{"id":41998,"date":"2016-09-08T06:55:10","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T12:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=41998"},"modified":"2016-09-08T18:26:06","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T00:26:06","slug":"good-news-for-some-of-the-raptors-in-my-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/08\/good-news-for-some-of-the-raptors-in-my-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Good News For Some Of The Raptors In My World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days ago I received very welcome news on several fronts\u00a0in an email from HawkWatch International (HWI)\u00a0Trustee Mike Shaw.<\/p>\n

Most blog followers will remember the recently fledged Short-eared Owl Mia and I rescued from barbed wire entanglement earlier this summer. I had to cut the\u00a0little fellow, a male,\u00a0out of the wire and then we turned him over to Mike at HWI and he made arrangements to have it delivered to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah (WRCNU). The bird recovered but due to wing damage from the wire it cannot be released back to the wild so it was decided that it will be an education bird. Somewhere.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"short-eared-owl-5201-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I’ll spare you yet another look at that poor little owl hung up\u00a0on the wire but it was very similar to this one – another fledgling in about the same area and time period.<\/p>\n

Short-eared Owls as education birds are in high demand and there’s been multiple organizations vying for custodial honors of this youngster but\u00a0Mike told me that it’s now been decided that “our” owl will be going to HWI and I couldn’t be more delighted about that decision (which still has to be ok’d by the feds). It seems\u00a0fitting to me that it\u00a0will remain\u00a0in Utah and I can’t think\u00a0of better custodial parents for\u00a0him\u00a0than HWI. Their biology, ecology and conservation programs reach school students throughout the state and that pleases this retired biology teacher very much.<\/p>\n

Then Mike told me some other interesting news that prompted me to make a visit to HWI headquarters yesterday afternoon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"nikki-wayment-1151-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

Meet Nikki Wayment, Education and Outreach Director of HWI. It’s Nikki and her staff who spend so much time in Utah schools with their education birds. I asked Nikki to pose for a photo next\u00a0to some of the kestrel nest boxes that HWI places and monitors in the Salt Lake Valley.\u00a0Significant\u00a0declines in American Kestrel populations across the nation have prompted HWI to\u00a0initiate a long-term kestrel study that includes an ambitious\u00a0nest box project. Staff and volunteers monitor hundreds of these nest boxes and place dozens of new ones each year.<\/p>\n

But where do these nest boxes come from? That’s where Mike’s email became particularly interesting to me. But first a little background…<\/p>\n

Back in the early 70’s a smart, practical-joking young man named Robert Stevens was one of my Biology and Utah Wildlife students early in my career\u00a0at South High School. Robert went on to earn a biology degree in college and worked in cancer research at the U of U for a few years but he eventually went into teaching. By that time I was teaching at Highland High\u00a0School and lo and\u00a0behold, guess who turned up one year in the room across the hall from me as a new biology teacher – none other than Robert Stevens! Robert eventually went from teaching biology to teaching wood shop at Highland – he’s a master craftsman. We were colleagues and friends\u00a0until I\u00a0retired\u00a0and since then we’d lost touch. Robert is also now retired.<\/p>\n

Mike told me that it was Robert who’d been building most of the kestrel nest boxes for HWI and he does it gratis. Several days ago Robert delivered this year’s\u00a0supply of boxes to HWI.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"kestrel-nest-boxes-1154-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

This is what 75 unassembled kestrel nest boxes look like. The wood is supplied by HWI sponsor Mark Miller Subaru and\u00a0Robert does the carpentry,\u00a0wraps each box individually in plastic and delivers them to HWI. This Friday evening all these\u00a0components will be assembled into nest boxes by\u00a0kids and their parents at Mark Miller Subaru.<\/p>\n

I’ve also discovered that Robert provides additional\u00a0services to HWI – for example, he recently cut and split\u00a03 1\/2 cords of firewood for use at their remote\u00a0Hawkwatch site in the Goshute\u00a0Mountains to keep their seasonal biologists warm on the mountain.\u00a0It\u00a0gets cold way up there at night!<\/p>\n

Robert does all this and more under the radar. He just does it and I like his style so I thought he deserved some recognition for his kind heart and good deeds. I tried to catch him at home yesterday to get a photo of him for this post but I missed him (he was out doing yet another good deed for one of our retired colleagues\u00a0who’s facing some health issues). But here’s a photo of him <\/a>left over from his teaching days at Highland.<\/p>\n

Our kestrels are surely better off than they would be without the efforts of Robert Stevens and I applaud him (and HWI).<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"burrowing-owl-cutout-1168-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n