by Colleen M. Quinn

If you were a resident of Colorado during December 2006 and January 2007, you probably remember the blizzard conditions that swept the state. Ice, high winds, freezing temperatures, and huge amounts of snow dumped on Front Range, even bringing daily life to a standstill for days at a time. During these months, however, a group of volunteers toiled through this intense weather, building large outdoor caging units in Fort Collins. What could possibly be so important that these volunteers would literally work in a blizzard?

In a word, raptors.

“Everyone is here for the right reasons,” Bob Francella says of his dedicated volunteers.

Bob is the Director of Public Support at the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program in Fort Collins, Colorado. One of those reasons is that Colorado’s birds of prey need specialized care when injured, and that there is a great need for that care as more raptor-human encounters occur. Electrical wires, busy highways, and tall buildings are just a few threats that raptors must negotiate more often, in addition to natural hazards. Without the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program, or RMRP, these birds would face a grim future.

RMRP is on call 24/7, and is the largest raptor rehab and education program in Colorado. It began as a student club in 1979 at Colorado State University, which has some of the best veterinary programs in the country. “Some students had found an injured eagle, and they asked if they could take it in,” says Bob, “After that, the project just continued to grow!”

Indeed, the student group grew from just a few students that year, to a group so big that they hired an executive director in 1987. At RMRP’s current size, the organization has taken in 300-350 raptors this year alone, says Bob, who started in 2005 as RMRP’s Director of Public Support.

The RMRP is a combination of medical unit, rehab center, and outreach program rolled into one. The Program is about “preserving wildlife and wild places,” in essence, Colorado’s rich ecosystems. By offering specialized care to birds of prey, RMRP plays a critical role in preserving a unique group of Colorado’s wildlife.

The RMRP doesn’t give regular tours of its facilities, but it does offer a few open house events each year, to educate the public on these birds that are such an important part of the local ecosystem. The facilities are made up of a critical care unit, a treatment room, a kitchen, a live prey room, and two outdoor caging units. These are closely run as any hospital or treatment center.

In the critical care unit, it’s very quiet, as foreign noises cause significant stress to recent admittees. At the moment, there are about 14 birds in the unit, including a cooper hawk, peregrine falcon, a kestrel, and a little group of screech owls. They make a loud and somewhat disturbing hissing sound as the blanket covering their cage is lifted. Bob explains that it’s a defense tactic, to imitate threatening noises. It’s effective, for sure!

Bob, who has a background with nonprofits, says that working at RMRP is exactly what he wants to be doing, because of the organization’s genuine mission to provide much-needed aid to injured raptors. “I wanted to work with an organization where the distance between the money and its clients is short,” he says.

At RMMR, there are 7 staff members, and 15 volunteers that make RMRP the successful organization that it is. Volunteering at RMRP involves rigorous training, which is mostly hands-on, a commitment of 1 4-hour shift per week. Volunteers clean cages, prepare meals of mice and prairie dogs, and train extensively on safety for both people and birds. During December 2006 and January 2007, RMRP’s volunteers even worked through blizzard conditions, building the program’s outdoor cages!

A large room with plenty of counter space, the treatment room is the nerve center of RMRP. Twice a day, volunteers gather in the room to plan for the next 24 hours, covering food prep, cage cleaning, and other needs of the birds. Birds who are recovering at the Rescue are examined here as well as resident birds, who need their talons trimmed or their beaks maintained.

Resident birds are at RMRP for the remainder of their lives; they are birds who aren’t able to survive on their own, usually due to a physical disability. A one-winged peregrine falcon that lost her right wing after getting tangled in electrical wire, and a burrowing owl with one eye are both among RMRP’s lifelong residents.

However, a resident bird at RMRP doesn’t spend the rest of its life in a cage. Volunteer handlers work with a raptor up to a year before it can become an “educational" bird, a valuable resource in carrying out RMRP’s goal of educating the public on birds of prey and their environment. Educational birds are ambassadors to the public, providing people with a unique opportunity to learn about these beautiful birds of prey. They are part of RMRP’s many presentations given at schools across the state, reaching more than 15,000 elementary students a year. Educational birds and volunteers teach others about respecting all life in all situations, and creating respect for Colorado’s diverse ecosystems.

