The personalities of birds of prey have been on display for decades at Mountsberg’s Raptor Centre.
Now it’s time for their aerial prowess to take more of the spotlight.
With this spring marking its 30th anniversary (June 3, 1994), the Campbellville conservation area’s education facility is ready to expand its programming with something that’s equal parts entertaining and enlightening.
That’ll come in an existing unused building set to be renovated for a free-flight birds of prey show expected to start in early July.
The main attraction – predicts animal care and programs coordinator Sandra Davey – will be Aplomado falcon Rio, whom she owns and is now selling to Conservation Halton.
“I think he’ll be one of the favourites. He’s a really acrobatic roller in the air,” she said. “He was on loan for some events last summer and now he’s going to be a permanent part of our (bird) collection.”
Rio will join the nearly three dozen winged residents that represent 20 different species, including a variety of hawks, falcons, owls and eagles.
While Mountsberg’s Raptor Centre began as a combination rehabilitation hospital and education facility, its mandate has shifted.
“Now we’re 100 per cent using the raptors for educational purposes,” said Davey, who first came to the centre as a University of Guelph biology student in 1997 and later returned for good in 2007.
She noted the selection process for adding birds is quite intensive, and that the primary criteria is that the newcomer can "experience good welfare."
“To us that means it’s a bird that’s not going to be stressed while being around people, that we can work with to train it to voluntarily take part in its own care… things like voluntarily going to a scale to weigh itself, voluntarily go into a crate.
“We’re looking for birds that can do the best job of what we’re asking them to do while having the highest welfare while doing that. We want the bird to be happy here."
To that end, factors like species and type of injury are carefully considered. And when it comes to age, Davey stressed that younger is almost always better.
“You may have heard the term old hag. That’s a falconry term; an adult bird is called a haggard. It’s usually set in its ways and generally doesn’t train up very well for programming.”
With the younger, more adaptable newcomers, acclimation is rigidly thorough. Davey or one of her team can spend countless hours walking around with -- for example -- a baby owl to make sure it's comfortable with everything it may encounter as an education ambassador. This can include different types of hats or skin tones to squirrels and dogs.
In recent years, Mountsberg’s winged family has come to include a number of non-Ontario native members, such as a Harris’s hawk that’s common to the south-western United States and parts of Central and South America.
"We have more of a global focus to our education now," said Davey.
Whether it’s school field trips, behind-the-scenes tours or its Hawk Walk, Davey said the ultimate goal of each education opportunity is to foster a stronger awareness of human impact on birds.
Recently, she had occasion to speak with a group of visitors who inquired about the enclosure signs pointing out how a number of raptors had come to the centre after being hit by vehicles. Their appreciation of this problem, she noted, was noticeably heightened when the link was made between many of these accidents and people throwing food out their car windows.
“It’s just those little conversations where we can get somebody to care about the birds and make a conservation connection.”
Mountsberg’s Raptor Centre will hold its 30th anniversary celebration on June 1 between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., with its Pride in Nature Birds of All Feathers festivities happening at the same time.
Park visitors can come enjoy a slice of cake with the Animal Care team, meet roving birds of prey, take a photo at the Birds of ALL Feathers photo station, check out the bio-artifact display and pre-register for the Talons and Tailfeathers educational program
Click here to learn more about the Raptors Centre's programming.
