-July 2006-
Audubon Center for Birds of Prey

Thanks to all the wonderful support from our volunteers and those who participated in the Baby Owl Shower.  It was a hugely successful event with over 200 attendees.  We raised over $600 in cash and approximately $1300 for in-kind donations!  We could not have done it without your help!

News from our busy clinic:  Although it started with a few winter babies (Eagles and Great Horned Owls), the baby rush reached full capacity in late April. By the end of March, we had received 106 patients; by the end of June, there were 380 patients admitted, most of them babies. In May alone, we received 50 Eastern Screech Owl patients, 45 of them babies. For comparison: last year, after the late summer 2004 hurricane season, the clinic received only 21 Eastern Screech Owl babies in May.  Clearly, nest cavities were not readily available last year as a result of the storms; however, the population rebounded again this year, as evidenced by our patient admissions.

A Few of Our Babies Contributing to Science: · Recently, a fledgling Swallow-tailed Kite from New Smyrna was found on the ground, with no nest or parents located within the area. Ken Meyer from Avian Research and Conservation Institute relocated the baby by fostering it into another nest. It was then banded with a satellite transmitter for tracking to South America. · Two Crested Caracara babies were rescued, both from our rehab friends at Florida Wildlife Hospital in Brevard County. The first was a large fledgling that jumped from its nest after construction activity came too close to the nest. The US Fish and Wildlife Service stopped all human activity so that the fledgling could be returned to its home and parents. The bird was banded and fitted with a radio transmitter for future identification. · The second baby caracara was found in a "night-time drop off box" at the Florida Wildlife Hospital with no information.  It is unknown how long someone had the five-day old nestling. Once Audubon received the baby,

Oliver, a baby Caracara, came to the Center as an imprint. He is unable to return to the wild and will now be an education ambassador for his species.

staff tried to foster raise the baby caracara in the presence of one of the Center's adult Crested Caracaras (Godiva). However, the baby bird had already been imprinted on humans. A human imprinted bird socially associates with humans rather than its own kind, and a bird like this can not survive in the wild. The baby was named Oliver (Twist) because he would pick up his little blue food plate and carry over to staff and volunteers as if to say, "please sir, may I have some more". Oliver has now been relocated to SeaWorld & Busch Garden's Conservation Fund where he will be an ambassador for his "Species of Special Concern."  The Conservation Fund currently supports the Center's clinical and rehabilitation programs.

Injury Report: A total of 15 raptors admitted so far this year have been injured by electrocution. Only one Osprey has survived. Birds, especially large ones, become electrocuted when they touch two live wires at the same time, causing electrical current to pass through their bodies. The injuries to the bird are proportional to the amount of current flowing in the power lines; in other words, the more current the more serious the injury. Electrical damage slowly destroys the tissues and only after time are we able to see the full extent of the damage. 

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