Ruffled Feathers Parrot Sanctuary Inc.
Where Hope Takes Flight
May 3rd Over The Years
Welcome back to another round of Over the Years, where May 3 wildlife rescue history drags the entire history of the human species into the same room as the Ruffled Feathers archives to see what shakes out. May 3rd turns out to be one of the busiest days on the calendar. We are talking constitutions, polar expeditions, the birth of spam, the email kind, not the can kind, and a horse race in our own backyard that started a whole tradition. Right alongside all of that, we have been over here pulling ducklings out of storm drains and shuffling cages on Derby Friday like nothing unusual was happening at all.
So, grab the coffee. This is going to be a fun one.
May 3 Wildlife Rescue History Begins with the First Kentucky Derby
On May 3rd, 1875, fifteen thoroughbreds lined up at brand new Churchill Downs and a horse named Aristides took home the very first Kentucky Derby. Right here in Louisville. Ten thousand people showed up to watch. The race has been run every single year since then, which makes it the longest continuously held sporting event in the United States.
Meanwhile, while the rest of the country was inventing The Most Important Two Minutes in Sports on May 3rd, what were we doing on a different May 3rd?
Cage shuffling. The great cage shuffle of May 3rd, 2019, to be precise. Derby Friday, the whole city in hats and seersucker, and I was wrestling the haunted cage out of the garage. Same day we welcomed a fresh batch of new little beauties because Derby weekend at the sanctuary just means more birds, not fewer. The horses got the headlines. Meanwhile, the birds got the haunted cage. Somehow, everybody won. That is the strange magic of May 3 wildlife rescue history around here: the world gets grand traditions, and we get birds, cages, chaos, and stories worth keeping.
May 3 Sanctuary Stories and a Drama-Free Goldie Constitution
Poland adopted Europe’s first modern written constitution on May 3rd, 1791, beating most of the continent by decades. It established separation of powers, civil liberties, the works. Poland still celebrates Constitution Day on this date every year. It is a national holiday with parades and everything.
Then, two hundred and thirty-two years later, on May 3rd, 2023, we ratified our own little constitutional moment around here when Goldie officially became drama free. We are now two years into that streak. For anyone who has ever lived with a parrot, you already know what kind of national holiday that deserves. Separation of powers? More like separation of Goldie from whatever bird was previously stealing her millet. Civil liberties? We have those, but they come with a strict no biting the human clause that we keep failing to ratify.
May 3 Wildlife Rescue History: Byron Swims, Ducklings Drain
On May 3rd, 1810, the poet Lord Byron swam four miles across the Hellespont, that brutal strait between Europe and Asia. He was twenty-two years old, romantic to the bone, and apparently bored. He did it just to prove that the legendary Greek hero Leander could have done it. Then he wrote about it. Of course he did.
Two centuries later, on May 3rd, 2021, I was pulling eleven baby ducklings out of a storm drain in Louisville. However, nobody wrote a poem about it. Also, nobody handed me a laurel wreath. There were no Romantic-era observers swooning on the riverbank. Instead, there was just me, a flashlight, eleven very wet babies, and a very narrow drain.
Byron swam four miles to prove a point. I reached up to my elbow into a storm grate to save eleven lives. I would argue we both did our jobs. For us, May 3 wildlife rescue history will always include those eleven ducklings, because some days become memorable one tiny soaked baby at a time.
1926: Admiral Byrd’s First Flight Over the North Pole
On May 3rd, 1926, American explorer Richard E. Byrd made what he claimed was the first successful flight over the North Pole. The flight took just under sixteen hours and made Byrd a national hero. Decades later there is still some debate about whether he actually made it all the way there, but you cannot deny the man tried.
On May 3rd, 2021, the same day as the storm drain ducklings, I was also dealing with geese stranded on hospital roofs waiting for someone to find the man with the key. No water up there. No way to get them anything until somebody could open the right window. Admiral Byrd flew over the North Pole. I climbed up to a Louisville hospital roof. We both had to deal with weather. We both had to wait on equipment. The big difference is that he had a copilot and I had a goose who was actively rethinking my whole career.
