The "drive" to the end

Near the end of my graduation project after I was done doing my information stations, I decided to go around to 200 houses in my neighborhood and distribute fliers. The fliers asked for donations to the Carolina Raptor Center such as wind chimes, dog toys, and broom handles. These items were to help rehabilitate the birds at the center and to be used for educational purposes for the visitors. Once I got the donations I delivered them to the Raptor Center so that they could be put to good use! The people that work at the Center and my mentor Nicki, greatly appreciated the donated items.

I was glad to be able not only to learn how to help birds of prey, but being able to teach others that I did not know how they can do their part in helping. I enjoyed talking and seeing new faces every weekend then teaching them information about rehabilitating raptors. It also felt good to be able to donate to the center and help them accomplish their mission of conserving birds of prey.

One thing that I did not expect to learn was to not be so close to a raptor... because they just might poop on you!

Information stations at the Raptor Center

Think that when you're in the car and you throw a bio-degradable food item out the window that you are doing the environment a favor and some animal will benefit off of it by eating it? Well that is true...but at the same time you are causing many raptors to get injured! This is because a little animal such as a mouse will go out to the side of the road to get that food source, but a raptor, eating live food will swoop down and try to capture that mouse. The number one cause of injuries to raptors is cars and that is why so many birds of prey get brought into the Carolina Raptor Center with broken wings. When raptors fly down to capture those little animals they do not fly directly up but can only fly horizontally, causing them to get hit by cars. This is only one of the first few things I learned then helped inform other people about!

First I met with my mentor Nicki Dardinger at the Carolina Raptor Center and she taught me the information I needed to know in order to inform visitors at the center about birds of prey. For three different weekends I went to the Center where Nicki taught me all types of new information and then I would set up a table where I would teach other people, kids and adults. Every weekend I learned and then taught visitors information about raptors such as which raptors ate which food, what type of wings and feet they have ( using real animal parts from raptors that needed to be amputated), and how to make your backyard a living habitat for birds.

I learned other interesting things such as, people aren't allowed to actually touch the raptors because there is oil on their wings that repels water, and the oil on our fingers would disturb the natural oil on their wings. I taught visitors how raptors are different from birds because they are meat eaters that use their feet to capture prey instead of picking at it with their beak. Their beak is also extremely sharp, along with their curved talons that complete their feet.

I helped inform people that if they saw an injured raptor on the side of the road or had one in their backyard that they can either carefully bring it to the Raptor Center by putting it in a cardboard box, or to be safe, call the Carolina Raptor Center Rescue Line at 704-875-6521. The center will send out volunteers to safely help capture the injured bird and bring it back to the center where it can be examined and vets either do surgery or put injured parts in casts. Once they feel the bird is able to live successfully in the wild they will help prepare it to be set free by running some tests such as seeing if a raptor can capture live food in a certain amount of time. If they realize the raptor is healthy and able, they will release it back into the wild, and if they do not feel a raptor can live successfully in the wild they will take care of it and use it for educational purposes.

From killer whales to birds of prey

I started off my graduation project writing a research paper on the harmful effects of killer whales in captivity as I moved onto the product part of the project I found a great Raptor Center in Hopewell, North Carolina that helps rehabilitate birds of prey and that do not believe in keeping birds in captivity, unless absolutely necessary. So I decided that I wanted to learn how the Raptor Center helps conserve and rehabilitate injured and orphaned raptors, then become a volunteer to help teach information to visitors eager to learn environmental education. I also decided to hold a drive and send out a list of educational items to my friends and neighbors asking them to help donate. With greatly appreciated donated items, the Raptor Center can use the items in their educational programs and to help rehabilitate birds.

Instead of a center that holds animals in captivity for entertainment and that harms animals' safety and health, the Carolina Raptor Center is dedicated to the conservation of raptors and setting them back into the wild.