About the author
Rachel has loved and respected every living thing her entire life. She was born both curious and fearless. At the age of one-and-a half, she came upon two tarantulas that seemed to be fighting under the magnolia tree in the front yard. She squatted down to take a look, then leaned in further for a closer look. The tarantulas turned their attention to her, both jumped on her face, and bit her. She was startled but did not cry. She brushed them off and ran in the house to tell her grandmother what had happened. Her horrified grandmother said that they looked like bee stings and put medication on them. Rachel insisted that they were spiders and pleaded with her grandmother to go see them. The tarantulas were still there back to their business under the magnolia tree. Granny was horrified.
There was a wooded area close to the family home where the neighborhood children often played. Occasionally Rachel brought home orphaned babies to raise and then release back to the wild. Early on, she became fascinated with birds. Her father was also a bird lover who patiently identified all the birds seen in their yard. He taught her that a baby bird that fell or was blown out of the nest could be placed back into its nest and the parents would not reject it, but happily accept the baby back home. He told her that it was an incorrect old wives' tale that a human touch would cause bird parents to reject the baby. Although many people believed that, it just was not so.
Growing up she continued to learn about many species of birds from her father and from books. The family veterinarian, Dr. Paul Brandes, patiently taught her how to properly nourish, and set broken necks, wings, and legs of the birds that she found or were brought to her. On one special day this kind and gentle man gifted her with an avian veterinary textbook that he had kept from his college days. She was delighted.
Rachel continued her formal education as well as spending many hours in dance class, and training horses for others as well as her own. She grew in her knowledge and appreciation of all living creatures and especially her great love…. birds. The pursuit of higher education took her to several cities, but eventually she and her family settled in her hometown of Corpus Christi in the Coastal Bend Area of Texas. She received her state and federal bird rehabilitation licenses and the word soon got out that "The Bird Lady" as she was called by everyone was back home. Soon there were scores of calls about birds in need of rescue and bird lovers bringing birds to her home both day and night. She never turned away a bird even when there were already many in rehabilitation. She was blessed with the ability to perform very well on just a few hours of sleep and she could not have accomplished saving multitudes of birds without the active support and help of her family. Rachel developed protocols, techniques, and maintained as close to natural environments as conditions allowed. The result was most of her rehab birds not only survived but flourished and were eventually released back to nature where they belonged. She is honored and delighted to have been a part of rehabilitating and releasing many thousands of birds back into their natural habitat.
Master educator Rachel Whitefield Wilken gained national acclaim with her research concerning the identification of the presentation of the main idea. The mistake she discovered had several textbook publishers stop the presses in order to make corrections in their textbooks. She enjoyed teaching for several decades.