However, says Bob, “Our goal is always working towards release. We never keep flighted birds.” Although educational birds are in regular contact with humans, Bob stresses that rescue birds are handled as little as possible, to reduce the impact of human interaction on the birds. “We minimize contact with active cases, even down to eye contact, because these birds can’t get too used to people,” Bob says.

RMRP makes every effort to make a raptor’s stay as short as possible. Some of the shortest stays have been only a couple days for raptors that have been caught in storms, and just need a little rest. Depending on injuries, however, some birds can stay at the center for about a year or so for physical therapy, although a stay of that length is rare. If an animal is so injured it can’t return to the wild, it can become an education bird or in some unfortunate cases, euthanasia is required. However, most raptors come out of RMRP healthy and healed; the organization has a 70% success rate in birds that can be released.

Save for the big freezer full of mice, prairie dogs, and rabbits, the kitchen down the hall looks like any other that feeds many mouths. Equipped with a big sink, cutting boards, and plenty of knives, volunteers here portion out the right kinds of foods to keep the birds’ energy up. Birds of prey have very specific dietary needs, and volunteers work hard to provide them with the meat, internal organs, and bones that they need. In Bob’s words, these birds adhere to the “whole food” diet – as in whole animals.

That’s why RMRP keeps a live prey room, as well. Conveniently located next to the kitchen, the live prey room houses the freshest food offered at the facility. A multitude of mice are among the various kinds of live prey that are raised at RMRP, to keep a steady supply of food available. However, RMRP also accepts food donations, says Bob, which have included live rats and chickens in the past.

After birds have been evaluated and treated in the critical care and treatment rooms, often for more immediate injuries, they can then move on to the first of two outdoor caging units that are surrounded by quiet, open grassland on RMRP’s 27 acres of property. These cages house both resident and temporary birds, all in different stages of recovery. A one-eyed burrowing owl, a one-winged peregrine falcon, and a flightless golden eagle are a few of the resident raptors found in the outdoor cages. They’re joined by other owls, falcons, eagles, and kestrels whose stays will be considerably shorter.

In the second outdoor building, the flight cages, are raptors that are much nearer to release. Painted on the side of the building are bird outlines that count the number of releases per year at RMRP. The flight cages allow them to work their wing muscles under the watchful eye of volunteers. There are several kestrels, a group of golden eagles, and a few Swainson’s hawks that are already scheduled for release. After a bird has been checked out and deemed healthy, volunteers pick a location for release, usually far away from any town or road. Only a few people are present at a release, to reduce the presence of people and make a smoother transition for the bird. “It’s very moving to see a release,” says Bob, “It’s almost spiritual.”

The number of releases varies depending on the month and weather. In one week this past July, RMRP had 33 releases. The same month saw a spike in admissions at RMRP, due to the number of storms, rains, and twisters along the Front Range. Regardless of how many raptors they’ve received, RMRP has never turned away a bird, says Bob. RMRP also works with Colorado’s Division of Wildlife to extend their reach to more remote locations.

Bob believes that the rise in numbers is also due to more people knowing about RMRP and their work, as well as their education programs. What should you do if you find a raptor? “Before you do anything, first give us a call!” says Bob, because a raptor on the ground may not be injured. It may have just eaten, or it could be simply resting, and attempting to handle it can be very dangerous for both the person and the bird. RMRP’s website gives a useful protocol to follow when attempting to help an injured raptor, as well as contact information for the program.

RMRP’s website calls raptors environmental barometers, because of their essential place in the food chain. The effects of pollution and other toxins make their way up to raptors via food, thus giving people a clear picture of our impact on our environment. As it says on the program’s website, “Healthy raptor populations equal healthy human populations!”

Both as environmental barometers and creatures of beauty, raptors are an important part of Colorado’s wildlife. On the RMRP website, one of its core values is: “We value humane and ethical treatment of all life in all situations.” It’s a principle that RMRP upholds as it works to preserve these valuable birds, but also a principle that it imparts on those who can learn from these raptors as well.

Colleen Quinn graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and Mass Communication. A writer for most of her life, she has been writing for Whisperingtree.net for over two years. In that time, she’s had the opportunity to meet with many practitioners and masters of the healing arts. Using her years of customer service experience and time as an intern reporter, Colleen provides a unique means of expression for each practitioner she meets. She believes that honest interest and open ears are paramount for learning and understanding the world around us. Through her writing, Colleen offers readers a valuable insight into the work of those who are doing so much to help others.