By Charlotte Morritt-Jacobs - (@morrittjacobs on Twitter)

Education and Conservation Takes Flight at Birds of Prey Centre

Jul 6, 2016 | 11:23 AM

LETHBRIDGE – The strategy is simple for The Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale: roll up sleeves and initiate hands-on solutions which directly benefit wildlife and the environment.

Since 1982, the facility has been taking in injured birds from Alberta, Ontario, BC, and even Canada’s Arctic.

The Centre focuses on: rehabilitating and releasing injured birds of prey back to the wild, captive breeding and release of endangered species and studying and monitoring wild birds of prey populations.

Mary Ann Durocher, Education Coordinator for The Birds of Prey Centre, said that most birds taken to the facility are birds that are too weak to fly and found on the side of the road, birds that have flown into vehicles and injured birds found on farmer’s land.

“During the summer we can have a bird-a-day brought in, which leads to upwards of 150 birds onsite. This year, we have noticed that everything has been a month early. Great horned owls hatched in late January, which is early, even for them. Fortunately it was a mild spring and there was enough food around.”

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Durocher added that the early spring has been beneficial for birds such as the Swainson Hawk which now have more time to grow and learn how to hunt before migrating to Argentina.

The Centre has several programs this summer, putting visitors up close and personal with educational ambassador owls, hawks, eagles, two-week-old endangered burrowing owls and even a rare vulture named Snoopy.

We’re really lucky here in southern Alberta to have such a wide range of birds. “We often get asked about species population. One year you might have a lot of snowy owls, and another year you might have less. At the Centre we monitor the natural population fluctuation,” Durocher said.

The Birds of Prey is looking for volunteers during this peak summer season.

Those interested in conservation and wildlife rehabilitation can visit: http://www.burrowingowl.com/index.php.

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