1937: Margaret Mitchell Wins the Pulitzer for Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction on May 3rd, 1937, for Gone with the Wind. One thousand and thirty-seven pages of Civil War-era drama, written by a woman who had never published a novel before. She got the prize. The book sold millions. Hollywood came calling. The whole thing.
Mitchell wrote a thousand pages about imperfect people doing imperfect things in imperfect times. On May 3rd, 2014, before Ruffled Feathers was anywhere close to what it is today, I posted my own little version of that idea: “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” Marilyn Monroe gets the credit. I am just the messenger. But honestly, that quote pretty well sums up our whole approach around here. Mitchell wrote the great American novel. Meanwhile, we just keep writing the great American sanctuary, one bird and one storm drain at a time.
May 3 Sanctuary Stories: Jetliners, Bathwater, and Ray Ray
The British de Havilland Comet, the world’s first commercial jet airliner, made its maiden flight on May 3rd, 1952. Suddenly, humans could cross continents in hours instead of days. As a result, the whole notion of speed got rewritten.
On May 3rd, 2016, our boy Ray Ray demonstrated his own version of breakthrough velocity when he heard the bathwater running. The man goes from zero to fully airborne the moment a faucet turns on. The de Havilland Comet got jet engines. Ray Ray gets a spray bottle. The reaction time is roughly the same.
1978: The First Spam Email Is Sent
On May 3rd, 1978, a marketer named Gary Thuerk sent the very first unsolicited bulk commercial email. Four hundred recipients. The first spam ever. The world has never recovered.
Forty-seven years to the day later, on May 3rd, 2025, I posted a photo to Facebook with the caption “What the heck is this?” I cannot tell you what was in the photo because in proper Brad Harmon fashion I did not provide any context whatsoever. But I can tell you this: every email I get nowadays has roughly the same energy. Now, every single time I open my inbox, I feel like Gary Thuerk’s reluctant great-grandchild going, “what the heck is this?”
1979: Margaret Thatcher Becomes the First Female UK Prime Minister
On May 3rd, 1979, Margaret Thatcher won the general election and became the first woman to lead the United Kingdom. The Iron Lady. She would go on to serve eleven years, longer than any UK PM in the twentieth century.
Tara runs this place with me, and honestly, anybody who has spent five minutes here knows the truth: I rescue the birds, but Tara rescues the rescuer. On May 3rd, 2018, our umbrella cockatoo Misty Chicken was glued to me round the clock dealing with separation anxiety, and Raylin was running his entire scheming-deflection comedy routine in the background. Two iron-willed women, one human and one cockatoo, holding the whole operation together while the rest of us flapped around. Thatcher had a country. Tara has a sanctuary. I know which one is harder.
May 3 Wildlife Rescue History Blows in with a Snapping Turtle
On May 3rd, 1999, an F5 tornado tore through Moore, Oklahoma with measured wind speeds of 301 miles per hour. That is the highest surface wind speed ever recorded on Earth. Forty-six lives lost. Thousands of homes destroyed.
We do not get F5s here much, thank goodness, but we get our own weather. On May 3rd, 2022, a snapping turtle got washed clean out of his pond and ended up sitting in the middle of Dixie Highway looking around like he had just been through, well, an F5. I picked him up. He was unhappy about it. We had a brief and intense disagreement about the situation. Eventually, he went back in the pond. Mother Nature does her thing, and we do ours. Somewhere in the middle, there is a turtle on a six-lane road. May 3 wildlife rescue history does not always arrive with feathers. Sometimes it arrives as an irritated snapping turtle sitting in the middle of Dixie Highway.
