Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day to all of my friends in the US. This handsome fellow is Othello. He is one of our education eagles at The Raptor Center.

Seven Years

 This Tuesday will mark the seventh year anniversary of the Ecobirder blog. I began the blog on Earth Day in 2007. In October of the 2007 I began as a volunteer at The Raptor Center. At first I began as on the Transport Crew. These are the people that go out to pick up injured birds. As a part of the Transport Crew I was happy that I was helping The Raptor Center fulfill their important mission but since I was only at TRC when I was dropping of a bird I did not feel like I was as involved as I wanted to be.

 So I asked the Volunteer Coordinator if I could come into the center and help out during my transport shift. So they agreed to let me become a lobby assistant on Wednesday afternoon. The lobby assistants job is to greet visitors when they arrive and help out with the office administration. This was definitely a step in the right direction but I was still not completely satisfied. So I started bugging the staff and with in a couple of months I was able to worm my way on to the Education Crew.

 When you begin on the education crew you spend most of your time cleaning. You clean the crates, you clean the mews and you clean the dishes. That is because one of the primary jobs of the ed crew is to take care of our 30+ education birds. The other primary job of the ed crew is to help educate the public about raptors and TRC. Eventually after training you get to begin interacting with the public by doing tours. Since I already knew a lot about raptors, after all I had been photographing them for about 20 years before beginning at TRC, it did not take me long to start giving tours. Eventually after a year in education I auditioned and began being trained as a handler.

Handlers use many of the techniques of falconry to work with the birds. Handlers are responsible for doing programs for the public and private groups. They also help the staff reinforce positive behaviors by feeding the birds while they have them on the glove. The photos above are just 3 of the birds that I have handled over the past 5 years. Handling is one of the most rewarding experiences at The Raptor Center. Another rewarding experience is the occasional opportunity to release an eagle. This winter we had a lot of snow which made it very difficult for the Flight Crew to take the eagles out for their final practice flights. So as the snow melted we had a good number of eagles that were ready to be released. Since I had not released one since February of 2008 I had the opportunity to release this very handsome male at the Carpenter Nature Center at the beginning of April. My friend Les, who is a great photographer and a member of the Wednesday afternoon ed crew photographed the release for me. The other photos where taken by my old crew leader and TRC staffer Kelly Scott.

Whisper

For the past several years I have had the pleasure of putting together the calendar for The Raptor Center. Each year it has been a struggle trying to figure out how to photograph the birds, after all most of my experience has been with birds that do not sit still let alone pose. This picture is my favorite so far. This was the October photo in the 2013 calendar. The photo was taken in a small pumpkin field at the University of Minnesota St Paul Campus, where The Raptor Center is located. The UofM St Paul Campus houses the School of Agricultural and the School of Veterinary Medicine, which is why it is one of the few places in Minnesota where you can find a barn owl and a pumpkin patch. Whisper is one of our education birds. She came to TRC from the World Bird Sanctuary. The World Bird Sanctuary raises barn owls as part of a release program in Missouri but Whisper was slated to become an education bird.  

Farewell to a Good Friend

Thanks my little Cinn-a-mini. It was a great pleasure to work with you. You always made me smile and I will  miss you very much. 

Target Field

 I am not much of a sports fan. I usually have better things to do, other then an occasional football game. It does not help that most of the professional men's sports teams around have not been able to get the job done when it comes to the big game. The exception to this is the Twins who have won two World Series. That is probably why they got a new stadium a couple of years ago.

Today is opening day at Target Field, the home of the Twins. Since I am not much of a baseball fan I had never been to the new stadium. However as part of the opening day festivities two of our eagles from The Raptor Center will be at the game to help with the National Anthem. I went along earlier this week to take some pics of a practice session. I have to admit that it was kind of cool being down on the field. Pi our immature bald eagle, first pic, was not faced by all of the preparations that were going on around us. Max, our big female in the lower pic, decided to pass on a homer dog and went for the rat choice instead. In just a minute the game will begin so I need to check out the show to see how my friends do. 

