Scarlet & Hal go to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

A beautiful day at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Scarlet & Hal had their own ride while the rest of had a short hike back to the presentation area.

 We had a very nice crowd from China and an awesome background. It was a very hot day and there were some forest fires burning about 15 miles away.

 It was a little challenging having to use interpreters, since Patricia and I don't speak Mandarin But it went well..

The young kids are the ones most excited and they spoke fair English.

Live Bird Thanksgiving Celebration

Birds, birds and more birds. There were owls, hawks, corvids and a goshawk.

And there were kids, kids and more kids. They were learning about all of the birds being presented. Here Karen is demonstrating bird calls and why they do them.

Willow, the Black Billed Magpie was intrigued by all the sounds and commotion that was going on.

Flame, the Short-Eared Owl, got lots of visitors of all sizes.

Kodie, the Northwest Crow kept everyone aware of his presence with his calls.  

Scarlett was showing of her namesake. Red-tailed Hawk.

Joan and the songbirds  were surrounded by kids.

Ruth is back presenting again.

By the way, it was -17°f when I left.

Thanks for having us Eagle River Nature Center.

He's back

With the help of local falconer Eric Fontaine, Red is back at home at Bird TLC in his mew. Red had escaped almost a week ago, and it's been a hand full trying to get him back. The first few days we spent chasing sightings and the we found what he was calling his new home. We were able to stake it out, but Red was good at robing our traps. Eric helped out with his equipment and experience and that's what it took.

Thanks to Channel 2 News for broadcasting our alert, PET ER for screening all sightings and forwarding them on, all of the volunteers who joined in the search, Diane who spotted him in his new home, everyone who called and especially Eric.

Welcome home RED!

Red is on the loose

by Channel 2 News staff
Monday, January 11, 2010

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- There have been lots of calls and lots of sightings, but Red is still on the loose.

The red tailed hawk escaped Thursday night from the Bird Treatment and Learning Center. Red is an education bird and while he can fly, he can't take care of himself in the wild.

There have been multiple sightings around town of a hawk with leather straps across his ankles.

He appears to be spending most of his time in trees along the New Seward Highway near the Dimond exit, but so far no one's been able to catch him.

If you see Red, contact the Pet Emergency Center at 274-5636 and they will contact staff at Bird TLC.

Bye Red

9/2/2008

The Red-tailed Hawk release turned out to be quite a show today! At about mile 125 on the Glenn Hwy (just north of the "Hawk Watch" area) I took a dirt road off the main drag, in order to get far away from traffic. I found a great little place in a hilly area where I decided to release him. I opened the kennel door and he sat in the doorway just studying the surroundings for a few minutes, then flew up to the top of a Spruce nearby . Within a minute, a Northern Hawk Owl (one of my personal favorites!) began to dive-bomb him! The hawk seemed to fend him off just fine, but the dive-bombing continued for a good 10 minutes, the Hawk Owl cussing and chattering all the while. He obviously was quite perturbed and twitterpated with the situation - I suspect there were youngsters nearby. As if that wasn't enough, out of the blue a Northern Goshawk swooped down at the Red-tailed! He circled once, then flew directly over my head and checked me out, as if he knew I was the cause of all the commotion.

Anyway, when I left about 15 minutes after releasing the hawk, things had settled down quite a bit, but I could still hear that relentless Hawk Owl chewing the Red-tailed out. Those little Hawk Owls are ornery little cusses, huh?

Sorry for the blurry pictures.......too much excitement to capture it terribly well.

Ellen

This was taken from an email from Ellen, a long time Bird TLC volunteer.

Mystery flies with Homer hawk

Mystery flies with Homer hawk

by Jason Moore
Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Bird Treatment and Learning Center is searching for the owner of a red-tailed hawk.

The center received the hawk Dec. 31 from a bird specialist in Homer and thought it might be sick or injured since it didn't display any signs of being skittish around people.

"That's when I went and got my falconry glove and I held the glove out to him and the bird jumped happily onto the glove," said Cindy Palmatier, an employee at the center. "I thought, wow, somebody's been training the bird. He really doesn't like people behind him."

The hawk seems to be in good condition and spirits even though it does not like people coming up from behind.

Red-tailed hawk owners are required to have the birds banded with special identification. This one isn't.

But from its behavior the Bird TLC believes it belongs to someone and they'd like that someone to come forward to retrieve their bird.

Contact Jason Moore at jmoore@ktuu.com

To see KTUU news video ( Mystery flies with Homer hawk) Click here.


From tonights news on KTUU Channel 2.

Last bird of the year

Our Red-tailed Hawk is looking soooo much better today. It's standing on perch and looking alert. It's taken to humans real easy. We're wondering if it's a falconry bird that got loose or was released. Cindy has been inquiring with falconers, but no one claims it yet.

Click pix's to enlarge

The last day of the year didn't go quietly

BE 7-40 came to TLC about a month and a half ago with injuries from being caught in a leg trap. Little did he know that he would be participating in a blood transfusion on the last day of the year. BE 07-44 came to us from Kenai over the weekend where we believe she lost out in a eagle fight. She has contusions on her left wing and a broken left femur.

While BE 07-44's leg was being operated on by Dr. Todd Palmatier and Cindy at Pet Stop, we got a Red Tailed Hawk in from Homer. "It's not flying and looks thin" they said. Well they always look thin to me. By the time we got back from the airport, Todd and Cindy was back from Pet Stop.

Todd did a thorough exam and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. It did have a very full crop. My question is why is it still in Alaska? Why hadn't it already migrated to the warm country? The answers to that we may never know. For now it has a warm mew at TLC.

The Red Tailed Hawk was the 502 wild bird (not an eagle) admitted to Bird TLC this year. BE 07-44 was the 44th. eagle. That's the official count as of 3:00 PM AST for 2007

Click on pix's to enlarge.

Happy New Years everyone!

Bye-Bye red-tail

Tired from reading so many eagle post here lately? Read this from the Ketchikan Daily News about a red-tail that visitied with us for a while.



BACK TO NATURE — Alice Bryant, bird curator of the Alaska Wildlife Foundation, releases a Harlan's red-tailed hawk from a boardwalk at the Alaska Rainforest Sanctuary south of Ketchikan Tuesday. The bird flew to a nearby tree while about a dozen crows took to the air and began flying around the hawk and making harsh, raucous noises. The hawk sat calmly and rouffled its feathers in a manner Bryant said indicated it was making itself comfortable. The hawk was rehabilitated at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage after suffering a broken wing somewhere near Tok, according to Bryant. Staff photo by Tom Miller