World History vs. May 3 Wildlife Rescue History
Here is the scoreboard for the day:
| Year | The World | The Sanctuary |
| 1791 | Poland writes Europe’s first constitution | Not yet on the map |
| 1810 | Byron swims four miles across the Hellespont | Not yet on the map |
| 1875 | First Kentucky Derby runs at Churchill Downs | Not yet on the map |
| 1926 | Byrd flies over the North Pole | Not yet on the map |
| 1937 | Margaret Mitchell wins the Pulitzer | Not yet on the map |
| 1952 | First commercial jet airliner takes flight | Not yet on the map |
| 1978 | The first spam email is sent | Not yet on the map |
| 1979 | Thatcher becomes UK Prime Minister | Brad enters the world |
| 1999 | F5 tornado hits Moore, Oklahoma | Not yet on the map |
| 2014 | Press Freedom Day | “Imperfection is beauty” |
| 2016 | Press Freedom Day | Ray Ray jet-engines for bath time |
| 2018 | Press Freedom Day | Misty Chicken and Raylin run the place |
| 2019 | Press Freedom Day | Great cage shuffle on Derby Friday |
| 2020 | Press Freedom Day | Joe Bob and a beautiful black fox |
| 2021 | Press Freedom Day | 11 ducklings, geese on a hospital roof |
| 2022 | Press Freedom Day | Snapping turtle on Dixie Highway |
| 2023 | Press Freedom Day | Goldie officially drama free |
| 2025 | Press Freedom Day | “What the heck is this?” |
When you stack the world events beside the sanctuary moments, May 3 wildlife rescue history starts looking less like coincidence and more like tradition.
Why May 3 Wildlife Rescue History Keeps Delivering
That is May 3 wildlife rescue history for you: one day on the calendar that somehow gave us the first commercial jet airliner, the first spam email, the first Kentucky Derby, a Pulitzer, an Iron Lady, a 301 mile per hour tornado, and over here at Ruffled Feathers, eleven ducklings, one snapping turtle, a haunted cage, a banshee-screaming Indian Ringneck, and one drama-free Goldie.
History gets the headlines. We just keep showing up for the ones who do not.
Thanks for taking this walk through May 3rd with me. If your favorite May 3rd memory of ours is missing from this post, drop it in the comments. There is always next year, and somehow May 3rd is always going to keep delivering.
See you for the next one.
Brad
Some of our related content and beyond:
What the heck is this?
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Goldie is drama free since May 3, 2023.
Posted by Brad Harmon on Wednesday, May 3, 2023
I think I should turn all these videos into TikTok�s. The snapping turtle got washed out and was in Dixie Hwy right in…
Posted by Brad Harmon on Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Hopefully they can find the man with the key and tomorrow�s project will be to clear several hospital roofs of these guys. No water up there and no way to get them any until the windows can be opened so hopefully it�s something that can be done early. Good luck little ones I will be back.
Posted by Brad Harmon on Monday, May 3, 2021
11 babies fished out of a storm drain
Posted by Brad Harmon on Monday, May 3, 2021
Sorry I�ve been super busy again with baby everything season in full swing. I got to be a part of helping this beautiful…
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Sunday, May 3, 2020
Joe bob and a beautiful black fox.
