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Raptors visit Amana library
By Winona Whitaker, Hometown Current
Jul. 18, 2024 11:51 am
MIDDLE AMANA — A falcon, an owl and a hawk walked into a library.
There was no punch line. Just a lot of education, as the Iowa Raptor Project visited the Amana Community Library Wednesday, part of the summer reading program.
Dave Conrads, director of UI WILD (University of Iowa Wildlife Instruction and Leadership Development), takes his team to three or four sites a week during the summer.
They also give tours at Macbride Nature Recreation Area, where they have 12 raptors, including the three they showed at the Amana library.
The falcon
Kathy Martensen, a volunteer with Iowa Raptor Program, introduced her audience in Amana to North America’s smallest falcon, the American kestrel.
Falcons are some of the fastest mammals in existence, Martensen said.
The colorful American kestrel can reach 40 miles an hour or better, but the peregrine falcon can reach a speed of nearly 240 mph.
Martensen said she had trouble finding kestrels when she looked for them during the summer, but in the winter she can spot them as they sit on electrical lines scanning empty farm fields for prey, such as mice.
The colorful bars on the kestrels’ heads make them identifiable as falcons rather than hawks, said Martensen.
The kestrel has long narrow wings and tail to increase its speed. The kestrel makes a high-pitched sound, said Martensen, though the hawk on her glove was silent during the program.
“It’s a unique klee, klee, klee, high-pitched sound,” Martensen said.
Kestrels perch and look for prey, “and they’ll go divebombing to that prey,” said Martensen. They are themselves prey for larger birds, such as owls and hawks.
Kestrels are secondary nesters, said Martensen. They lay their eggs in existing nests rather than making nests of their own.
Only 50-60% of falcons live through their first year, Martensen said. The falcon perched on her hand during the Amana presentation was hit by a car and has wing damage, so he can’t go back to the wild.
The owl
The next bird the Iowa Raptors team introduced the children to, a barn owl, hears much better than it sees, said Andi Billerbeck, a licensed falconer and volunteer with the Iowa Raptor Project.
The owl has sharp talons, a sharp beak and sharp eyesight, but as a nocturnal animal, it also has sharp hearing.
Owls’ wings have serrated edges which allow them to fly silently so their prey doesn’t hear them coming, said Billerbeck.
The owl can’t move its eyes like humans can, said Aaron Petrie, an intern with the Iowa Raptor Project. It’s eyes look forward, so the owl turns its head — up to 270 degrees — to look for prey.
Owls have more rods in the back of their eyes than have other animals, including humans, allowing them to draw in more light and see well at night, said Conrads.
The flat face of an owl directs sounds to its ears, said Billerbeck. One ear is higher on its head than the other, allowing the owl to triangulate the sound.
The owl has the best hearing almost any animal, Billerbeck said. It can find a mouse in a total absence of light.
The owls are endangered in Iowa, said Petrie.
The hawk
Last on the schedule was Hercules the red-tailed hawk. Hercules, who was bred in Nevada, is darker than the Eastern red-tailed hawks seen in Iowa this time of year, Billerbeck said.
Named for the mascot of the University of Iowa, Hercules lost an eye when her parents stepped on her in the nest. She was the first hawk to fly over the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium.
(The University of Iowa’s tiger hawk logo looks more like a falcon than a hawk, Conrads noted.)
Hercules was comfortable at the library. She looked at the paper spheres hanging from the ceiling, stared in fascination at Billerbeck, preened and grabbed at Billerbeck’s hair with her beak.
“She’s gotten much better at programs,” said Billerbeck. She used to be jumpy.
Hawks are not picky eaters, said Billerbeck. “They’ll eat whatever they can catch.” The birds have exceptional eyesight and find their prey from high in the sky.
“They will soar on thermals, and they look a little bit like vultures in the sky,” said Billerbeck.
In movies, the call accompanying bald eagles is actually that of hawks. Bald eagles sound more like dolphins, Billerbeck said. Red-tailed hawks have become the voice actors for bald eagles.
A hawk can live 15 years in the wild, 30 in captivity. The bigger a raptor, the longer it can live, said Conrads.
The Raptor Center at Macbride has a bald eagle that is turning 40.
A falconer
To become a falconer, Billerbeck had to find a sponsor to mentor her for two years.
After passing a 160-question federal exam, a falconer can gather equipment and build a mews, a hawk house. The house must be at least eight feet by eight feet, and it must be inspected by the Department of Natural Resources, Billerbeck said.
Then the falconer can trap a bird and train it.
Falcons don’t love you like a dog will, said Billerbeck. They perform only for a reward of food.
But they are easy to train. “My personal red-tailed hawk trained faster than my dog did,” said Billerbeck.
UI WILD
In addition to the Iowa Raptor Project, UI WILD conducts wildlife camps during the summer and School of the Wild during the school year, both primarily at Macbride, though the wildlife camps are also held in four Iowa DNR State Parks.
Macbride Natural Recreation Area is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers and managed by the University of Iowa, which has leased it since 1959. It’s named in honor of former University of Iowa president and renowned naturalist Thomas Huston Macbride.
In 1985, a raptor rehabilitation and education program began. Enclosures were constructed at Macbride Nature Recreation Area for raptors that could not be released into the wild.
The Iowa Raptor Project is open for self-guided tours from 6 a.m.-9 p.m. through October. It’s located at Macbride Nature Recreation Area, 2095 Mehaffey Bridge Rd. in Solon.
The Iowa Raptor Project is an outdoor facility. Many paths are gravel and there are no modern restroom facilities.