Bye Bye to Bye Bye Birdie 2009

Bye Bye Birdie 2003 is for the history books now. We had awesome weather, a great turn out and 2 awesome releases. We had a lot of help from our partners, the Alaska Zoo and Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

We had some financial help from ConocoPhillips,
U.S. Fish & Wildlife and Fred Meyers. It's been a tough year and their support is definately appreciated.

The first release was a Great Horned Owl that my friend Britt and I rescued at Bird Creek last weekend. It was tangled up in fishing line. We recovered it and got it back to TLC where we got the rest of the fishing line off of it. Fortunately the damage was minimal and it was ready to go back to the wild in a short time. He didn't want to leave his kennel at first, but when he did he didn't look back.

The next release was a mature Bald Eagle that came to TLC last year unstable on its feet. It wasn't unstable yesterday. He was ready to go. He took off for Potter Marsh like there was no tomorrow.

Thanks to Britt for these photo's. I had to work most of the day and then presented Gus at the end of the event. Check out more at her website here and John Gomes website here.