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Soarin Hawk Newsletter resumes !!!

Thanks to a lot of hard work by volunteer Lynne O we have resumed publishing a monthly newsletter.   Watch for your copy on the first Monday of every month!

If you would like to sign-up for the newsletter, click on subscribe now

Soarin' Hawk's Newsletter is Sponsored Proudly by Bob Rohrman Subaru of Fort Wayne.

 

SHRR - Going Green!

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WFFT)- Owls, while being beautiful creatures, are also vital to the ecosystem.

On Going Green, FOX 55's Abby Jackson tells you why many raptors end up here at SHRR and how you can help them!

Click the links below to find out more and to watch a couple great videos!

http://www.wfft.com/content/features/Going-Green-Owls-at-Soarin-Hawk--49...

http://www.wfft.com/content/features/Going-Green-Soarin-Hawk-Raptor-Resc...

 

Wayne - Rehabbed Bald Eagle Released at Eagle Marsh

After three months of rehabilitation with Soarin' Hawk Raptor Rehab, a bald eagle has been released back into the wild. On Thursday, the raptor was set free by volunteers at Eagle Marsh. When Soarin' Hawk first found the bird, it wasn't able to fly.

Click here to read more!

Bald Eagle To Be Released Thursday - WFFT

The mature eagle had to undergo surgery to have a pin placed, and went through physical therapy. Now, he's flying very well according to the vet at Soarin Hawk, and is ready to return home.

Click here to view full article and supplementary video!

Soarin Hawk moving to “Forever Home” in 2019

After several years of searching for just the right place for Soarin’ Hawk’s “Forever Home” we have purchased a site near Huntertown that fits our needs and our budget. 

Education Raptor Habitats - Our resident raptors are getting newly designed “Raptor Condos”.  Each unit has four apartments, which are designed to maximize natural light and fresh air, and will be built using low maintenance materials.  Each of the 20 raptor apartments costs nearly $1,000 in materials.

Raptor Recovery Habitats  – The raptors temporarily in our care are getting newly designed housing. The materials for the recovery housing costs nearly $30,000.

Exercise Aviary – Raptors are hunters, which mean they need to be strong the day they are released back into the wild.  In order to ensure that they are physically fit, we run the birds through a physical therapy program.  In the past this has been done outdoors and it takes 3 to 5 volunteers to exercise each raptor.  The exercise aviary… more

American Bald Eagle excites at Earth Day Fort Wayne -- Wayne15

FORT WAYNE - The Summit City celebrated nature Sunday by teaching families about how to help the planet. The 6th annual Earth Day Fort Wayne was held at the Eagle Marsh Nature Preserve. 

Little River Wetlands Project's annual celebration offers activities, presentations and learning stations all focused on protecting our natural environment. 

One of the fan favorites was Jefferson the American Bald Eagle, who is a big fan of eating fish. Soarin' Hawk has had him for six years. He got electrocuted when he was younger learning to how to fly, landed on a power line and now has arthritis in his left elbow.

 

Click here to see the full article!

Snowy Owl Far From Home - JG

Wait – what was a snowy owl, native to the arctic, doing in northeast Indiana anyway?

Well, that's what one bird conservation group calls “one of the big birding stories of the winter of 2017-2018,” and a question bird enthusiasts are still pondering. 

The owl was part of what scientists call an irruption – a sudden large influx of birds into an area where they're not usually seen.

 

For the full Journal Gazette article on our Snowy Owl Release, click here!

To read our article on Snowy Owl Irruptions, click here!

Baby Season, and How You Can Help Us!

Baby season is almost upon us! We need your help!

This is the picture of a baby Great-Horned Owl. Every spring we take in many, many orphans. In this case, it was due to a storm with strong winds that blew the nest out of the tree. We try, if possible, to "re-nest" the orphans if the nest is intact and the parents are still there to care for the young. But, each year we find that, in many cases, this is not possible and we raise the orphans at Soarin' Hawk.

While they are admittedly adorable, they also require a lot of work and time.  The very young are not able to regulate their own body temperature and thus we need incubators to keep them warm.  Unfortunately the two ancient incubators we had decided to stop working!   We would like to replace both incubators to give us the capability of separating the species.  We also use the incubators for adult raptors when they are admitted in critical condition, so the incubators are used year-round.

more

Snowy Owl Irruptions

Snowy owls come south in unpredictable invasions known as ‘irruptions.’ It’s mostly about food and babies, but we have a lot to learn about this phenomenon.

Snowy owl migration is complex; some birds migrate south predictably and regularly, while others remain on the breeding grounds or actually move north, onto the Arctic sea ice, hunting in perpetual winter darkness. But every once in a while, for reasons that are not fully understood, snowy owls come flooding down from the north in a phenomenon known as an irruption.

Smaller irruptions happen, on average, every four or five years, but once or twice in a lifetime a mega-irruption occurs, when snowy owls show up much farther south, and in vastly greater numbers, than usual.

The winter of 2013-14 was one such extraordinary event, the largest irruption in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions perhaps a century. Snowy owls were reported as far south as Florida and Bermuda. In 2014-15, another sizeable irruption… more

Rescued Bald Eagle Undergoes Surgery

Dr. Patricia Funnell unlocks a brown plywood transport box to reveal some precious cargo –  a nearly fully grown bald eagle. The eagle is quietly sitting up and seems very alert – despite having one wing folded to its body and secured with blue masking tape. Funnell, a Fort Wayne veterinarian, gently lifts the 10-pound bundle of feathers onto a stainless steel surgical table.

