See how humans help injured birds of prey return home
Volunteers, veterinarian work to return injured raptors to the wild
A volunteer with the Orange County Bird of Prey Center holds a Western Screech-Owl at their facility in Trabuco Canyon just before its release on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
It is one thing to venture into the wilderness, it is another thing to help nurture a wild creature back to health and set it free.
That, my friends, is magic.
As a small crowd looks on, a red-shouldered hawk is released at the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The face of a great horned owl as it waits to be released at the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dr. Scott Weldy speaks to the crowd about the kestrel he is holding at the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A crowd gathers for the release of various birds of prey at Vintage Park in Lake Forest as they listen to Dr. Scott Weldy talk about the different birds on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A red-shoulder hawk waits to be released back into the wild at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A great horned owl sits on a utility pole near the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon just after its release on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Alex Shu, of Lake Forest, a volunteer with the Orange County Bird of Prey Center, holds a barn owl at their facility in Trabuco Canyon just before its release on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Jennifer Pearlstein releases a red-tailed hawk at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A volunteer with the Orange County Bird of Prey Center holds a Western Screech-Owl at their facility in Trabuco Canyon just before its release on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A crowd gathers for the release of various birds of prey at Vintage Park in Lake Forest as they listen to Dr. Scott Weldy talk about the different birds on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A red-tailed hawk waits to be released back into the wild at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Torrie Lancaster of Huntington Beach releases a red-tailed hawk at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A great horned owl about to be released at the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A Western Screech-Owl is released at the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Brenda Timoti, left, of Huntington Beach, a volunteer with the Orange County Bird of Prey Center, and Dr. Scott Weldy, right, both hold red-tailed hawks as Weldy, of the Serrano Animal & Bird Hospital, speaks to the crowd about the birds before they are released at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A barn owl surveys the crowd moments before its release at the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A merlin, left, and a kestrel, right, are held by volunteers at the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon, moments before they are released on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A volunteer at the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon shows off a barn owl moments before it is released on Saturday, October 12, 2019, in Trabuco Canyon. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Amy Belt of Mission Viejo holds a red-tailed hawk just moments before it is released at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Trabuco Canyon on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
As a small crowd takes photographs, Jamie Dlapa, right, with the Orange County Bird of Prey Center, holds a barn owl at their facility in Trabuco Canyon just before its release on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A crowd watches as Cindie Woods releases a Cooper’s hawk at Vintage Park in Lake Forest on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released more than 50 birds of prey, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations.(Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Brenda Timoti of Huntington Beach, a volunteer at the Orange County Bird of Prey Center in Trabuco Canyon, holds a great horned owl moments before its release on Saturday, October 12, 2019. The Orange County Bird of Prey Center released 61 birds of prey that had been previously injured, including: Cooper’s hawks, kestrels, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, screech owls, barn owls, and great horned owls, at four different locations. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Wearing a thick black leather glove, Jennifer Pearlstein grips a huge red-tailed hawk’s legs, sweeps her hand toward the heavens and lets go.
In seconds, the magnificent beast with a 4-foot wingspan soars above a small crowd invited by the Orange County Bird Of Prey Center and disappears over a hill.
The release is over almost before it begins. But make no mistake, the moment is forever in Pearlstein’s memory.
The Pilates instructor’s tears of joy are born from a unique bond between human and bird, and Pearlstein will always be the last person to touch the hawk.
Yet as awesome as the release was, the most amazing thing on this day is that Pearlstein is not alone and neither is the animal.
In total, 63 birds of prey that were injured and would be dead without the efforts of deeply committed volunteers are released before the day is over.
It is testimony to how relatively tame humans and very wild animals can live in harmony.
It also is one more step toward fulfilling a dream that has been incubating for years and only now is about to hatch.
Circle of life
Perhaps it is no surprise there are relatively few nonprofit centers in the nation dedicated to healing wild critters and releasing them into the wild.
But to think such action doesn’t pay would be wrong. If a price could be put on the happiness of saving nature’s creatures, then the work of the Orange County Bird of Prey Center would certainly be one heck of a bargain.
For some three decades, the center has scraped by on scraps and the kindness of strangers. Yet against all odds, volunteers have managed to return some 3,000 birds to the wild.
