and food for about four or fi ve days, we released it.”
Shortly after, Enright’s family relocated to Brampton. At the time mainly farm country, the locale provided her an opportunity to walk the family dog and enjoy the natural setting. She admits she has always been mesmerized by bird fl ight and the miracle of it. By the time she was 15 she put her love of animals to use and took a job with a veterinarian. She worked there until she left school, when she started training as an animal groomer in England.
A number of courses, workshops and wet labs – too numerous to mention – helped Enright realize her true calling lay in helping animals. She moved to Muskoka 17 years ago, landing here from an earlier stint in Brampton. In Muskoka she started working at the Bracebridge Animal Hospital as a groomer, and she continues to work there today. Over the course of her fi rst summer there, many wild birds and mammals in dire need of help passed through the facility. Her love of birds came to the fore again, and the rehabilitation centre began to take root.
“A Wing and A Prayer came into being by accident… a bird’s accident,” said Enright. “Many years ago I took a break from the animal world and taught driving school in Huntsville. While I was teaching a new Canadian to do a parallel park I spotted a pigeon that had been hit by a car lying helplessly on the curb. I popped the trunk — after the gentleman had fi nished the maneouvre — and put the bird in a box that was in the trunk. (The student) certainly never had a clue. I made such a big deal about his perfect parking job that he never did ask why I popped the trunk open. The bird did survive and after a few weeks I released him right from where I’d picked him up. From that moment on I have always carried a cardboard box in the trunk of my car.”
In 1992 Enright opened the bird rehabilitation centre on her 45-acre Utterson property. During the fi rst year she cared for three injured birds. That number tripled to nine the following year. Now, 16 years later, Enright and her team of dedicated volunteers tend to over 500 birds a year. The centre has cared for in excess of 5,000 birds in total. Of those 5,000 they’ve seen 180 of the more than 400 bird species that occupy Ontario throughout the spring, summer and fall.
She said the name A Wing and A Prayer just made sense. There is a feeling of satisfaction and fulfi llment to her work. But Enright also faces heartbreak knowing that 98 per cent of bird admissions are caused by unnatural occurrences like cars, windows, hydro lines, lead sinkers, fi shing line and oil spills. “Hundreds of birds are bird-napped every spring and summer because of good intentions,” she says, explaining how people believe they’re helping by taking hungry baby birds to feed them, thinking them abandoned. “The parents are there 99 per cent of the time. Birds don’t neglect, abandon nor kill their chicks. This year alone, callers have allowed me to help them renest or put back more than 200 of these ‘birdnapped’ chicks.”
Funded solely by private individuals, artists and businesss, A Wing and a Prayer holds two fundraisers a year and issues several newsletters. Enright tries to only help birds when the situation calls for her to intervene. She would rather let nature take its course, except when the bird in question has been brought in due to a human-related cause. She tells of a 1999 occurrence when a lady called the centre to report a loon killed by a boat. Even worse, the loon’s mate, a female, was sitting on eggs. As incubation is shared by both parents, Enright knew it was only a matter of time before the female loon gave up.
“With a high-powered scope we watched her for four days and in that time she only left the eggs three times to defecate and preen. She called her mate every hour; it was heart- breaking. We got permission from Canadian Wildlife Services to take the egg when the female gave up. After four days she left the egg for good and we went in to help. Had this not been an unnatural incident, we wouldn’t have interfered,” Enright exlained. “For 17 days I incubated the egg and, fi nally, on the 15th day we heard vocalizing from within. Shortly after a small hole appeared and hatching started. It took more than 24 hours and we did not help the chick at all. Exhausted, but certainly perfect, the chick hatched. After four months, thousands of minnows and raising and naturalizing at Mary Lake in Port Sydney, the chick, along with another loon we raised, migrated south. Nothing is impossible.”
Enright hopes that more people will become active and supportive to wildlife. Knowing that wildlife is a natural treasure taken for granted by many, she fears that one day it could all be gone if we don’t do our part to protect it. She hopes that people get licenced help if they come across an injured bird.
With a wealth of knowledge when it comes to her winged friends —and because she has an appreciation for all species — it’s diffi cult for her to say what her favourite bird is. Her top three are the northern cardinal, “because they mate for life and give and receive fl ower petals from their mate;” the ruby-throated hummingbird, the smartest birds she has ever helped, “they don’t stress after 12 hours of care simply because ‘they get it;’” and the common loon, because they have lasted at least 20 million years — and possibly 50 to 60 million years. Other favourites are bluejays, which can talk and mimic any sound, and the blackcapped chickadee, a species that lays an egg every other day. By the time the female has laid eight eggs, the fi rst egg is ready to hatch.
Enright’s life at A Wing and A Prayer is consumed by nature. Between May and September, the centre received 20 calls per day and she does not get any time off during that period. It has become a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a week labour of love. “The only place a wild animal or bird should live, where humans are concerned, is in your heart,” she said.