STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Cheri Watson was taking part in St. Lukes Wood River’s annual volunteer appreciation luncheon when a fellow volunteer arrived late.

Joy Bond was late, she confided, because she was assisting in a medical emergency.

But this wasn’t a medical emergency of the human kind. This “patient” had a broken wing.

Bond, who lives in Sun Valley, had rescued it and just happened to have a dog cage in the car that she was able to set it in. She was planning to transport it to a bird rehab following the luncheon.

Injured birds magically seem to find themselves in Bond’s care. She’s found them lying injured on sidewalks. And she’s seen them smack into chimneys or break a wing falling out of their nests.

It all started in New York City where Bond was working as a nurse. She heard a ruckus outside and ran out to find a pigeon that had been hit by a car.

Upon spotting the injured bird, she retrieved a newspaper from a trash can and used that to capture the bird. She then took it to a vet who offered to fix the bird’s wing free of charge.

“I became Mother Scold, a mother hen, not letting anyone near her while she rehabilitated,” she said.

When the bird was healthy again, she released it on the street corner where she had found it.

“It was quite an experience from day one. To see it take off…”

Since moving to Sun Valley, Bond has continued to keep an eye out for injured or sick birds. She even adopted two finches at the Boise animal shelter when she was doing a day run for the Wood River Valley shelter.

And, recently, she kept a motherly eye on a sparrow that appeared to injure its wing after its mother pushed it out of its nest.

“It appeared to be clumsy. But, eventually, as it flapped its wings it seemed to get stronger. I saw it on top of the fence the other day so I know it can fly at least that high.”

Despite her love for birds, there is one bird, however, that she had to talk herself into rescuing.

That would be a black and white magpie.

“I had a robin build a nest on my deck and proceed to fill it with eggs. And a magpie got the eggs. So I have not been happy about magpie since,” she said.

That said, her nurturing instincts kicked in when she found a magpie with a broken wing wobbling  around on the ground.

“I thought, ‘Oh Lord, please. I know you’re testing me. But I can’t let him be eaten by a dog or cat,’ ” she recounted. “I said, ‘I hope you’re not the one who killed my birds.’ Then I went into rescue mode.”

Bond fed the bird, which looked as if it had not eaten for a few days. Then she took it to the vet.

“The vet said it would not be able to come back from its injuries so we had to put it to sleep,” she recounted. “I did give it a good last supper, though. I laid out some food for it and it went right over to the food and started eating, and it ate a lot. So, I was happy for that.”

Bond of course, has a soft spot for dogs and cats, as well, having volunteered with Mountain Humane, or what used to be known as the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley. But, she admits she has an especially soft spot in her heart for her feathered friends.

“These birds are such beautiful animals,” she said. “You see these beautiful creations hurting and you just compelled to get them away from danger.”