Message from the President

"Stay busy. Be useful."

Welcome to 2025, and a special edition of Raptor Chronicles. As we emerge from 91 hours of below freezing weather here in Denver, celebrating another successful International Sportsmen's Expo, and the plethora of bald eagles vacationing in the Front Range, I'd like to pay special tribute to two very special, talented and dedicated docents who literally spent decades teaching children, and teaching me.

Bernie Gardetto and Kevin Corwin were the very embodiment of the saying above. These four simple words define how these two gentlemen approached their work with us, and life in general. When you're young, "stay busy" means work hard, get your chores done, be responsible and contribute. But in a blink of an eye, decades pass, children grow and leave the nest, and the people who grace your life move on...sometimes, without warning. Kevin and Bernie taught me many things over the years, and I believe the art of loving your community and the natural world were among their best lessons.

Yep, that's me, circa 1983, in an El Niño weather year in San Francisco. It rained every weekend (at least in my recollection) from October to May. Marine World was closed on too many weekends, and our nursery became inundated with baby goats and a world-record litter of seven Bengal tiger cubs. There was A LOT of bottle feeding and I was drafted from raptors to mammals and "stayed busy."

Thank you and Godspeed, Bernie and Kevin

~Anne Price, President

A Few REF History Links

 White House Visit, Colorado’s First Environmental License Plates, Best Raptor Book Ever,  Our Raptors Cruise to Alaska, Consulting on National Memorial Sculpture, US Naval War College Special Program, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Birds of Prey International Skiing Championships, International Falconry Festival, National Geographic, State & County Fairs,  Natural Solutions Consulting Services

A 35-Year Legacy

Kevin Corwin joined REF in 1989, after seeing us at a weekend festival at a local park. A self-taught naturalist, Kevin's interest in birds lead him to volunteer for many organizations, and fortunately, we were one of them.

Kevin worked in several departments and agencies within the Federal government during his 30-year career. The focus of his work was the design, development, testing and implementation of departmental-level computer systems for the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center (AFAFC), the Security Assistance Accounting Center (SAAC) and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service DFAS). He held progressively responsible positions as computer programmer, systems analyst, lead programmer, branch chief, retiring from his final position as Chief of the Business Management Division at DFAS – Denver in 1996. 

When Kevin retired, his workload probably doubled, if not tripled. Denver Audubon, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, all benefited from his time and expertise. Hard as he tried, Kevin never managed to get me to appreciate spiders, despite him regaling me with interesting tales of what a spider survey entails. And, there were trains...so MANY trains! Kevin usually went down to Chama, New Mexico to work on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad for about a week each summer. In the photo above, you can see him ready for kids on an Easter weekend at the Colorado Railroad Museum, one of his very long-term, regular volunteer stops each week.

Kevin in 2018 manning our newly-arrived snowy owl, wearing one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen on him. Below, Kevin with our friend Heather Bauer of Kaddas Enterprises at the Raptor Research Foundation Conference in South Africa.

Kevin and I traveled far and wide throughout Colorado doing school programs. Our discussions would cover a huge range of subjects; everything from raptors, to trains, to history and always, genealogy. Both of us have deep, long-reaching American routes anchored in Massachusetts and other New England states. After years of meticulous genealogical research, Kevin confirmed that one of his ancestors came over on the Mayflower. My "original" British ancestor came to the "colonies" with Captain John Smith on his last voyage back to America from England, setting in Massachusetts. Throughout the years, we eventually decided that if we couldn't prove we had a common ancestor, surely one of his and mine shared a pint in a pub!

He was my favorite program assistant; he could practically finish my sentences, and his timing with flying hawks was nearly flawless. Always cheerful, always looking out for me and the birds, one of his favorite expressions was, "you lead, I follow". Then, there were the JOKES! Kevin's sense of humor alone probably merits an entire separate newsletter, and his "isms" are the stuff of legend. We'd be driving through some small town on the eastern plains, passing the local cemetery, when he'd pipe up, "You know who's buried in there? Dead people!" Eventually, I knew the punchlines to ALMOST all of his jokes, we spent so much time together. Probably my favorite is the retort he'd issue (always with a wink) when warned or strongly suggested to do things a certain way, or to make it easier: "But that would take all the sport out of it!"

A sunny winter afternoon a few years ago...I had asked Kevin to take our male Harris' hawk out for some "real" UV, since it was finally warm enough for a desert bird. Kevin quipped that the only thing the two of them were missing was a park bench!

