Mavericks flock to educational bird show
On Wednesday in the Ostrander Auditorium, the Raptor Center arrived to display various birds as well as educate the audience about their behavior.
The Raptor Center is a rehabilitation center for birds, they heal and house injured birds, strive to make the world more bird friendly, assist birds in going back out into the wild, and more.
Catherine Hastings, an employee from the Raptor Center, brought out several birds to show the audience such as a red-tailed hawk, a great horned owl and a bald eagle.
“We have a mission of education, which is outreach to the public, where we try to educate about these birds, the challenges facing them and what we can do about them,” Hastings said. “Then we also are dedicated to research and conservation and taking the data that we get from our clinic from the injuries we get to come up with solutions and plans to help make it so those don’t happen anymore.”
Dr. Carol Glasser, a professor of sociology and human-animal studies, reached out to the Raptor Center for the showing.
“If you think about sociology, we study society, we study the way humans interact with society, and animals are such a huge part of our society. Animals are part of how we build our families, most people eat animals, a lot of people choose to use animals for entertainment, some people-most people choose to wear animals, we experiment on other animals,” Glasser said. “Animals are a part of how we do society and we rarely think about it or question it. Animals in Society looks at, it’s a 200 level class, so every week, so it’s a survey class, meaning that we look at this issue from a lot of different angles. So every week we look at a different way that human and non-human animals interact in our society.”
Dr. Glasser also said “I’m hoping that just getting to meet some birds is just interesting, because I know that human-animal interaction brings a lot of joy to most people’s lives. Some people might be scared of certain animals, but most people can get a lot of joy from interactions like this. But I also hope that it helps to raise awareness of the environmental dangers that non-human animals face, and that these birds in particular face, and just raise awareness that our actions can impact other animals and that we can make choices that help give our raptors a safer environment. And just know that there’s someone you can call if you see an injured raptor, most of us wouldn’t be able to help them, but there is someone who you can call to get some help.”
For the Birds has two more events coming up. The first is scheduled for 2-3 p.m. Nov. 8 in CSU 201. The second is scheduled for 12-2 p.m. Nov. 11 at Minneopa State Park.The last event includes a group volunteer event to help clear invasive plants, which requires sign-up at least two days in advance. If you see or encounter any injured birds, please call the Raptor Center at 612-624-4745.
Write to Ellie Meschke at eleanor.meschke@my.normandale.edu
Header Photo: The For the Birds event discussed the joy of bird watching and making birding more accessible, while highlighting the eagles and learning their importance. (Alexis Darkow/The Reporter)