We flew a Northern Hawk Owl at the clinic today. He did pretty well for the first 4 flights but was quite tired by the 6th. This was his first time outdoors since being admitted. Hopefully ready for release in 2 weeks.
Correction: the northern hawk owl will not be released until mid March at the earliest due to weather considerations. He has a long way to go in his rehabilitation too and we are just really starting with him.
Thanks to a late evening call from a birding buddy, I located and photographed a Long-eared Owl this morning. This little guy was in Crosby Park in St. Paul. Not far from here, a Long-eared Owl was reported on the 2009 Christmas Bird Count in Lilydale Park for the first time on count day since 1944, the first year of our local CBC. Wonder if it’s the same guy??
100’s of people showed up to witness the release of “Harley”, the bald eagle on Saturday and the event received a great deal of good press for both the Raptor Center and the Carpenter Nature Center. Several of us had a beer with Brian after the release and listened to his stories of the rescue and adventure in August.
Back to work tomorrow getting the next eagle ready for his/her release. We will be flying eagles in Como Park between 9 and 11am most Tuesdays and Thursdays.
In early August on a long stretch of County Highway T near Wascott, Wisconsin, motorcyclist Brian Baladez passed a bald eagle on the side of the road. Realizing the bird was injured, Baladez wrapped it in his leather jacket, strapped it to the back of his Harley Davidson motorcycle and transported it to the Duluth Zoo to find help. One vet and police car ride later, Brian and eagle were referred to the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center in St. Paul, one of the most renowned centers for raptor medicine and surgery.
At The Raptor Center, Dr. Irene Bueno-Padilla, a Veterinary Intern from Spain, lead the case diagnosing the eagle with a fractured ulna (wing) and lead poisoning. The lead poisoning is most likely the result of consuming prey shot with lead bullets. In addition, readers of the Duluth News Tribune named him “Harley” in reference to his unorthodox rescue vehicle after his story was published. To repair his broken wing, Harley underwent surgery performed by Dr. Julia Ponder. Harley’s flight rehabilitation was delayed due to intense molting of his flight feathers. According to Dr. Ponder, this is a common problem associated with wing injuries.
With the help of numerous volunteers, Harley took flight in mid-December and has been exercised regularly since then. A video of one of the training sessions is posted at http://vimeo.com/8873719. Now that The Raptor Center staff is confident that Harley will be able to survive on his own in the wild, he will be released at Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center near Hastings. From there, it is likely that Harley will go north to find a mate. Wherever he goes, Harley can now take to the skies and fly free.
Come to Carpenter Nature Center at noon on Saturday, January 30th to watch Harley be released!
Next week, I’ll post some pictures or video of the release party.
Early morning, January 1st, 2010. A neighbor calls, says “get up and bring your camera… there’s a big hawk in my yard”. I did catch a glimpse in the binocs of what I assumed was a red-shouldered hawk, but he didn’t stick around long enough for a picture.
Monday evening, as we pulled back into the driveway from our trip up north, the same bird was sitting in a tree next to our garage. This time he waited for me to get out my camera and edge a bit closer. The only other RSHA I’ve seen before was a Raptor Center release. Fun way to start the year.
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