Audubon sponsored a field trip down to the Tamarack Rehabilitation and Education Center today. It’s a fascinating little place where over 200 animals are cared for each year. While they specialize in raptors, they do take in smaller birds, mammals and reptiles. Most are fixed up and returned to the wild. A few unreleasable raptors have stayed on for educational purposes and we got to meet them:
Ick-a-Bobette is a Great Horned Owl. What a pretty bird she is. (Later, when she was returned to her room, she called and called for us. Such a lovely song.)
Next up was a Cooper’s Hawk named Spaz Bird.
He did try to fly off the glove a couple of times, but he wasn’t too spazzy.
The Peregrine Falcon was a delight to see up close!
“Lady Hawk,” a Red-tailed Hawk, was simply regal:
A couple more owls rounded out the program: “Sophia” the Barred Owl and “Peeker” the little Saw-whet.
These education birds all had severe enough injuries that they could not be released back into the wild. It was a delight to see them up close and learn about some of their amazing adaptations and habits.
Kudos to Suzanne B. DeArment, the licensed rehabilitator, and Carol Holmgren, the Education Coordinator at the Center. They do incredible work.
Suzanne DeArment inside the enormous Flight Cage
Carol Holmgren and Ick-a-Bobette, the Great Horned Owl
Learn more about the Center by clicking HERE.
Dang !! I wish I’d have known about this field trip. I might have joined you all. Tamarack’s only about 35 miles from home.
Instead, I forced myself to stay home and tend to a matted, thatched mess of leaves and grass in my front yard. I did this only because it really needed done and I could not find any other activities to get me out of doing it.
My family would have loved this !!
Sounds like a wonderful organization. I definitely would love to check it out when I head back to base.
What a neat place and such beautiful birds. Thanks for sharing the story and pictures with us.
Great pictures Jennifer. When I travel I like calling in to these places. Some of our wildlife rescue centres in the south of Australia are still rehabilitating native wildlife which suffered badly in the bushfires in February…wombats with patches over their eyes, kangaroos with bandaged paws. It makes appealing photographs, but the pain from burns for these creatures must be excrutiating.
That Saw-Whet is just too cute. What a cool little predator! We saw one on the side of the road last year, just standing there, and thought it was injured. So we stopped the car and slowly approached, but it wanted nothing to do with us and flapped away, if a little unsteadily. It must have just been ‘nicked’ by a car. We were so grateful it was alright! Thanks for these incredible pictures — it must have been amazing to be so close to those raptors.
Very cool to see those birds up-close! The Saw-whet is impossibly cute, and the Peregrine looks mighty fierce.