Snowy Owl Visitor

 Minnesota is some what unique in its location and habitat. We have 4 separate biomes in the state. We have prairie parklands, similar to the great plains in the western third of the state. Eastern broadleaf forest, similar to much of the land east of the Mississippi, in the south east third. In the north east there is Laurentian mixed forest, which is similar the forests in southern Canada.  last there is a small area of aspen parklands in the northwest. The mixture of these habitats provides Minnesota with a variety of different species which varies depending upon the season. For instance last winter we had a lot of snowy owls that came down from their normal range in Canada and Alaska. These birds migrate south only when there is not enough food or too many birds. It is a treat to get to see these beautiful birds but unfortunately many end up getting themselves in trouble. I took these pictures with the flight crew at The Raptor Center. A week or two after the pictures where taken these owls were released back to the wild. This is one of the calendar pages on the new 2013 Raptor Calendar, most of which I shot and put together for them. If you are interested in supporting a great cause you can purchase one of these kick ass calendars here.

Taiga's TRC calendar Photo

TRC 2013 Calendar

This year I have worked to put together a calendar for The Raptor Center, as I have for the past few years. The calendar features many of our education birds, such as Whisper who was the featured bird for October 2013. The calendar also has pictures of birds being exercised with our flight crews, and birds being released back to the wild. I also intersperse the calendar with some of my wild raptor photos so that people can see some of the birds in their natural habitat. We also add a lot of information about the birds as well as the different species of raptors. The calendar is a bit more expensive then the cheap calendars that you can find at stores but all the proceeds go to help The Raptor Center treat and rehabilitate between 600 to 800 raptors each year. If you are interested you can purchase a calendar online here. 

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets! To join in the fun just post a photo of a bird and then link it by here by using the handy dandy link below. Then make sure you visit other sites to do a little bird watching.

Nova the Northern Saw-whet Owl

 Our newest education bird at The Raptor Center is this cute little northern saw-whet owl. As their name implies the northern saw-whet are birds that are found in the north. Their range includes southern Canada, northern U.S. and parts of the Rocky Mountains. Northern saw-whets often migrate south during the winter when food becomes scarce in their northern range. They typically eat mice, particularly deer mice, which they catch while hunting at night.  

 Nova is a female northern saw-whet owl. She was named recently in a public naming contest. The name Nova is short for Nova Scotia which is a province in which the northern saw-whet was first discovered. At that time that part of Canada was a French colony called Acadia which is why the scientific name for the Northern saw-whet is Aegolius acadicus. Nova is unable to be released back to the wild because she is blind in one eye which is pretty noticeable in the photo above.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets! To join in the fun just post a photo of a bird and then link it by here by using the handy dandy link below. Then make sure you visit other sites to do a little bird watching.

Pi

This handsome fellow is Pi. Pi is one of our education birds at The Raptor Center. He may look a bit different then many of the bald eagles that you have seen before. That is because Pi is just beginning to become an adult. Bald eagles do not reach maturity until they are around 5 years old. While they are immature they look quite different. Their feather are mostly brown, although some do get a mottling of white feathers on their wings and/or chest. Immature eagles also have a dark silvery beaks and brown eyes. PI is about 4 years old. With this years molt he has begun to get his adult plumage. This process usually takes 2 or 3 molts to complete and since they molt each feather only once a year the entire process will take a couple of years or more.

Fall Release

 

 This past Saturday was The Raptor Center's annual Fall Raptor Release. This event has been held at the beautiful Carpenter Nature Center, over looking the scenic St Croix River, for the past 5 years. Even with the cold and cloudy weather that we had we still had a good crowd. The highlight of the event is when we release rehabbed birds back into the wild. This year we released 6 birds. Two of the released birds were bald eagles. We only birds in the appropriate habitat and since the Carpenter Nature Center is right on the St Croix near to when it joins the Mississippi it is great habitat for eagles.  

