Wisconsin Life

Are we ready? Everybody ready?

ethereal new age music

Mm-hmm. The prairie chicken was really special because she is one of those that we don't get to see very often. And, in fact, we had never had one admitted before. She had some severe things to overcome.

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It was very much a celebration when she was able to be released. Birds have always been a part of my life. You know, my love of birds started from the time I was born. My very first word was "birdie." And my parents, they knew they were in trouble at that point in time, I think.

laughs

I'm Marge Gibson, and I'm founder and director of Raptor Education Group in Antigo.

whistling

We have bids that are injured in some way, or orphaned, all native species. And, the way they get to us, is people find them, not the DNR, and, you know, not Fish and Wildlife Service, but a member of the public that finds them. First of all, you get the phone call, and so we're prepared for whatever's coming in. People deliver it to the door, and we are able to examine it right away, as soon as it comes in. He's a small male. Doing a very quick physical on it's really important. So we can diagnose properly what's going on, and then get it treated quickly. With birds, you have a very brief window of time to treat them because they're very high strung, and handling them, and doing the exams, and things are stressful on them. We're able to x-ray all of our patients now when they come in, and we're finding out some very interesting things. The tip is gone though, right? The hook is gone? Or is it embedded? No, it's in there. - It's embedded, okay. A lot of the patients are shot that we would have had no idea about. We have had unusual cases, and I think that you know, we treat such a wide range of species, that birds like American Bitterns and they're sort of shy, quiet birds of the marshland.

speaking gently

This is very exciting stuff for you. What do you think? You go, little man. You take care!

wings beating against plants

wings fluttering rapidly

Oh, there you go! There you go! Just what a bittern's supposed to do. They're unusual coming in because we don't see them very often, and, in fact, nobody does. Our use of foster parents is something that we're really known for, and something that we actually started probably 20 years ago, using foster parents to rear babies, so they're not imprinted to humans. And we started working with owls. Right now, we have an adult male, who's not releasable to the wild. The father plays just as big a role as the female, and he takes really excellent care of the babies. This year he had seven. There are other years when we have strong storms and things that bring trees down, where, you know, he has more.

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So, this afternoon, they're going to graduate from a small area to a larger flight area. And they haven't been flying very much at this point, they're still sort of fluffy babies getting their feathers in. But today, they're going to be able to go out and start that process of working toward flight and toward their future, which is release. One of the things that we try very hard to do here too, is to expose people to how amazing wildlife is and to do a lot of wildlife education to raise the level of awareness. I think the public need to know that they're someone who can help a species by not taking down that dead tree. Hi! By, you know, not using pesticides. Oh, my gosh. If you're a hunter, changing your bullets to copper, as opposed to lead. Oh, that's you, buddy boy. Look at that one. He flies really well, though. So, there's many things that we can correct, just by not doing, or just becoming more aware of it.

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Our eagle population has grown, and that's through the protection of the Endangered Species Act, and the Bald and Golden Eagle Act, as well. Because there's more interaction with the public, more that are hit by cars, there's more that get tangled up in fishing line, there's more that swallow lures.

speaking Native language

And it's an amazing life, truly, the birds are such... such spirits, they're such amazing individuals and species, and we really feel like, it's what was meant to happen, and we're meant to be here, and it's really perfect. One, two, free!

cheering

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