Call me Hal

Today is a very sad day for me and I know for quite a few others also. This morning (Sunday) I got a call from Guy Runco, Executive Director of Bird TLC, telling me that Hal had passed away. I was in such shock I didn’t know how to respond. I spent the rest of the day vegging in front of the TV and eating all the junk food in the house. This has hit many of us hard.

How do you talk about an eagle that was special? He even made me feel special. He could no longer take care of himself in the wild due to no fault of his own. But, he was independent. He knew what he liked and told you what he didn’t like. He still captured magpies that strayed into his mew.

Hal was hatched in the Russian Harbor area of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge during the blackest days of recent Alaska History. The Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef on March 24, 1989 spilling 10.8 million gallons of Alaska crude oil into Prince William Sound creating the most devastating human-caused environmental disaster.

Hal was found on August 20, 1989 on the beech of Russian Harbor. He was thought to be about four months old. He had light oil on his breast and tail. He was picked up by the cleanup crew and processed through the Seward Bird Rescue Center. He was transferred to Bird TLC soon after. X-rays showed a fractured left wing at the shoulder which was non-repairable. After two months he began training to become Bird TLC’s first education eagle.

Hal has had 6 presenters over the years and has lived at 2 caretakers homes. He also spent some time living at the old clinic on Nielson Way and the current one on King Street.

He has traveled all over Alaska doing education presentations for Bird TLC. With me, he has traveled to Seward, Fox Island, Soldotna, Sterling, Telketna, Tok, Wrangell – St Elias NP, Copper Center, Kodiak NWR and many other places. We’ve stayed in hotels, private homes, wilderness lodges and he has camped in my RV. Hal was a well-traveled eagle.

We did presentations at Boy Scout Eagle Award Ceremonies for the scouts that had done so much for Bird TLC. We also did military retirement ceremonies for those that defended our freedom.

Hal was cared for at Guy Runco’s home. Besides myself, he was also presented by Patricia Garcia and Terri Johnson. In years past he was presented by Heather Merewood, Cindy Palmatier and Kerry Seifort. We all loved Hal, and so did the rest of Bird TLC.

Hal did education presentation for thousands of people. . He enjoyed being in front of an audience. I’d talk about him, other eagles and what’s really cool about them and about Bird TLC. We would do a presentation at Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge and people would line up for an hour afterwards to have their picture taken with him. Hal always had the look “Come admire me. I’ll give you my regal eagle pose”.  As Chris Maack says “He was our ed icon”.

I was the fortunate one who got to do his last presentation at the Bird TLC event of the year “For the Birds”. It was most appropriate that he would get out one last time and show off his stuff. And that he did. He was amazing! He was getting compliment after compliment on how handsome, how regal and how majestic he was. He even called out one time during the event which was not his nature. He knew it was him people wanted to see and he gave them what they wanted. As Elise Patkotak said “Maybe this was the way he wanted to go... still in full possession of his powers and after having thrilled a roomful of people with his presence.”

Nothing impedes his free flight to the heavens now. Thanks for the memories. I’m sure going to miss you my feathered friend. I’ll never look at another eagle without thinking of you. Say “Hi” to Dr. Scott, One Wing and Ol’ Witch.



Save the Eagle 2014

Today Bird TLC celebrated Save the Eagles Day. Our Education Eagles and their highly experienced eagle presenters were available for the public to see these magnificent birds up close and to ask any questions they would like about them.

Hal, the oldest of the eagles at Bird TLC, showed off why these iconic birds are admired. At 25, Hal is one of the oldest known eagles in Alaska. Though eagles have never been endangered of extinction in Alaska, they were not protected by law until the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle Protection Act,  Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act were passed and enforced.

Golden Eagles like Denali are protected by these same laws. Denali is the only Golden Eagle in Bird TLC's Education Program and is very vocal about protecting what is his.

Petra is the largest of the eagles at Bird TLC and the loudest. Her and Hal got everyone's attention when they called back and forth for a few minutes.

Those who attended got to see why we still need a Save the Eagles Day. Even though bald eagles came off of the Endangered Species list in 2007, it wasn't that long ago, 1961, there were only 471 mating pairs of bald eagles in the lower 48.

 

Thanks to all that came and thanks for wanting to save and protect our eagles.

Flight Center clean up

The Bird TLC flight center was built in 1990 by some very dedicated volunteers. Money to purchase the material came from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Disaster. Over the years hundreds of birds have recovered and gained their flight strength back so they could be released to the wild.  It's not open to the general public, but it has been visited by many celebrities like Alex Trebek, Olivia Newton-John, Jeff Corwin and several others.

 

In recent years with the economy not at its best, the budget for maintaining the flight center had been cut over and over, until serious attention had to be made for the safety of the occupants, the birds. Every year at our auction, a cash call out is done. Your reward for this bid is the satisfaction that you helped Bird TLC in some way. In years past, much needed equipment had been purchased from the funds raised. This year the Bird TLC Board of Directors decided that the cash call was for the flight center. $10K was raised for supplies and material for the flight center clean-up and repair. It brought tears to my eyes.

 

Not long after, Heather Merewood, Bird TLC Executive Director was contacted by BP Alaska. They would like to help with a 2 day project with 15 of their employee's. The flight center is what came to mind first.

With the help of Home Depot, Heather and I went shopping for supplies. Five large carts and a stressed out credit card later, we were filling up the pick-up truck. What fun we had getting what we needed to get our flight center back into tip top shape.

When the BP employee's came out to work, they jumped right in and worked hard for the whole time they were there. Pressure washing the walls, hanging new tarps (for easy cleaning), removal of old perches, cutting and raking the grass, and much, much more.

Holes were repaired in the netting. The netting will be replaced as soon as the new netting arrives. Painting of the exterior will be done when weather permits. The astro turf will be replaced also. The industrial strength astro turf we require is on backorder at our supplier.

The BP crew was much larger, but these guys and gals are the ones at the end of the second work day. Some of the flight center occupants are in the background. All of the BP Alaska employee's did a fantastic job and all of us at Bird TLC appreciate their help and support.

 

Also, thanks to everyone who donated at the cash call out at the auction in April. If you would still like to donate, go here and say it's for the flight center.

 

For more photographs, click here for our Smugmug page or  go to our Facebook page here.

Pacific Loon at Conners Lake

Please bear with me as I finish everything else I have to do today, but I will have an update for you later tonight with photos. As of now, all loons concerned are alive and healthy.

Education Birds annual exam time

All of Bird TLC's education birds are well taken care of. However, once a year their caretakers are required to bring the birds in to be examined, blood drawn and tested, talons and or beaks trimmed (coped) and anything else they medically might need.

Here Lisa trims Petra, a 17 year old female bald eagles talons and above Heather is coping Petra's beak. Both must be in ideal shape for the health of the bird.

Dr. Karen Higgs examines Galen, an estimated 19 year old great horned owl. Galen also got his beaki- pedi.

And of course the paperwork.

Today was a good day. 4 birds were examined and all were in excellent shape. Blood work was sent to the lab and we'll have results in a week or so. 25 more birds to go.

Meet the new boss

 

We have a new Executive Director and it is Heather Merewood.  Some of you may already have neet her, as she has been volunteering here for a little while. She has quite a bit of experience in the raptor world. She has worked at the Carolina Raptor Center and Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, not to mention working with vultures in Nepal and animals in Costa Rica. Heather comes to us with excellent credentials and a warm, friendly way about her.

There's a Meet and Greet Potluck on Wednesday 9/14 at 6:30 at the Bird TLC office. Bring a dish and meet Heather and Guy Runco our new volunteer coordinator. We tell you more about him later.