Hello From Delmarva

[Hmcgahagin]

Hello all! My name is Heather and I am from the Delmarva Penninsula, more specifically Pocomoke City. I am not currently a falconer but I am in the process of doing my research. I have grown to love Birds of Prey through my schooling and I want to take it to the next level.

Even though I am not a falconer at the moment I am very active with raptors. I am currently a docent Salisbury Zoo in MD where I do education programs with our 10 birds of prey. I have also interned at a raptor rehab and education facility out of CT. I not only got to take part in the rehab, but also the education programs with their 13 birds.

I'm hopeing sooner or later I will be able to actually participate in this sport and be a sponsor to other who are just starting off.

[Keith Denman]

Hello Heather and welcome aboard.

[Jessica]

That sounds so wonderful! I've read several posts from people who work with raptors, either rehabilitation or education (usually both). How did you get into it?

I'm also researching, but I have no experience with birds of prey outside the one meet, and the one hunt I got to tag along for. I don't count youtube videos. Lol!

[Hmcgahagin]

Jessica, most education departments at zoos have birds of prey they use for programs. I just signed up to be a docent or voluteer first, then went to college and signed up to be a intern, and now after college I'm a volunteer again. Being an intern I got thrown into handling before gathering any hours.

It's kind of funny because I didn't really like birds all that much when I first started working at the zoo. I wanted to be a carnivor keeper and work with the large cats and canines. I associated all birds with song birds (I lived in the city originally and didn't see any raptors). Then I worked with my first bo.p. an Eastern Screech Owl. I absolutely fell in love with them and pretty much exclusively worked with them. There are some birds in the ed. department that will only co-operate with me and a few others, our Turkey Vulture being one =).