Raptor Center of Southeast Michigan

Hello! The Spring has been full of renesting and reuniting of baby birds. We’ve helped over a dozen people reunite baby owls & hawks. We reunited a fledgling red-tailed hawk in early June and an eastern screech owl in late June. Thankfully this busy baby season has come to a close and we’re hoping to get back to working on our outside enclosures. Of course with all good news comes some sad news. In late May we took in an adult red-tailed who had a broken wing. A family thought they were helping and tried to rehab this bird on their own. However, because of this, and a very bad wing break, the bird had to be euthanized right away. This poor bird was a fighter, but without the proper care and food it’s chance of survival was slim.

We hope these stories help show how critical proper education is when working with wildlife and how important mentorships are to becoming a successful rehabber. We think of you, and everyone on our newsletter list, as our friendly team of information educators. By sharing these stories, we hope that you’re able to share them with those who are not as familiar with wildlife rehabilitation. Proper training and support is critical! We’ve shared more success stories on the back page. And of course, none of this would be possible without your support!

Calling all online shoppers, we’ve created a fun new way for you to donate to River Raisin Raptor Center with our Amazon Wish List! Our list is full of supplies like; tape, doggie pads, athletic bandages (for wing wraps) and cleaning supplies. Visit https://amzn.to/2VsfEI3  to view our Wish List. Please note, you will need to create an (or login to your) Amazon account before you can purchase anything on our list. Once you purchase an item from our list, it will ship directly to our address. And of course, if you don’t want to use Amazon, no problem. Donations sent to our address always brighten our day and are gratefully accepted. All funds go to helping the birds and we thank you for your support in advance!!

Two Education BIRDS…

In mid-February, we received a red-tailed hawk that had  a torn crop. Thankfully, our vet was able to stitch it up and he made a great recovery! We believe he had a head injury since he is rather tame. I glove trained him all winter long and was transferred to Ogden Nature Center in Ogden, Utah in mid-July, where he will be a fabulous education bird! This center has a red-tailed that is 28 years old. They offer many different forms of enrichment for all their birds so we believe he will live just as long. Fun fact about this bird, he was banned in Ontario Canada in November of 2019. This means he is a first-year juvenile and full of energy, that is why we are so happy he is going to such a fabulous facility full of enrichment. 

In early June we received a this-year fledgling red-tailed hawk that was presumably hit by a car. He was found on the side of the road just sitting there. When we got him into our care, we noticed he was blind in one eye and over time his other eye regained sight. This bird is very gentle and will make a wonderful education bird. We’re in the process of finding him a forever home.