In a minute or two, the eagle will have a clear plastic mask strapped over its head and characteristic yellow beak –  and then soar off into whatever dreamland giant birds of prey go when they get anesthesia.

The eagle, who is and will remain unnamed, was rescued Sunday afternoon by Soarin' Hawk, a Fort Wayne raptor rehabilitation organization. The 2-foot-tall bird was found on the ground along Yohne Road near Fox Island County Park, said Pam Whitacre, a Soarin' Hawk volunteer.

For a video and the rest of the story from the Journal Gazette, click here.

 

Do Hunting Raptors Start Fires Deliberately? - Journal of Ethnobiology

The regular attendance of raptors at grass and scrub fires is well known. The birds hunt potential prey animals displaced by the flames. However, proof is now available from Australia that some individual Black Kites (Milvus migrans), Whistling Kites (Haliastur sphenurus) and Brown Falcons (Falco berigora) deliberately spread fire by carrying burning twigs and dropping them elsewhere to start new blazes. They seem to do this largely when an existing fire is being extinguished, seemingly in order to keep it going. The use of fire as a tool has previously been thought to be unique to human beings, but it may well have first been used by raptors.

Link to paper (Abstract and Refrences): http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.700

Giving Birds a Fighting Chance

Soarin’ Hawk Raptor Rehabilitation, a group that aids injured birds of prey, is looking to purchase a new location.

Several years ago, Christopher and Ruth Guerin attended a presentation about birds of prey.

Today, they have a screech owl in their basement. It’s the fourth they’ve taken care of in the past year as volunteers with Soarin’ Hawk Raptor Rehabilitation.

“They’re all beautiful and fascinating. Ruth cleans their cage and feeds them, and in the evening she holds the bird on her glove for an hour or so, while we watch TV,” explains Christopher. “The purpose is to help with the bird’s recuperation and to ‘socialize’ them. Every bird is different. The first two, both gray, were very sweet-tempered. We called them Ziggy and Linus. Keeping with the Peanuts cartoon theme, we called the third one Lucy because she was feisty. We’re still getting to know our newest boarder, so we haven’t chosen a name yet. It’s a remarkable experience to go into your basement… more

Why BIrds Matter

Check out the January Issue of National Geographic

The Year of the Bird

In 1918 Congress passed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to protect birds from wanton killing. To celebrate the centennial, National Geographic is partnering with the National Audubon Society, BirdLife International, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to declare 2018 the Year of the Bird. Watch for more stories, maps, books, events, and social media content throughout the year.

 

 

NEW Volunteer Orientation 13 Jan

At Soarin’Hawk we rely on volunteers to execute our mission to conserve and protect birds of prey through rehabilitation and education. There are many ways that our volunteers contribute;  avian care, rescue, physical therapy, educational programs, facility maintenance, donor development, fund raisers, social media, newsletter, website, grant writing.

Click Here for more info or Email us at volunteer@soarinhawk.org

 

 

Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne

Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne

Soarin Hawk recently was awarded two grants from the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne in support of our mission.  The first grant of $5,000 specifically supports the salary our Veterinary Technician who recently graduated from Purdue University.  The last two years has seen a tremendous increase in the number of raptor ‘patients’ that we had taken in.  20 years of being on call for Soarin Hawk was taking a toll on our sole veterinary provider, Dr. Pat Funnell DVM.  The board agreed that it was time to hire a vet- tech, which was a big step for Soarin Hawk, as we have always relied on volunteers. 

Whether by luck or providence, the very next morning we received an email from a veterinary student from Purdue who asked if we had any openings.  The student came from one of the best Veterinary school’s in the country, was a native of Fort Wayne, and had interned at a nationally recognized wildlife center and loved it. … more

Expo 2017 - kids & education

Birds of prey excite visitors at Soarin' Hawk event

JAMIE DUFFY | The Journal Gazette

When Barbara Hathaway took on the care of an injured eagle this spring, she had to wait five days for blood tests to come back.

Hathaway, a volunteer with the Soarin' Hawk Raptor Rehabilitation Center, tended to the 10- to- 12-pound eagle with a 7-foot wing spread at her home.

for the complete story go to the The Joutnal Gazette

WFFT going-green-eagles-and-the-dangers-of-lead-poisoning

WFFT 10 April 2017
Forty years ago the bald eagle was in danger of extinction.  Now, the eagle has made a comeback and is even frequenting northeast Indiana. But now, hundreds of bald eagles have died the past decade due to lead poisoning.  One local group is trying to save the birds, and educate citizens on how you can help.

"We'll see more.  There's actually nests in the area.  So the eagles we take in, we used to take in maybe one a year, not even that.  But we have three in rehabilitation right now.

For the a video and the rest of the story click here

 

 

 

"Monty's" Story - The Rescue, Student Fund Raiser & Return to the Trees

“MONTY”

During the late evening hours of August 15, our Chihuahuas discovered a Red Tail Hawk near the back door of our house, on the campus of Peace Montessori School. Given that it didn’t react to our small dogs I suspected that it was most likely injured.  We checked on him later that evening and then went out to check his whereabouts as soon as the sun came up in the morning.  As I had anticipated he was still sitting on the patio, affording me the opportunity to marvel in his grace and beauty.  My son and I dearly love these magnificent birds and will often drive about looking to catch a glimpse of them.  They are very special to us and we knew immediately that we must do whatever we needed to in an effort to provide him aid.

By 7:30 that morning we were actively communicating with one of the volunteers at Soarin’ Hawk in an effort to help him.  She was working diligently to find someone to come and rescue him.  I knew within the hour that there was no one… more