Birds of prey released into the wild with help from Alberta’s Environment Minister
LETHBRIDGE – Environment Minister Shannon Phillips and her sons Finn Davies, 8, and Hudson Davies, 6, released six birds into the wild Friday morning at west Lethbridge’s Cottonwood Park. An incredible sight, she says, and something they’ve never experienced before.
Birds of Prey Centre Managing Director Colin Weir, says the release was part of their year-end program. Two Great Horned Owls that fell out of their nests in Galt Gardens during a wind storm earlier this year got to fly away, along with a falcon, two hawks and a Short Eared Owl.
All had to be taken in when they were brought to the centre, injured. Weir says the centre in Coaldale is always busy with birds on display for the public, and those they are working to rehabilitate.
“We’ve got about 80 or 90 birds on display. We’ve got about another 100 to 150 birds that are actually off display. And a lot of those birds are going back to the wild. And as many of the people know, is that we get calls about all sorts of other birds, right from sparrows, magpies, even ducks we rescue from people’s back yards from Lethbridge and right across southern Alberta.”