We returned to the Running Y yesterday for a Birds of Prey presentation. And this time, the rink did look like this:
...from all the snow! Lots of beautiful snow.
Here are the boys in front of the lodge.
And inside the warm lodge:
The presentation was so good! The boys were a little squirmy because let's face it...they are boys...and sitting still for more than a few minutes is just plain difficult...
but I thought the whole thing was so interesting.
Two ladies from the Badger Run Wildlife Rehab provided the educational presentation for their not-for-profit organization.
They brought some of their "ambassadors" with them: a starling, two red-tailed hawks a great-horned owl, a Swaison's hawk, and a kestrel.
Both of the hawks had been hit by cars. Their website has the stories of their ambassador animals, their success stories, and their statistics of releasing animals back to the wild.
Here is Gaea - a red-tailed hawk...she had gorgeous coloring and they said she was surprisingly large - almost 4 1/2 lbs now.
"Ewok" is a Great Horned Owl who landed on a faulty power pole in a rainstorm and was electrocuted. To save his life they had to amputate a portion of his left wing, rendering him unable to fly. The power company fixed the pole immediately. I knew that owls had exceptional hearing...but I didn't realized that one of their ears is higher than the other so they can hear side to side and up and down. An owl can sit on a football field goalpost and hear a mouse's feet on the other side of a football field and swoop in and retrieve it w/o ever even seeing it. They have special hairs on the edge of their wings to make them silent when they fly.
An owl can carry something four times its weight and fly. Liz (the President) said that would be the equivalent of her carrying 600 lbs on her back and running! Liz said that owls don't prefer to prey on cats and small dogs because it is a lot of work and risky...the owl could get injured as well...but when they have a nest of owlets to feed and are in need...they will-most likely from January-April when the babies are born. I remember some people losing their cats or their cat losing a tail due to owls when we lived in Idaho.
The boys and I with "Ewok":
Liz clarified that if you see a baby bird fall out of its nest..to put it back...and no, the mama bird won't reject it if you touch it. However, in many cases the mama bird knows there is a defect in a baby bird and she can't expend the energy to feed it. You do need to wear thick leather gloves with mammals like squirrels.
We will definitely go back when the boys are older...and we might even volunteer with their baby bird program.
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