My main job at the release was to take pictures. This was not so easy this year since the cloudy skies made the lighting difficult to work with. Fortunately we did have a bit of clearing as the day went which did give us a little light to work with. My other duty during the event was to help out at our raptor rings. We bring many of our education birds out to the release so that during the day people get get a good close look at a variety of different raptors. The ed raptors are divided into rings. This year we had 3 rings, one with bald eagles and our turkey vulture and 2 others that have a mix of hawks, falcons and owls. So while I was getting some nice close ups of our ed birds, like the one above of Samantha the great horned owl, I also answered questions about the raptors. It turned out to be another great event.

Harley's Passing

I received some sad news yesterday. Harley, a special bald eagle that was rehabilitated at The Raptor Center has passed away. Many bald eagles are treated and released from The Raptor Center but because of the special circumstances of his rescue Harley had gained some local notoriety. Harley was found by the side of the road by Brian Baladez up in North western Wisconsin. Even though Brian was riding his motorcycle at the time he did not want to leave the injured eagle to die. So he wrapped up the bird in his leather jacket, strapped it to his bike and drove it to the Duluth Zoo.
The eagle was transferred to The Raptor Center where he was treated for a wing injury and lead poisoning. The local Duluth newspapers heard about the incident and printed the story making Brian and the eagle local celebrities. The eagle was named Harley and about six months later he was ready for release. Brian traveled down to the Twin Cities and had the privilege of releasing Harley Back into the wild in front of a couple hundred people at the Carpenter Nature Center. When Harley was released he was fitted with a satellite transmitter so that his fans could monitor his movements at The Raptor Center's website. In September Harley's transmitter went silence in northern Minnesota near Evelyth. We were all hoping that it was a possible problem with the transmitter but unfortunately Harley's body, along with the transmitter was located by the Minnesota DNR and returned to The Raptor Center. Even though it is sad that Harley has passed on it is important to remember that because of Brian and many other people who helped him out Harley had a second chance at life. He lived free in the wild for two more years then he would have if Brian had not cared enough to stop. He also helped to give many people a small glimpse into the life of a wild bald eagle.

Raptor Release

The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota takes in between 600 to 800 injured raptors every year. The clinic is world renown and they work hard to heal and rehabilitate every bird that is admitted. The highlight of being involved with The Raptor Center is when we get to release a recovered bird back into the wild. Birds are released all the time but twice a year we invite the public to come and join with us and celebrate as we have a big public release. This photo was taken at the fall 2010 release at the Carpenter Nature Center. It is also the featured photo on the 2012 Raptor Center calendar. If you would like to help out the great work that The Raptor Center does you can purchase a fund raising calendar by going to their online store.

Samantha

Samantha is a large female great horned owl in the education department at The Raptor Center. We are not sure how old that she is because when she was admitted in February of 1992 she was already an adult. She was hit by a car out near Deer River, MN and fractured the ulna and radius in her left wing. This permanently impaired her ability to fly so she could not be released back into the wild. Samantha graces the month of January in the 2012 Raptor Center Calendar. I took most of the pics in the calendar and put it together to help raise funds to care for the injured raptors at The Raptor Center. The calendar is available to order at The Raptor Center's online store.

Juneau

Juneau is one of three female peregrine falcons that we have in the education department at The Raptor Center. Juneau was discovered walking along the shore of Lake Erie near Point Mouilee, MI with an injured wing in September of 1998. When she arrived at The Raptor Center several days later it was determined that she had been illegally shot in her right shoulder. The TRC vets did all that they could but the damage to her shoulder was irreparable. Juneau can fly for a short distance but could not survive on her own out in the wild. Juneau is a great part of our education department. She was the second peregrine falcon that I learned to handle and has been one of the most common birds that I work with at TRC. That is why I was excited to use her in the 2012 TRC calendar. The picture above can be found representing the month of April. It was shot at the Gortner Parking Facility on the U of M St Paul Campus.

I think that the 2012 Raptor Center calendar is even better then the 2011 was. I photographed and put together both calendars so if you enjoy my photographs on the blog then here is your chance to have some print copies to own. The calendar is available online for $20. This is a bit more expensive then calenders you can buy at the store but please remember that part of the money from the calendar helps to feed and care for injured raptors.

You can order your calendar here.

