We keep our sailboat at the Port Whitby Marina on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Since the harbor and sometimes the lake freeze in winter, the boat is stored on a cradle on land. On April 23, we removed the winter cover to prepare for our launch on May 13. A couple of days before the launch, we did some final preparations. Checking the anchor locker, we found a nest with four blue eggs.

So we knew we couldn’t launch on schedule. The anchor locker is at the bow of the boat. It has a cover with a small opening for the anchor chain—a perfect place for starlings to build a nest!

We canceled our launch and e-mailed the picture to the Toronto Wildlife Centre, which thought the eggs were those of starlings and would probably hatch within a couple of weeks. We rescheduled for June 3, with the plan to move the nest after the nestlings hatched to a box and place it on the cradle until they fledged. On May 31, we went to the marina and watched from a distance for a while. Both parents were busy feeding the babies. They would fly away together for about five minutes, then return with some food. Each would go in separately to do the feeding and then take off again to search for more food. We posted a short video about the process on YouTube, titled “Feeding Time on Our Boat.”

During one of the five-minute periods, we quickly took a picture of the nestlings and e-mailed it to the Toronto Wildlife Centre, which estimated that the babies would fledge in seven to 10 days. We abandoned the idea of moving the nest and decided to wait until the fledglings had left it. Again, we rescheduled our launch date, this time for June 13. On June 12, we opened the anchor locker and out flew the four starlings. We called the wildlife centre and got the go-ahead to launch the next day. Saturday, June 13, was a beautiful, sunny day to put Solange III in the water. Some starlings were watching. Wildlife is under threat from climate change, pesticides, urban development, and other types of human activity. Giving four common starlings a chance to survive was just one small gesture that was not hard at all for us to do.

We’d like to thank the Toronto Wildlife Centre for its guidance and the Port Whitby Marina for its patience and support.

Written by Gilles and Vicki Fecteau, longtime Vanguard Society and Augustus Club members. They live in Toronto, Ontario and love sailing, but not as much as they love helping animals.