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As derby draws to a close I�m pooped. The day was definitely not wasted tho. Woke up to deliver all the critters to…
Posted by Brad Harmon on Saturday, May 2, 2020
The great cage shuffle is complete. I had to use the haunted cage from the garage so we will see how that goes. Lol We…
Posted by Brad Harmon on Friday, May 3, 2019
Today�s new little beauties. I don�t get to stop and party like the rest of the city. Maybe we will just have our own little birdie party instead of a derby party. Lol
Posted by Brad Harmon on Friday, May 3, 2019
Another busy day today. We don�t get days off to party and enjoy ourselves like the rest of the city. Today we welcomed…
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Friday, May 3, 2019
Crazy bird flying all around the house screaming like a banshee. He�s having fun so whatever. Lol have a wonderful Friday everyone. – Brad
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Friday, May 3, 2019
Birds of North America: Brandt's Cormorant Like the European Shag, Brandt's Cormorant is exclusively marine, breeding…
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Thursday, May 3, 2018
Raylin has been quite a character today. He will do something and then say �stop it� followed by another birds name. Lol. Boy, he keeps me on my toes! Take care! -Tara
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Thursday, May 3, 2018
Baby is up and ready for the day!Its what is known as � Thurby� here in our city. It�s another big day for races leading…
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Many of you know Misty chicken but if not she is an umbrella cockatoo that has separation anxiety so I have been keeping…
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Somebody decided they didn't want this baby anymore so they dropped him off at our business. I couldn't turn him away so…
Posted by Brad Harmon on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Birds of South America: Smooth-billed Ani Belying the parasitic reputation of their family, these black cuckoos lead…
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Chase decided he was finished playing so he got down and walked to me. Have a great night! -Tara
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Nice color for Hump Day! Easy one! Can you name him? – Marsha
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Rudy Roo seems to be opening up. Everyday he says a little more or makes more sound effects. I'm interested to see how Chase and Stormy will react to him. Quarantine takes forever! -Tara
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Somebody got caught ripping toys up on the table lol-Wessie/Jessie
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Baby is so sweet but boy is she loud! I took this photo in between hi baby's and screams. Lol. Bird life! Have a great night! -Tara
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Jade says "Everyone should be able to do one card trick, tell two jokes, and recite three poems, in case they are ever…
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Good Morning everyone! Cookie is enjoying the aviary. Have a great day! -Tara
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Ohhhh Kermie! She never lets me kiss her head! Last night she couldn't get enough! The first time i kissed her she perked up and said "hey! What are you doing!" Lol -Seeairuh
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Birds of North America: Scissor Tailed Flycatcher The Scissor Tailed Flycatcher is a striking inhabitant of the…
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Couple of chillin babies on a cold rainy day
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Bobba says good morning 🙂
Posted by Dan Lawrence Berg on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Today's video is Ray getting all excited about bath time. My birds love the sound of running water and that always gets them going. Have a great evening everyone. – Brad
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Today's video is Ray getting all excited about bath time. My birds love the sound of running water and that always gets them going. Have a great evening everyone. – Brad
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Tuesday, May 3, 2016Ray is not so sure about this birthday present. Don't worry buddy you're the one and only Ray Ray. – Brad
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Ray is not so sure about this birthday present. Don't worry buddy you're the one and only Ray Ray. – Brad
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
This bird loves to watch an army on the move everyday. Can you name this bird? – Brad
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
This bird loves to watch an army on the move everyday. Can you name this bird? – Brad
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Ray heard the water running for his birthday bath and boy does he get excited. It's my fault because I always try to…
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Ray tells Kiki that "Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple." First said however by Dr. Seuss. Have a great Tuesday everyone. – Brad
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Good morning. It's toos-day. Yesterday was Ray's birthday so it is going to be an all Ray day today. He wants to see…
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Man Helps Baby Robin Find WormsEarly bird gets the worm… Provided by ViralHog
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My PSA for tonight: BE STILL Most people fortunate enough to live with birds probably know all about this but I …
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Well, Frankie didn't get the adventure he thought he'd get today, but he got another adventure of sorts! And he showed…
Posted by Ruffled Feathers on Monday, May 2, 2016
Somebody decided they didn't want this baby anymore so they dropped him off at our business. I couldn't turn him away so…
Posted by Brad Harmon on Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.
Posted by Brad Harmon on Saturday, May 3, 2014
Posted by Brad Harmon on Saturday, May 3, 2014
If anybody would like to go to the oaks today let me know! I have two tickets. Cheap to the right friend. Lol
Posted by Brad Harmon on Friday, May 3, 2013
The evil Monday is over and it's time to go home!
Posted by Brad Harmon on Monday, May 3, 2010
Where Hope Takes Flight
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