For years, the family who owns and operates Rancho Las Lomas in Santiago Canyon has provided space for a series of shacks for healing raptors. But now, thanks to a $1-a-year lease agreement with OC Parks, the Orange County Bird of Prey Center is finally preparing to move into permanent digs near the Upper Oso Reservoir.
Already, a series of cages are set up, more bird shelters are being added and an outdoor dirt amphitheater is in the works. For completion, the center only needs a few hundred-thousand dollars (hint, hint).
If you think, however, that saving birds of prey is nothing more than being nice, then you missed high school biology. There’s that circle of life thing and raptors don’t just dine on bird eggs. They help reduce pigeon and rat populations which, in turn, helps reduce disease.
And that’s only part of the payoff.
Michelle Claud-Clemente is animal services manager for the city of Mission Viejo, as well as a long-time volunteer for the Orange County Bird of Prey Center.
“From an ecological standpoint,” Claud-Clemente tells me, “every organism on this earth keeps all of our lives in balance.”
Claud-Clemente also points out that the wilderness and wild things enrich our lives.
“In our fast-paced, hectic world, when you see a soaring bird it helps you see your place in the world,” she explains. “Nature makes us all better.”
“You go for a walk in a park, and you feel better,” she offers, adding of the outdoors, “It makes my heart sing.”
With a day job caring for animals, I ask Claud-Clemente why she continues to help, even after hours.
Her answer is one we all can learn from: “I believe in volunteerism and working to make the community a better place.”
Dr. Doolittle
At the center of the Orange County Bird of Prey Center is a veterinarian named Dr. Scott Weldy.
I hung out with Weldy several years ago and learned that the California Veterinary Medical Association cited him for meritorious service, eloquently stating: “If Noah needed a veterinarian on board the ark, Dr. Weldy could have been that veterinarian.”
The association wasn’t kidding.
In addition to Weldy’s Orange County Bird of Prey Center, he also treats wild animals at the OC Zoo in Irvine Regional Park, the Santa Ana Zoo and the Exotic Feline Breeding Compound in Rosamond.
But his devotion isn’t limited to wild critters. He earns his bread and butter at his Serrano Animal and Bird Hospital in Lake Forest where he treats regular pets such as dogs and cats. Then he uses some of the profits to heal, house and feed injured wildlife.
When I asked the Mission Viejo native what drew him to veterinary medicine, Weldy joked, “I thought being a single-species doctor sounded kind of boring.”
On a more serious note, he offered, “There’s nothing better than rehabilitating an animal and releasing it into the wild.”
On the day of the raptor releases, Weldy stands in the middle of a circle of people first at a park in Lake Forest, then in Whiting Ranch Regional Park, next at the location of the budding new bird center and, lastly, on Santiago Canyon Road.
The reason for the different locations is that each spot fits the needs of the different species – big trees for kestrels, wide open land for hawks, hills and trees for owls.
As Weldy talks, he informs and entertains, explaining how raptors hunt by sight or sound depending on the species, how they are injured – often by vehicles – and the changes in bird populations over the years.
In the 1980s, for example, the veterinarian reports he usually saw three to five cooper hawks a year. Now, he sees that many in a single week.
The reason? With more development, there also are more trees and that allows for more cooper hawks.
Touching the divine
Jeff Eales is another long-time volunteer for the bird of prey center. He allows that late December and early January is an especially tough time for wild birds.
The reason? Christmas BB and pellet guns.
Eales explains that if someone finds an injured bird, the best thing to do is to contact animal control and let them handle the critter.
Hawks can injure people, he warns. But perhaps worse – at least for birds – is they might “imprint” or bond with a human and decide people are their friends.
Human imprinting, however, usually ends in the bird’s quick and accidental death.
Even the center minimizes its interaction with wild animals. “We want birds to be scared of us,” Eales points out. “It helps them stay alive.”
While we talk, Weldy comes over carrying a great horned owl and offers me the opportunity to release the bird. After watching dozens of others do the same, I accept but figure it’s no big deal.
Dumb.
If you’ve ever looked into the bright gold eyes of a great horned owl at the end of your arm, you have looked directly into the wild.
Weldy hands me a thick leather glove and explains how to grasp the owl’s upper legs, putting two fingers between them and gripping gently, but firmly.
I step away holding my new feathered friend, swing my arm high and open my hand.
The great horned owl stretches it’s 5-foot wingspan and with a rush of feathers against air, vanishes over a vast valley.
