Guess the Baby Raptor Species on TRC Facebook

Guess which baby raptor species this is.  Go to our Facebook page to submit your guess.  We will let you know "who" this is tomorrow!

Great horned owlets

GHOW (great horned owl) case # 12-079 and its sibling case # 12-080 were barely 10 days old when they hit their first bump in the road of life.  Both owlets fell out of their nest located in a Spruce tree in Minneapolis and landed unharmed despite falling 45 feet.  Great horned owls don’t build their own nests or even remodel the old crow or hawk nests they move into, so often youngsters come out prematurely due to nest instability.  High spring winds often give them an extra push.  Even though great horned owl parents will raise their babies on the ground, since these two  were so young and the nest located in an urban setting, TRC decided to enlist the help of Jim Mussell, a professional tree climber and long-time volunteer at TRC, to fix the nest and replace the youngsters.  One owl parent observed the scene as its babies were lifted to their new “digs”.

TRC Clinic Census April 25

Our clinic patient census as of April 25:

We have received 138 patients so far this year.  We currently have 36.

Eagles
Bald eagle   12

Hawks - Buteos
Red-tailed hawk   11
Rough-legged hawk   1

Hawks - Accipiters
Cooper's Hawk   1

Falcons
Peregrine falcon   3
American kestrel   2

Owls
Great horned owl   6

Spring Raptor Release

Saturday, May 5 is our Spring Public Raptor Release!  The time is from 11am-2pm, with program starting at 12 noon.  It is at Hyland Lake Park Reserve, in Bloomington, MN.   If you have a Google account, you can put the event into your own calendar!  We have an event page on Facebook - let us know if you are coming, and we'd love to hear if you have or haven't been there, and what your favorite part of the event is!

How You Can Help Raptor Babies

Great horned owls are the earliest nesting raptor species in MN, laying their eggs in old crow or hawk nests as early as the end of January. When owlets hatch and grow to about 2-3 weeks of age, the poor nest quality and high spring winds cause many youngsters to topple out.

How can you help?
1) If you find a baby/young raptor, please call TRC BEFORE intervening. It is often assumed that if a parent can’t be seen, the youngster has been abandoned. The adults are often close by keeping an eye on their kids, but are often well concealed from human eyes.

2)If you know of an active raptor nest, please let us know. If we do receive a youngster that is in need of a new raptor family, the more nests we are aware of, the better chance for a successful adoption.

Please help us provide Minnesota raptor babies with their best chance of survival by keeping them wild.

The Raptor Center's website has more information on how to help an injured raptor.  We post our clinic patient census numbers so you can see what species are in our clinic. 

Our Facebook Cover Photo Raptor Baby Species is . . .

A red-tailed hawk chick! Here is some more information about red-tails from our species webpage.

The Raptor Center has several red-tailed hawks who help us educate the public. Meet them!

The New York Times has set up a live-streaming camera on a red-tailed hawk nest on a 12th-floor window ledge outside of the office of the president of New York University.

Check back with us the week of April 30 for the next raptor baby species!

TRC Celebrates its Volunteers!

This is National Volunteer week! The Raptor Center’s 250 volunteers contribute an average of 900 hours each week. They volunteer in our clinic, flight crew, transport, education, Recycling for Raptors, work special events and even do carpentry, providing critical support for us. To say we couldn’t do it without them is truly an understatement. We are so proud and grateful for the dedication of these wonderful people and their desire to transform the world around us, one raptor or one person at a time.

National Volunteer Week is about “inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities.” The Raptor Center shares this ideal of empowering people to work for change in their community, ensuring a healthier environment for raptors and the world we share. Stewardship starts with individuals connecting to the world around them and finding meaning there.