Georgette is a peregrine falcon and La Nina is a barn owl, two of the birds of prey who have found a home at a sanctuary next to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, about 30 miles west of New York City.
MILLINGTON, N.J. — Georgette fell off the George Washington Bridge and broke some bones. La Nina doesn't have enough fear. So, they ended up caged in New Jersey's Great Swamp.
Georgette is a peregrine falcon and La Nina is a barn owl, two of the birds of prey who have found a home at a sanctuary next to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, about 30 miles west of New York City.
"Every bird here has a story," said Len Soucy, 74, who founded the 16-acre sanctuary known as the Raptor Trust.
Soucy, a self-taught ornithologist and retired tool-and-die maker, is a jovial, gray-bearded man whose nose bears a slight resemblance to a hawk's beak. He began caring for hurt birds more than 40 years ago when someone left an injured red-tailed hawk in a cardboard box on his doorstep.
Soucy's nonprofit center is one of several bird rehabilitation facilities across the United States. The federal law protecting birds of prey went into effect in 1972.
This year alone, the Raptor Trust has helped more than 3,500 birds from 100 species, according to Soucy. Along with raptors -- birds of prey -- the center cares for ducks, geese, songbirds and other wild birds.
"It's probably the front-runner and the best-equipped in the state," said Cliff Day, who heads the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's New Jersey office in Pleasantville.
People who call the Fish and Wildlife Service after finding an injured bird are referred to the center, Day said.
The sanctuary accepts hurt birds 24 hours a day. It has a small operating room equipped with an X-ray machine, gas for anesthesia and a narrow operating table. Heated cages serve as intensive care units.
Most of the birds that wind up at the center were injured in impacts with wires, windows or cars, Soucy said. Others are shot or poisoned.
About 60 percent of the birds treated by the center are returned to nature, Soucy said.
"It's highly rewarding to release birds back into the wild," said Lauren Butcher, the center's director of education. "It's addictive."
For birds that are too injured or don't have the instincts to survive in the wild, the center can become home. About 70 to 80 birds live in 100 open, airy cages at the center.
One of those birds is Georgette, the peregrine falcon who jumped out her nest on New York's George Washington Bridge before she could fly. On the way down, she hit a guy wire, breaking several bones in a wing.
Despite treatment, Georgette could not fly well enough again to be released back into the wild.
"Peregrines can't limp," Soucy said. "They've got to be perfect when we let them go, or be close to perfect."
Another permanent resident is the barn owl dubbed La Nina. One of seven chicks born at the center, she was raised by humans because she was being pushed aside by her siblings and was not getting enough food. As a result, she lacks the instincts for life in the wild.
"The main thing she did not learn was the correct fear response to a human being," Butcher said.
Georgette, La Nina, bald eagles, hawks, vultures and other birds live at the center and can be visited by the public. The center gets 25,000 to 40,000 visitors a year, Soucy estimated.
However, the center lacks space for all the permanently injured birds it sees -- and has to euthanize some of them.
"It's really difficult when you care as much about birds as we do," Butcher said.
Source: Reuters
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