Meet TRC's Newest Friend Savannah . . . Writer, Philanthropist and Entrepreneur

Savannah, TRC program manager Gail Buhl, and Lois the
great horned owl.

We couldn’t wait to share a terrific story of a young lady we recently met.  Savannah J. came out to the Fall Raptor Release event.  She had written a book about a snowy owl.  This owl loved math, science and reading.  We have a couple of pages of the book included in this post.

Savannah “sold” this story, and donated the money to The Raptor Center.

We can’t think of a better way to show how this next generation is going to change the world, through interest in science and math, and an incredible sense of wanting to make a difference.   

Thank you to Savannah and her family for letting us share this story.

This is the cover of Savannah's book.

Belly Bands

Many of our visitors ask us how we can tell our winged ambassador red-tailed hawks apart.  One way is the different belly band markings on each bird.  Here are two examples; the first one is Bailey, and the second is one of our newer red-tailed hawks who does not have a name yet.

Bailey

Bailey's belly band

New (unnamed) red-tail's belly band

New red-tailed hawk (unnamed)

 

Red-tailed hawks are common raptor species for many of us in our neighborhoods.  The Birds of North America Online (Cornell) tells us, "the species varies greatly across its range, with up to 16 subspecies recognized by various authorities. Races are usually distinguished by ventral coloration, tail markings, and/or size, but there is no clear geographic trend in any of these characters.

A dark belly band, present in most Red-tails, is not sufficient for species identification.  Plumage color and pattern are highly variable in some populations, and individuals may be broadly classified as light or dark morphs."