Sunday, May 22, 2005

International Migratory Bird Day @ the Alaska Zoo

Wow, what a great day at the Alaska Zoo. Today we celebrated International Migratory Bird Day with an emphasis on collision injury prevention. Our volunteer education presenters were out in full force. We had a golden eagle, 2 great gray owls, a barred owl, 2 great horned owls, 2 northern sawhet owls, a nw crow, a magpie, an American robin, 2 thrushes and I think that's it. A good time was had by all. The weather was a little over cast and it also drizzled for a short time, but the weather held out.

The Alaska Zoo had reduce entry fees for the whole day. They also gave out bird silhouettes to hang in windows to help prevent window hits. US Fish & Wildlife handed out IMBD posters and answered all kinds of questions.

At 5:30 the clouds parted and the sun came out. We went to the Anchorage Golf Course where 2 lucky young girls helped release a bald eagle back to the wild. This bird was at Bird TLC for about 6 weeks recovering from rotten crop, but she was ready to be loose today. She headed for a group of trees to get her bering for a few hours and then she was gone.

What a great day thanks to Alaska Zoo, USF&W, Anchorage Golf Course and all the volunteers at Bird TLC. More pictures in the photo album at your right. We also made the news on Channel 2.

4 comments:

Dave Dorsey said...

For those of you reading this that live in Alaska, check out todays ADN Alaska section. The release picture is on the cover. Unfortunately it's not available to view online.

Dave Dorsey said...

Check out this picture on USF&W website.

http://www.fws.gov/feature/EagleReleaseMBD0572dpi.jpg

vlad259 said...

That's a really great picture! Those birds are amazing, it's very good to see one right in the act of being released - excellent! Keep up the good work.

Dave Dorsey said...

If I had hesitated a mili-second longer it would of been out of the picture. We've had a good summer of releases so far this year. Keep your feather crossed that it continues.