Palomacy’s New Bird Care Coordinator!

June 1, 2020 by Elizabeth

Update December 1, 2020

A Special Message from Palomacy Bird Care Coordinator Jill McMurchy

Since I became lucky enough to start working as Palomacy’s paid Bird Care Coordinator on 6/1/20, we are helping and placing more birds than we ever have. This rescue work we are doing (despite a pandemic) is non-stop. The calls/emails/texts from surrenders, shelters, volunteers and good Samaritans needing help for injured, starving, lost and/or displaced pigeons and doves is ongoing and continuous. I get paid for half time work, four hours a day but in reality, I am available every waking hour. When a life is at stake, how can I not answer a call? When someone with compassion wants to help, how can we not respond with the same?

Not only am I assisting with rescues and adoptions daily, I am supporting and coaching our team of 60ish foster volunteers (scattered across all of Nor Cal) who provide the ongoing 365 days a year customized, individual care each of our caseload of 180ish adoptable (and hospice) birds needs. New fosters are always needed and require lots of coaching and assistance. Although it is easy to care for pigeons and doves, they are not common pets and Palomacy has a lot to teach regarding restoring and protecting their health, keeping them safe, what their behaviors mean, how to connect and bond with them… I do all of this with enormous love and passion for the birds and for the people who appreciate them. I love my job! I have been learning and doing this with Palomacy for free since I rescued my first pigeon in 2011. But now I am not only a helper, I am also a leader and a builder and much needed staff. I am learning more and faster and we are all benefitting. Palomacy needs me. I know it, I see it. You know it too. So please know that when you donate in support of Palomacy, you are getting everything we can possibly give you in return and then a bunch more.

And a Brief Afterward by Palomacy Founder & Director Elizabeth Young

Jill speaks the truth. There is no way in the world we could be saving as many birds (387 so far this year!) & helping so many people as we are without her on staff. We planned this Bird Care Coordinator role as an experiment. Half-time, for 6 months to be tested & evaluated. Does it work? Is it effective? Efficient? Can it improve our ability to meet the firehose of unmet need for bird rescue that we confront all day every day? Will it further our cause? Yes. The results have been conclusive. The test has been wildly successful. The Bird Care Coordinator role is absolutely essential. It needs to be made permanent and expanded to full time as soon as we can make it happen. And we will. And I know you’ll back me when I say: We are all so, so lucky to have our amazing, brilliant, indefatigable Jill in this most critical and central of positions.

Update December 10, 2020

I am so proud, grateful, energized and inspired to report that yes, this half-time position is being made permanent! We are changing the title to Care Coordinator because it requires a great deal of people as well as bird care to fulfill. And we will be pursuing strategies to make this huge role full time when we can. It is absolutely essential. Thank you, Palomacy!

Palomacy’s New Bird Care Coordinator! June 1, 2020

The world needs more Palomacy. The demand for our life-saving service is constant and increasing. Palomacy is growing from a local rescue into a global movement and we need more help. Thanks to your support and a generous grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, we are getting some! We’re thrilled to announce that our amazing Jill Shepard McMurchy will be taking on the newly created position of Bird Care Coordinator. Given her extensive experience and unique qualifications, we’re very excited to have her in this critical role.

The Bird Care Coordinator (BCC) position is half time, paid and currently funded for 10 months starting today. Jill will be responsible for coordinating Palomacy’s response on behalf of birds & the people involved from inquiry through care coaching, referral or intake, foster, vet care & placement including ongoing adopter support.

Our volunteers, more than 100, are the life blood of Palomacy, powering our rescues, help group, foster care, outreach, humane education, advocacy, website, adoptions, retention and more. This cutting-edge, culture-changing work is intrinsically hard and our volunteers, constantly facing new challenges, working remotely without the benefit of shared space to collaborate, need expert support on demand. Jill, long a mentor to fellow volunteers and our right hand go-to resource, will now have more time to help people help birds!

Please join me in celebrating the addition of our new Bird Care Coordinator- the amazing Jill!