Enjoy your well-earned retirement, Kevin!

2025 International Sportsmen's Expo

Our appearance at this year's International Sportsmen's Expo at the Colorado Convention Center from January 9-12th, continued our mission of putting smiles on people's faces with our raptor encounters. This video also recognizes one of our exceptional docents, Bernie Gardetto, who dedicated 20 years of service in helping us promote our message, our mission, and the magnificent raptors we are privileged to work with. See more about Bernie below...

Sometimes it takes a village...and the enthusiasm of a 12-year-old boy who loves to fish!

After the conclusion of the 2025 International Sportsman's Exposition, we mobilized a crew and worked with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to harvest all the remaining trout from the kids fishing pond as food for our bald eagles. Many hands make light work, and we definitely appreciated the help of trained professionals when two of the hatchery gentlemen stepped in to assist.

We now have enough fish to last us about a year. Thank you to Debbie Lininger of CPW, Marcus, Carter, JJ, Johnnie, Denis and Savannah! Photo courtesy of Ruben Fresquez

YouTube Request!

For those of you enjoying the videos posted on our channel, we very much appreciate your viewership. If you like what we're doing, please subscribe and please post comments! The latter improves our status with YouTube analytics in several key areas, and when we get to 1,000 subscribers, we can benefit from advertising revenues. Right now, we get no financial support from any of the promo pieces that appear with our videos.

Additionally, if you forward our YouTube videos to people that are of the avian inclination, our subscriber base will grow faster. Thank you for your support! ~Peter Reshetniak, Director of Special Projects

A Special Anniversary Offer on All Three of Our Books!

Celebrate our 45th anniversary by purchasing our

three books at this special price!

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Winner of the 2020 Skipping Stones Honor Award for Nature and Ecology Books

Reviews

“A unique book aimed at introducing young and beginning birders to the world of raptors. . . . creative for certain! Helpful, too.”–Jim Williams, Wingnut Blog, Minneapolis Star Tribune



“A very cool new book.”–Doc Kirby, On The Bookshelf

“Bird enthusiasts of all ages will find this book full of educational fun.”–Skipping Stones

“Beautiful, educational coloring book.”–Katie L.Burke, American Scientist

“All the essays were well-written and provided lots of easy-to-understand information, which allows the reader to identify many different types of raptors. I also really enjoyed the further reading at the back of the book about the kestrel box. The instructions were clear-cut, and the activity was easy and fun to do.”–Hannah, age thirteen, Kids’ BookBuzz

Orders Here! Or you may order on Amazon. Peek Inside

Read more about the author and the illustrator.

Special thanks to The Kroenke Group & THF Realty for extending our lease at very affordable rates for the next 5 years. Support like this ensures we will make it through these challenging times.

Thanks to our past and future partners, THF Prairie Center Development, L.L.C., THF Prairie Center Investors, L.L.C. and the City of Brighton, for creating the best intersection in Colorado just a minute or two north of our headquarters!

As the new villages grow at Prairie Center, so do the streets with cool names! Check out some of the street names!

WISH LIST

We're still looking for a gently-used, 20-25 foot RV (Class C) that would serve as a mobile office for traveling programs around Colorado and farther away. Or maybe you have an SUV or pickup truck you would like to donate? We can put it to good use! Please give our office a call if you have a vehicle you think we could use!

(303) 680-8500

Thank you!

Raptor Chronicles

Previous Issues Archived Here

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Bernie Gardetto

1935-2025

Bernie with our Northern (now American) goshawk at Icy Strait Point, Hoonah, Alaska, in 2005

Bernie was born in 1935 and grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. The house on Mill Street was the scene of many wonderful and hilarious stories of his mother Connie and her three boys, Albert, Bernard, and Stephen. He went to local schools and then he graduated with a BA in accounting from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from the University of Southern Illinois. He earned many awards during his long career including three meritorious civilian service awards.

Bernard was a senior executive and had a distinguished career in both government and private industry. He began his career as an Air Force officer with the Air Force Audit Agency (AFAA). After leaving the Air Force, he joined the international accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand, where he was responsible for field audit work in major corporations and educational institutions. Bernie returned to AFAA as an audit manager and developed audit programs for worldwide applications in diverse areas of Air Force operations. He was a long-time Director of Acquisitions and Logistics at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio. He held this position until he assumed the duties of Deputy Assistant Comptroller of Defense Finances and Accounting.

