2007 Season Ending

As I write this newsletter we are almost at the end of our 2007 season. In fact the only appearance left on the calendar is at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science for their Annual Teachers' Open House. We are planning to fly Prophet once again in the atrium during that event. There have been some changes to the layout in the atrium and so I will be making an inspection in the next few days to check out the flight paths. The open house takes place on September 26 starting at 5pm.

Raptor Handling Class

The 4th Annual Raptor Handling Class, also at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, was completed during August. Avian Ambassadors has partnered with Hawkwatch International for the last four years. This year's class was not only fully subscribed it also proved to be the best class to date with all students completing the entire set of classes. The broad range of backgrounds of the students and their diverse interests helped to make this a truly rewarding experience. Sincere thanks must go to Bobbie Posey of HWI for once again coordinating the class seamlessly, to Melanie Keithley of HWI and Avian Ambassadors for being a great tutoring partner, and to the museum staff for their support.

The varied backgrounds and ages of students in this year's class helps us to keep moving forward with our goal of improving the care and handling of rehabilitated birds of prey in educational programs.

Featured Ambassador

Kumbi is a pied crow (Corvus Albus) and is native to Africa. Pied crows belong to the family Corvidae, commonly referred to as Corvids. The family name Corvidae is derived from the Latin word Corvus that means "raven". This bird family includes crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, and nutcrackers. Pied crows are realtivley large crows, being closer in size to a small raven than most other crows.

Corvids are some of the more intelligent species of birds. Research done at Oxford University in England has found them to be similar in intelligence to non-human primates. They have been observed not only using but also making tools to aquire food.

In our show we build on their natural caching behavior and problem solving skills with Kumbi demonstrating recycling, trash collection, and recovery of a grape on a long string. Working with Corvids is challenging because of their high level of intelligence. If their trainer is not paying attention they can quickly begin to improvise and before you know it they are training you! 

 Birds in the News

Here are a few stories culled from the world-wide web over the last few weeks. If you come across a story or news item that you think would be of interest to Safari readers please let us know.

• California Condors and Lead.This subject has appeared several times in our newsletters in the past however I thought that it was probably time to post a link to the excellent information on the Center for Biological Diversity web site. This site has several articles that give the background to the problem, possible solutions, and links to other research supporting the campaigns to remove lead from the environment of these spectacular birds.
• California Condors and Trash. Birdlife International has a tease on its web site for some research done into the effects of human trash on the California Condor population. Unfortunately only a brief synopsis of the paper is presented, the full paper is only available by subscription. Online research turned up only a couple of older articles including one published in the San Francisco Gate in 2004. 
• White-tailed Eagles in Ireland. Six White-tailed Eagles were release into a national park in Ireland recently.

Support Avian Ambassadors

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