Gorgeous visitors at MBS
One of my favorite things at the Midwest Birding Symposium were the visiting raptors from Back to the Wild.
BACK TO THE WILD® is a volunteer, non-profit wildlife rehabilitation and nature education center located in northwest Ohio. Its primary mission is to rehabilitate and ultimately release into their natural habitat, injured, orphaned and displaced wildlife.
I loved looking at these beautiful birds. They are all permanent residents at BTTW due to injuries which would prevent them from surviving in the wild. Aren’t they gorgeous?
Long-eared Owl
Long-eared Owl
Red-shouldered Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
American Kestrel
Great Horned Owl
Saw-whet Owl
Saw-whet Owl
I was talking with one of the volunteers at the Back to the Wild stand and I learned that they do not name their birds. They do a lot of programs with children and decided not to name the birds so that the children wouldn’t get the idea that the birds are pets. I totally understand that reasoning, but I wonder if it isn’t very unhandy to have unnamed birds. How can you talk about them with someone else? You have to call them something, like “the blind eagle” or “the long-eared with the broken wing,” right? I know they give names to the birds at Barnswallow. If you work with education birds or at a rehab facility, do you name your birds? (Susan?) Why or why not?
Short-eared Owl
Barred Owl
Barred Owl
Adopting a bird or purchasing a walkway paver are just two of the ways you can help Back to the Wild with their important work. Here are some more ways to help.
. Chilton has spent the last 10 years or so, on and off, chasing down the last remaining museum pieces, study skins and eggs of this duck that went extinct in the 1870’s. During his extremely entertaining lecture, he explained how he came to take on the project and shared a few of the adventures he had along the way to finding the 50-some birds and handful of remaining eggs that reside in museums (and other places) around the world. 
