Registered nurse Anne Stratton runs a neonatal ward, an intensive care unit and a rehabilitation center. Calm and capable, she developed her wide range of skills working in hospital emergency rooms.
But for the past decade, her practice has revolved around ornithology rather than human biology. Retired from her paying career, Stratton, 64, now nurtures frail hummingbirds in her otherwise “empty nest” – the Huntington Beach home where she raised her children.
“Birds basically have the same parts as humans, so the same principles apply,” Stratton said.
It’s not a job for amateurs who, however well-intentioned, tend to underfeed the delicate birds. Stratton is a experienced volunteer for the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, which initially trained her and continues to supply food and equipment.
Her expertise is most in demand during mating season, December through July, when newborns tumble from their nests or lose their moms to the cruelties of nature. Due to a confluence of factors, the clinic is busting out this year – with 40 patients, twice the norm.
Stratton treated 602 hummingbirds during all of 2018. At well over 100 so far this year, she expects to easily break that previous record.
Unusually wet weather probably contributed to the glut, she said. “Rain and wind knock down nests.”
Also, thanks to Facebook and community websites, she said, word has spread about the Huntington Beach-based Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center.
People bring injured or motherless hummingbirds into the center, which transfers them to Stratton’s house. Baby birds must be fed every half hour, with a break between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., making them too high-maintenance for a shelter that juggles many different types of wildlife.
Stratton devotes the downstairs guest bedroom to her most vulnerable charges. Inside several glass incubators, wee infants cozy up in nests the size of a jigger. With the help of visiting Wildlife Care Center volunteers, Stratton feeds them liquefied bugs and other nutrients two dozen times daily.
At about three weeks, the hatchlings graduate to fledglings. Although still in ICU, they are out of their nests and stretching their wings in plastic baskets.
By the time they reach maturity at 3 months old, healthy birds can move to one of the four colorful aviaries in Stratton’s back yard. The spacious cages are filled with potted plants and vases of flowers – some of which provide nectar, and others that don’t.
“They learn to differentiate so that they can be successful in nature,” Stratton said. Native hummingbirds, she said, thrive on plants also native to California such as honeysuckle, fuchsia, salvia and sage.
Recuperating adult birds stay inside the house away from their stronger peers. “The pecking order is real,” Stratton explained. “Hummingbirds can be mean to the weaker ones.”
If all goes well, the birds are released from Stratton’s back yard in batches. Her success rate is about 70 percent, she said, not including birds that arrive so critically ill they have no chance of improving.
She doesn’t name the cute little critters, nor coo over them. “We don’t want friendly birds – we want birds that can survive in the wild,” she said. “They’re not pets.”
Stratton and husband Sam do have one pet, Angel, a sleepy, gray-muzzled cattle dog. The couple have made it a mission to adopt only elderly dogs.
Volunteers regularly drop by to provide relief – “so I can do things like, oh, go to the grocery store,” Stratton said.
Among other tasks, aides assist in processing live crickets and fruit flies into protein shakes. “We use my old margarita blender,” Stratton said.
The Wildlife Center spends about $100 a week on hummingbird food, she estimated.
A mamma hummingbird is a busy gal – normally laying six eggs a season, two at a time, which hatch after a couple of weeks. “Sometimes she is looking after eggs and fledglings at the same time,” Stratton noted.
If a baby falls from a nest, feel free to return it there, Stratton said: “It’s an old wives’ tale that birds touched by humans will be rejected by their mothers.”
On a recent morning, steadfast volunteer Linda Lyon dropped by to clean aviaries and squirt nectar into hungry mouths. “When a little bird fell onto my patio last year, hummingbirds fell into my life,” she said.
“I’m hooked on hummingbirds,” she said. “Anne is a hero, and the least I can do is lend a hand.”