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An Eagle’s Second Chance

After a two month stay, a very big, strong and fat female Golden Eagle was released back to the wild. She arrived on August 4th as a young and very skinny eagle. She was found by a falconer who gave her some food then called Martin to care for her. After an initial examination, Martin thought she would just need to stay a little while to eat a lot and regain her strength before being released for her second chance to make it in the wild.

It turned out she needed a little more time, staying just over two months. On November 9th, Martin caught her from the large chamber she’d shared with the juvenile white belly bald eagle, and put her in a kennel to take her up to the C-Overlook for release.

Though we normally try to organize a public release, today we let the camera be the means to share this release with our growing online audience. Martin took the opportunity to answer a lot of common questions we’ve seen in emails and comments.

FAQs in this video:

9:00 – About the “hood”

9:30 – About weight and “keel” bone

11:38 – About the young eagle and her parents relationship

12:20 – Why it is so hard for Birds of Prey to survive

12:48 – About her rehabilitation process

13:55 – About her weight and second chance

14:30 – About where she will be released and why that place is chosen

15:30 – About how she will survive her first five years

16:20 – About her time of release and weather conditions

17:00 – Do we train them?

17:30 – About banding and birds returning

19:50 – Why we hold public releases

20:50 – Why don’t we just release the eagle out of the box?

23:30 – About the eagles feet

23:47 – Differences between Golden Eagle and Bald Eagle as juveniles and adults

25:20 – Effect of Martin holding the eagle

26:00 – Why doesn’t the eagle fight Martin?

27:30 – What the eagle may do just after release

So here’s the plans

The volunteer critter webgeek will be leaving Lake Havasu City early Wednesday morning to visit our rescue center for a few days. We’d like to share our latest planning outlines with you and welcome any comments, suggestions, questions or wishes.

The plan is for the volunteer critter webgeek to visit quarterly. And like all plans, we’ve already had to adapt them slightly. The visit had to be moved up a week because Rexi Ruffian, the one of the webgeek’s seven Yorkshire Terriers, has been scheduled for a dental on November 12th for two really problem chompers.

Please feel free to review our ideas and to contact Martin (Martin@martintyner.com) or the webgeek (webgeek@gowildlife.org) if you’d like add your thoughts.

Quarterly Visits

Mid November: Wed 13th – Sun 17th Moved up to Wed 6th – Sun 10th
– set up chamber & shed cameras
– set up new mac & file exchange
– livestream on YouTube
– live stories on Instagram
– get raw photo files from Martin
– more glam shots of the wildlife ambassadors in different settings
– product glam shots
– park glam shots
– Facebook Admin
– set-up trail cam daily
– geocaches at park
– set mini to find Martin’s phone
– use drone around area
– Martin’s radio

Video Ideas:
– bird feeders at park
– how and why to maintain backyard feeders
– Martin’s Cedar City
– Promo videos of tours given like Parowan & Park
– about Cirrus and Piper
– about how we know Helen’s limitations
– differences between Golden Eagles & Bald Eagles
– eagle release with FAQ & max camera angles
— Some FAQS to cover:

  1. Why not release from same location the eagle was found?
  2. Why not release from the kennel? Why not release immediately instead of talking? How does this affect the bird?
  3. Will the eagle return?
  4. Is the eagle tracked?
  5. Will the eagle find his parents?
  6. Will the eagle have more trouble?
  7. Was the eagle trained?

– Wildlife Triage Facility update

Falconry:
– get set up for falconry podcasts
— intro & history of falconry/regulations and national organizations
— go over falconry equipment & set-up
— brainstorm outline/FAQ

– Create rough Calendar of Events tracking:
— falconry season
— hunting times
— year round care of birds (fat & happy, molting, training)
— types of Rehab throughout different times of year

Early March: Wed 4th – Sun 8th

Mid June: Wed 17th – Sun 21st

Early September: Wed 2nd – Sun 6th

Belle the Harris Hawk Preparing for the new season

Before the new hunting season, Martin spends time preparing Belle. In this video he continues his descriptions of her care during the off season as compared to during hunting season.

This video, all from his GoPro, was taken four days before the start of hunting season while still working to retrain Belle.

Belle arrived from a breeder in New Orleans in August of 2018.

To learn more, please click here to visit the Belle Blog.

Eagle Updates, Shed Update & Unboxings!

00:06 Rehabilitating Golden Eagle Update (Oct 11)
– a quick update on the eagle that landed in a falconer’s backyard and then was brought to Martin ( Arrival of Young Skinny Eagle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47tB3f0uUr4 )
– and brief word about the White Belly Bald Eagle

01:56 Unboxing gifts from Amazon Wishlist (Oct 6)
– Martin and Susan open a TOWER of boxes from generous supporters! THANK YOU!

