Audubon Center for Birds of Prey

We live within walking distance from a great old cemetery with a big old dead pine tree in the middle with an eagle's nest on top. We've watched from a distance as the breeding pair raised eaglets, bringing them food and later standing by as their young tested their wings before leaving the nest. The last two years, however, the nest has been knocked out of the tree by strong winds and this year two young eaglets came crashing down to earth with it.

Fortunately Central Florida has the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland and the young birds were taken there for 2 weeks of rehab before they will be returned home. So on this first day of spring, Mrs. Ephemera and I decided to visit the center and were very pleased we did.

The Center was started in 1979 after Doris Mager spent six days and 5 nights in an abandoned eagle's nest to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by the bald eagle. Five months later the center opened and by the end of the year had admitted 66 rescued raptors. Today the Center treats almost 700 birds a year.

Toni the one-eyed Screech Owl

On our visit, we immediately met "Trouble" a male bald eagle with a twisted beak suffered as a result of early trauma or from a birth defect. He was handled by a slight young girl who we later watched in a video explain how they take care of the birds at the center. An older lady briefly presented a beautiful owl before running off to treat a Red Tailed Hawk that had just been rescued.


Entrance to the Center costs $5 and most of the experience is self-guided as you get to observe raptors who couldn't be returned to captivity due to the severity of their injuries. Here is list of some of the incredible creatures who live there:
• Bale Eagle
• Swallow Tail Kite
• American Kestral
• Peregrine Falcon
• Northern Caracara
• Osprey
• Red-shouldered, Red-tailed and Cooper's Hawks
• Screech, Great Horned, Barred and Barn Owls
• Black and Turkey Vultures
• American Kestral

Bird holding areas are called "Mews"

For me nothing beats observing these wild animals in their natural environments. But I gain a whole new level of appreciation seeing them up close. Actually, seeing them in captivity increases my desire to go bird watching in some our state's great natural areas. We are fortunate to have a place that is able to care for and rehabilitate these majestic creatures. But we are even more fortunate to live in a state that still has enough habitat left to see them where they belong, in the wild.

Northern Caracara

Red Shouldered or Cooper's Hawk

American Kestrals

Red Tailed Hawk

"Trouble"

Protecting Florida's feathered friends

This image from the Florida state archives tells this story: "In the late 1800s many species of Florida's wading birds were nearly driven to extinction by plume hunters. The plume trade, which supplied feathers for popular ladies' hats, was highly profitable. In 1903 the value of an ounce of egret nuptial plumes, called aigrettes, was estimated to be worth twice the amount of an ounce of gold. Despite laws against plume hunting passed in Florida in 1891 and again in 1901 hunting did not stop. Wading bird populations in Florida suffered until the sale of wild bird plumage was made illegal by the New York legislature in 1910. Today (2009) all species of wading birds are protected by state and federal law."-Florida State Archives.

"Fashionable" ladies wearing hats with bird plumage
from the Library of Congress

An interesting fact is that the fight to stop plumage in ladies hats was on reason for the formation of the Audubon Society. According to the post on answers.com about the Audubon Society's history, the organization began when the editor of Field and Stream magazine became leader in a movement to outlaw the slaughter of birds for the purpose of decorating women's hats. "Membership was open to everyone refusing to wear bird feathers as ornaments and/or willing to prevent the killing of wild birds not used for food and the destruction of their eggs," and in the first issue of Audubon Magazine it was reported that the hunting of birds "now takes place on such a large scale as to seriously threaten the existence of a number of our most useful species."

A monument in Punta Gorda takes up the story stating that "in 1901 the Audubon Society persuaded the state to adopt laws protecting Florida wildlife, especially plumage birds." The state however provided no manpower to enforce the laws so two wardens hired by the Audubon Society were deputized to protect Florida's birds. The warden assigned to the Everglades, Guy M. Bradley, was found shot to death by poachers in 1905. The other warden, Columbus G. McLeod, disappeared from the Port Charlotte area in southwest Florida and was presumed murdered in 1908. The marker continues "This second death of an Audubon warden sparked a a national campaign against the wearing of feathers, and shifted public sentiment in favor of strong enforcement of wildlife laws and the prosecution of plume hunters."

Guy Bradley, from the Florida State Archives

Ranger at monument for Guy Bradley in the Everglades, 1957
from the Florida State Archives