TRC 2011 Calendar

This year besides putting out my annual calendar I also volunteered to put together a calendar for The Raptor Center. They did put together a quick one back at the end of 2009 but I wanted to take some time and put together something that looked professional. For the cover we took everyone that was a bird handler that was around on a Friday afternoon, gave them a bird and had them stand together in front of the TRC building. Each of the handlers above is holding a different species of raptor.

I started out the calendar by going through pics that we already had to see if there was anything that we could use. I did not want to use any stock pics that had been used many times, but since many of us take a lot of pics of the birds I wanted to see what was available. Going back in my files I found this pic, of one of the education staff, Adam, holding a red-tailed hawk named Casper, at one of our public releases.

The Raptor Center has two big public releases each year. I always volunteer to help out but sneak away at release time to try and get a few pics of the releases. Of all of the release photos that I have taken over the years this shot that I got at the Fall release at Carpenter Nature Center was by far the best. As soon as I saw the picture I knew that it had to be included in the calendar. The expression on the releaser's face and the way her arms are in almost perfect symmetry to the hawks wings make this photo a perfect representation of TRC's mission to release rehabilitated raptors back into the wild.

While we were waiting to take the cover shot, it is quite a trick to get that many raptors sitting calmly so close together, I took several shots of individual birds. While I was taking picture of Artemis, one of our peregrine falcons, she decided to rouse. This is an action that raptors do when they are comfortable to sort of arrange their feathers.

During the cover photo shoot I also got this nice shot of our barn owl, whisper. Barn owls have very keen hearing and Whisper is always quick to check out every little sound, even the ones that we can not hear.

I was beginning to run out of time so I set up a photo shoot to try and get pictures of the remaining birds that I was planning to use for the calendar. Nero is the only turkey vulture in the education department at TRC. He is also one of our oldest birds, having hatched in 1974. Often when you walk by his mew on a sunny day you will see him sunning himself with his wings wide open. That was what I was looking for when we took his pic for the calendar. Unfortunately it is hard to get that six foot wingspan in a shot for an 8 1/2 x 11 format. This side shot is what I settled for.

We photographed Taiga several different times looking for the right pics. I was trying to get many of the birds in what would be a natural environment for their species. Merlin falcons, like Taiga, often nest in evergreen trees so we finally decided on this shot which we took in the evergreens that are behind The Raptor Center.

Our male kestrels, Barron and Jack, are very much free spirits. Since both are imprints, their nest blew down when they were hatchlings and the people that found them kept them too long so now they do not look at people the way that a wild kestrel would, they can fly. So I wanted to capture their spirit in the photo. This photo of Barron facing a blue sky did the trick.

Originally I had planned on using Whisper for the month of October, since the background of her picture is very fall looking but when I saw how this photo of Mestaae, an eastern screech owl, turned out I knew that this photo had to be the one for October. We shot the pic in the same evergreens as we did Taiga but in this spot there were other trees behind which created the shade which is the back ground.

Not all of the pics that we used in the calendar were ones that I took. There was one page which was dedicated to the TRC clinic that I pulled pictures from the TRC files, and there was a great shot of one of our mature eagles, Leuc, that was taken by our education director. I really was leery about having more then one picture of any species but I really wanted to include a pic of one of our immature eagles, after all they want look like this forever. Gail was nice enough to take out Pi for a photo shoot but the picture that I decided on, above, was one I took when we stopped to talk to someone that was passing bye. Walking around with an eagle on your arm usually tends to attract attention. So when a pedestrian stopped to ask what type of bird that it was Gail took the opportunity to do some interpretation. This is a big part of what the education staff and volunteers do at TRC but our educational partners, our ed raptors, are always the real star.

On the back cover I included this tribute to Odie the barred owl. I took the photo in December of 2009. Odie passed away about 5 months later, May of 2010. He was a very popular bird at TRC that had been at the center for over 18 years. It is important at TRC that we do not think of these birds like we would a pet but working with them on a daily or weekly basis over years you are bound to get attached, which makes it difficult when the time comes to say goodbye.

If you are interested in one of these calendars there may still be some available. You can check The Raptor Center website for more info.