12:26 Update on the Herman R. Gallardo Wildlife Triage Facility (Oct 11)
– Martin gives a quick tour of the work he’s done inside the shed.

15:25 Unboxing gifts from Rodent Pro (Oct 18)
– Opening a box of frozen treats for the critters sent by Auntie Kat!

Boxes of Generosity

And more boxes!

A Big Annoucement We Can Finally Share

This is a story started way back on September 26th, 2018.

And we’ve kept it secret over a year as we worked with associates and volunteers to put everything together to get to this point.

Today it is official. Our founder, Martin Tyner, is one of 31 nominees in the running for the 2020 Indianapolis Prize.

“The Indianapolis Prize recognizes and rewards conservationists who have achieved major victories in advancing the sustainability of an animal species or group of species. Winners receive an unrestricted $250,000 award. Remaining Finalists each receive $10,000.”

We are incredibly excited about Martin’s nomination and thrilled to see his work acknowledged among the ranks of 30 other amazing conservationists!

The Indianapolis Prize is the world’s leading award for animal conservation and its nominees hail from countries around the globe.

We hope you will join us in congratulating Martin and all of the 31 nominees as well as thanking the Indianapolis Prize officials for supporting the work they do. The Indianapolis Prize social sites will be sharing more information about each nominee in the coming months.

Please check out their URLs:

Indianapolis Prize
Facebook
Twitter

Eagle Found Lifeless but Still Breathing

On September 26th, 2019 Martin was called about a Golden Eagle seen along the side of a road that was not moving. After traveling out about 40 miles, Martin found the Golden Eagle as described, just laying beside the road showing little signs of awareness.

Upon picking up the Golden Eagle, Martin immediately noticed how thin he was and thought starvation was the most likely cause of his condition. Martin quickly put the eagle in a kennel and headed back the the rescue center. Getting fluids and some food into the eagle was top priority and Martin hoped the eagle would survive that long.

Once home, Martin quickly prepared a small meal and was pleased to find the eagle was still alive. The first feeding was quick difficult as the eagle was so weak and struggled to swallow. Once the eagle was fed a small meal, he was taken to a small chamber to rest undisturbed. The eagle took the same lifeless position laying on the dirt in the chamber.

Martin stayed up all night with the eagle, making frequent visits to feed and check on the bird. Unfortunately, the eagle passed away early the next morning.

Martin said sometimes they arrive already dead but still breathing.

Falconry: Belle the Harris Hawk Season Two

Welcome to year two of Belle the Harris Hawk who arrived arrived from a breeder in New Orleans in August of 2018.

Falconry season began on September 1st. Training for the new season started a month prior. In this first video of her second falconry year, Martin shares his methods to get her ready and refresh her training.

In this video, we also introduce the “Belle Blog”. At present, it lists her previous videos and photos from her hunts. In the future, we hope to include a FAQ and perhaps a regular falconry podcast.

If you have questions or other suggestions for future Belle Videos and/or podcast, please send them to Martin@martintyner.com.

Please click here to visit the The Belle Blog

Arrival of young skinny eagle

This young golden eagle ended up in the backyard of a falconer. She was thin and weak after getting separated from her parents. The Falconer caught her and temporarily cared for her until Martin could come pick her up.

Martin gave her an exam and found no additional problems. Expecting a quick easy stay to give her time to regain weight and recover, he put her the large chamber with two other eagles.

There are certain behaviors Martin looks for to know when an eagle is ready for release. As of yet, she is not quite there. So she will stay a little longer until Martin is confident she is 100% physically fit and ready to start her second chance in the wild.

Questions about Eagles? See our FAQ:

Questions about Eagles (FAQ)

Two Hawks Released Back to the Wild!

On August 8th, Martin released two hawks: a young Cooper’s Hawk and a young Swainson’s Hawk. Both were orphaned chicks raised at the rescue center.

Properly raised, their behavior was very wild and untamed. Gathered up for their release to the world, they were as feisty to Martin as any other wild bird.

At release, they were well fed with full crops and had been given some live food to learn to procure their own food.

They were released just outside of town in a safe area with plenty of resources. All birds of prey face a tough learning curve in the wild. Martin’s work with them puts them at the same start they would have gotten with their parents. It’s up to them now to get things figured out and hopefully do well back in the wild.

A Very Special Guest!

A very special guest visited recently!
From Susan: “We enjoyed our visit with Gayle Bass! She is super nice and fun. She loved hawking with Belle, seeing the critters at our home and the Nature Park. We took her over the mountain to Cedar Breaks and back down through Brian Head and Parowan.”
Please check out her visit on RightThisMinute!