People often ask me how I became so interested in birds. I think it mostly developed from my father's love of animals and especially his obsession with ducks. My father was an avid decoy duck collector. Growing up in California, our house and yard were full of decoys. He had over 300 carved decoy ducks, geese, shorebirds and turtles. And that doesn't count all the duck lamps, pillows, towels, neckties, etc. My dad also loved to stop at wetlands to look at all the breeds of ducks. I grew to love bird watching with him and soon found myself fascinated by all birds.

I loved art and wanted to draw wildlife and birds and dreamed of being another John J. Audubon. In college I studied wildlife photography and biomedical illustration. I studied closely the details of dead bird skins at the natural history museums. And when that was not available, I would get ducks from hunters or pick up road-kill hawks and owls to use as models. Being enchanted by the beauty of these creatures, I wanted to paint every feather. I was interested in becoming a biologist working to protect the birds and other wildlife, but I was good at art and it seemed to be my calling.

In 1980 I moved to St Croix and continued painting birds. In a short time I found an injured red-tail hawk. With help I built a large cage in the yard, nursed him back to heath and released him. The local animal shelter heard of my interest and asked if I would care for other injured birds. In California there were many people doing this kind of work, but here on St. Croix there were few with the time and interest. Since my career as an artist was always done at home, I was able to have the luxury of caring for birds during the day also.

For the past 29 years I have been a slow- growing, one-woman avian rehabilitation center. The St Croix Avian Sanctuary is now an official non-profit center and is run solely on donations. I am a licensed bird rehabilitator with DPNR, Division of Fish and Wildlife. Every year I give tours to hundreds of people and also go to local schools to educate the children about showing kindness to birds. My yard is now decorated with six large aviary-type cages that temporarily house injured or young pelicans, frigate birds, egrets, herons, red-tail hawks, osprey, peregrine falcons, kestrels, terns, gulls, pigeons and more.

As a young person I dreamed of either painting birds or working with them, but never imagined being in a position to do both simultaneously. How fortunate I am to arise each morning to the beauty of these magnificent birds and to the challenge of helping them return to the wild. For more information, call The St Croix Avian Sanctuary (340) 773-1839, or email lance.antonia@gmail.com.