The Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center has opened a new flight enclosure for non-releasable birds.
Recently moved in are two barred owls; an American kestrel, and a female broadwing hawk that was brought to the Nature Center last September with a shoulder/wing injury. The hawk is fully recovered, but was unable to be released because of the extent of the damage to the wing.
The new enclosure means that the Nature Center will be able to better maintain a separation between the resident birds and birds that are being rehabbed for release.
“These are wild animals and we don’t want them to lose their fear of people,” said Maggie Jones, executive director of the Nature Center. “We want to do everything that we can so that they don’t become accustomed to people, and one way to do that is to limit their interaction with us. Because we are doing so much rehab now, we don’t want to always be walking into their cages, when we need to get one of our resident birds for an education program. We want to keep the wild birds wild.”
The enclosure was funded with a donation from Hildegarde Lee in memory of Stephen Lee, and materials were donated by WalMart and the Mystic Garden Club. The volunteer work crew of timber framers was led by Steven Monroe of Eagle Quality Landscaping of Gales Ferry and assisted by Nature Center staff.
The Nature Center has 11 resident birds right now. Some of them are used in education programs. All are not able to be released into the wild because of an existing injury or disability.
Now that the birds have been moved into the new enclosure, renovations on the existing enclosure are being done. Recently a volunteer work crew did a thorough cleaning and repairs on the existing enclosure.
