At the Pickering Naturalists' November meeting, we were thrilled to have Jenn Bock and volunteers from Wild Ontario join us, along with four of their rescued birds as the Guests of Honour. Needless to say, the room was packed as there had been lots of advance publicity for the evening, and I now admit to being the first nerd one there to get a front row seat, versus my usual back-of-the-room spot.
Wild Ontario's goal, besides rescuing birds, is to educate us all about human impact on wildlife. Three of the four birds that evening were imprinted on humans and therefore unreleasable back into the wild.
Here's Whistler, a beautiful Broad-winged Hawk:
...sadly, some of her talons are missing due to frostbite:
Einstein is a female Great Horned Owl; as one of the volunteers said, "There must have been a Mrs. Einstein, right??"
Like dogs, birds don’t have sweat glands so they regulate their body temperature by panting:
Artemis, named after the Greek goddess of the hunt, is a vivacious little American Kestrel:
The Rock Star of the bunch made his grand entrance at the end: Socrates, a one-winged Turkey Vulture who started it all a few decades ago, back in 1987. Socrates' left wing had been badly broken after he had been hit by a car, and in the end it had to be amputated after numerous surgery and rehabilitation attempts:
...even though it may look like Socrates is giving Jenn the bird here sorry!, he was really very fond of her and it was quite endearing to watch them together:
It was a fabulous meeting with more than eighty people in attendance, what a night! Perhaps another time we can meet the rest of Wild Ontario's roster, which include American Crows and a Red-tailed Hawk...
Here's the link to Wild Ontario's website for further information:
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