Step 76: Learn More About Raptors than you Ever Wanted to Know

Two of my friends and I went to the Indiana Raptor Center down near Brown County State Park this past weekend (don't ask it's exact location--that's classified information, and I'd have to kill you if I told you). After a bit of confusion as to where we were supposed to meet up with our escorts (I'm serious about the location thing--you have to meet up with a volunteer of the Center and then follow them deep into the forest. You can't just Google Map this stuff.) we finally made it to the wooden cabin that served as home base for the staff of InRC. Laura Edmunds (Vice President, Director of Education, and Curator) invited us to have a seat on the front porch while the volunteers who led us there finished bringing in some birds that had just been at a presentation.

Photo courtesy of Indiana Raptor Center

Once things had settled down a bit, Laura brought out an American Kestrel named Simon and sat down to chat with us on the porch. Simon sat with us for a good 20 minutes, being a perfect little demonstrator for all the interesting facts Laura had about raptors.



For the bird nerds out there, you might have known these facts already, but for this wolf girl, these points were quite interesting.

• Birds can see ultraviolet light. Specifically for Simon, he can see a trail of mouse urine and use that to track his prey.
• Some birds have a streak of black next to their eyes to help fight the glare from sunlight. Simon's got black and white because white is used to indicate to his babies that he's the daddy and not a predator (there are no predators of American Kestrels that have white on their faces).
• Some falcons can handle MAJOR Gs--like, we're talking double digits.

There was so much more that Laura told and showed us (see below for some of the pictures from our trip), but that would ruin the whole tour if I gave away everything! I highly recommend calling 812-988-8990 and setting up your own visit. It might seem a bit sketchy how you have to go about getting to the Center, but they do that so the birds don't get overwhelmed with people randomly stopping by to see them, and the hospitality of the people and beauty of the birds is just to great to pass up.

We got to see my favorite raptor, a golden eagle (and yes, they're my favorite because of Rescuers Down Under--don't judge!). My friend got to meet the bald eagle that he sponsored, Ben. Ben's the girl with a chunk of meat in her claws. Yes. Ben's a girl. And we saw a bunch of owls. One of the owls the staff has no idea where it came from. Someone just came onto the property and stuck him in their cage.

So my question to you is: What's your favorite bird of prey?
And my challenge to you: Go bird watching for an hour. We've got some pretty ones here in Indiana.