When Bernie moved to Colorado, he became permanently infected with our famous "powder flu", learning to ski at age 59. In addition to travel, he was an avid fisherman and scuba diver, eventually becoming certified to assist disabled divers in exploring the ocean depths. Bernie joined REF in Spring 1995, one of twelve new candidates in that year's docent training course. I christened them "The Dirty Dozen", and Bernie remained with us long after the other eleven had moved on. His brownies, sometimes with a bit of espresso in the mix, were the stuff of legend, along with his tiramisu. We all enjoyed being the eager guinea pigs of his baking experiments.

The photo of Bernie above, and those below, were taken in early September 2005 when Peter, Anne, Bernie and Jenni McAllister journeyed with six of our raptors to Hoonah, Alaska, on Chichagof Island. We were working with the Huna Totem Corporation, developers of Icy Strait Point, a former salmon cannery, converted into a private destination for cruise ship passengers. For two weeks, the four of us lived in the town of Hoonah, giving presentations to guests in the museum's indoor theater, and greeting passengers at the dock after they were taken ashore in boat tenders. We created a special program which introduced guests to the native culture of Alaska, and combining it with the natural history of the raptors we brought with us. We worked hard, but not every day!

About half way through our trip, we were treated to a fishing trip in the bay. We were supposed to be fishing for silver salmon, but what it really turned out to be was five hours of emotional wildlife overload. Dolphins, humpback whales, orcas and too many bald eagles to count kept us focused on everything BUT fishing for the first few hours. Eventually we all caught our salmon, and a black rockfish. Bernie was in his element, checking out not only the gear on the boat, but the mechanism of the cannery machinery as well. All four of us lived together in one apartment, fixing meals and enjoying libations in the evening. Bernie always seemed to be the last one in the kitchen, cheerfully putting away dishes, putting pots to soak overnight, always with the dish towel over his right shoulder. Home-cooked meals surrounded by friends delighted his deeply-Italian heart!

Bernie delighted in introducing our screech owl to children; the smaller, the better. He was unfailingly cheerful and charitable, volunteering for the USO, the Society of St.Vincent de Paul and several Denver area soup kitchens. His Catholic faith was very important to him and seemed to inspire nearly everything he said and did. Ever the gentleman, I did hear him slip once however, in the summer of 1997. We were exhibiting at the Eagle County Fair east of Beaver Creek, and I was about four months pregnant with my son. It was mid-summer, and hot, and as we were setting up our booth for the day, I picked up one of our heavy ring perches to lift it over the rope at the front of the booth and place it on the grass. Bernie had been sitting in a chair momentarily, and when he saw what I was doing, he leapt from the chair, vaulted over the rope and snatched the perch from my hand....and took the Lord's name in vain. I was in shock at his rare lapse in language, but he lectured me like I was his daughter: firmly, and with that loving twinkle in his eyes.

Bernie retired from working with us in December 2015, but stayed in touch through his neighbor, and former work colleague, Kevin Corwin. Kevin joked that if he really needed to get a hold of Bernie, all he'd have to do is lob a well-placed Boston snowball over Bernie's back fence. I'd like to think that Bernie is now frolicking with whales in the ocean, soaring with the eagles above, and enjoying endless blue sky, fresh powder days. His was a full and spectacular life, well-lived among people he loved, and loved to serve. Pax cum Domino, amice carissime.~Anne P.

An Eagle Trifecta

The 2025 nesting season has started for the three eagle families we've been monitoring over the past years. The eagle challenge to our eagle-eyed monitors is to guess which of these families will begin incubating first. Follow the instructions in the video and get your reward. Thank you for watching!

In addition to the United States of America, our Facebook followers are found in the following countries:

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama,

Russia, Spain, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

Automatic Monthly Donations: Thanks to everyone who has set up a monthly donation via PayPal. We have people from both coasts, a few states in the middle and in Colorado contributing automatic monthly pledges...thank you all!

REF Staff: Anne Price, President & Curator; Peter Reshetniak, Founder & Director of Special Projects; Savannah Grout, Mews Manager

Docents & Volunteers: Kristy Bortz, Clarissa Cigrand, Megan Considine, Karen Gonzalez, Kim Kistler, Linda Julia, Jennifer McAllister, Denis Murray, Karen Ogle, May Ann Ottinger, Anne Price, Jennifer Redmond, Peter Reshetniak, Beverly Rice, Mitch Skinner and Ann Stanz

Docents in Training: Robert Mitchell, and Peggy Plaus