Pictured: The inside of Save Our Seabirds habitat and conservation. Photo courtesy of Brian Walton.

In this engaging Q&A, Brian Walton, Executive Director of Save Our Seabirds in Sarasota, shares his insights and passion for avian conservation. Walton discusses his current reads and listens, shedding light on the urgent issues facing bird populations and the innovative fundraising efforts underway to expand their facilities. He also recounts the compelling origin story of the organization and underscores the critical role of community involvement in their mission to protect and rehabilitate injured birds. Read on to learn about Walton’s inspiring and informative dedication to saving seabirds and enhancing public awareness about avian conservation.

SRQ: What book are you reading now that expands on your business acumen?

Walton: I'm reading a book called A Wing and A Prayer: The Race to Save Our Vanishing Birds by Anders Gyllenhaal. That book has been great because we kind of take birds for granted and we think birds are everywhere but scientists are telling us that in the last 50 years, we've lost three billion birds. That means basically one-third of the bird population in North America has disappeared and so the book is just really talking about those issues.

SRQ: What podcast are you listening to that is inspiring you in your business life?

Walton: These days I'm spending a lot of time with a podcast called Capital Campaign Pro and it's just these two ladies who talk about all the ins and outs of conducting successful fundraising campaigns and capital campaigns because here at Save Our Seabirds, we're looking to rebuild our whole campus and build a new hospital. So, we are very much in a fundraising mode, getting our mission and our story out.

SRQ: Share one of your business bucket list items.

Walton: The biggest thing for us is we need to build a new state-of-the-art hospital. Our hospital right now is crammed into a very small footprint. We have a great veterinarian and great hospital staff and they have way more talents and abilities than what they can presently do in our existing hospital. We need newer equipment, but we don't really have any room for any new equipment. So our big bucket list item is to build a large new hospital that will expand what we can do here to treat birds.

SRQ: Share the story of how and why Save Our Seabirds began.

Walton: Back in the 80s, there was a man named Dale Shields. One day, Shields noticed an injured pelican and he stopped, picked it up and took it home where the bird was rehabbed in Dale’s bathtub. It’s like if you never see a purple car and then you go look for purple cars, you will start seeing purple cars everywhere. All of a sudden, Dale started noticing injured pelicans all over the place and pretty soon, he was rehabbing too many in his bathtub which caused him to become known as the Pelican Man. He negotiated with the City of Sarasota to start the facility that we’re at today. It was known as the Pelican Man Sanctuary and became quite successful– Dale even got an award from President Bush. When Dale passed away in 2003, the organization ended up closing until 2006 when one of our current board members funded the operation for Save Our Birds to be opened on the same site as the former Pelican Man Sanctuary. It was birthed out of the recent need. We have a beautiful, diverse wildlife population, especially birds and as Sarasota becomes more and more populated, more birds are being injured due to their proximity to humans. Our need exists to try and mitigate the impact that humans have on the wildlife around us.

SRQ: How do the stories of your "resident" birds, who cannot be released back into the wild, contribute to your educational efforts and public awareness about avian conservation and how can the SRQ community support your efforts?

Walton: None of these birds are coming here because they have a tummy ache. They’re coming because they got stuck in a fishing line or accidentally poisoned by rodenticides. We just hope that people being on our campus will help heighten their awareness so they can make a few changes that would help–don’t leave your fishing line out, just simple things. The way people can be involved is if you encounter a bird that's in distress you call us and we send out volunteers to rescue. From people who do heroic, very involved rescues to people who provide the transport of a bird in a box, we need volunteers for everything. We have people who give tours, people who help with the grounds and facilities and then of course, we have donation boxes on campus. We also have our website where we can accept donations, but unfortunately the 1200 birds that we treat here every year not one of them has health insurance. And so, we're able to do what we do because of the generosity of our community and so we're always happy to talk with new people and talk about how they can help.

For information about Save Our Seabirds, you can visit their website here. https://www.saveourseabirds.org/

Pictured: The inside of Save Our Seabirds habitat and conservation. Photo courtesy of Brian Walton.