Message from the President
I hope this mid-summer newsletter finds all of you in your own perfect state of health, relaxation, re-connection with family and enjoyment of just the right amount of sun and fun.
Peter and I were profoundly touched by the hundreds of emails, texts and phone calls which flooded our office and phones after the sad announcement of the death of our golden eagle, Blondie. The messages of love and support have made this extremely difficult time a bit more bearable. We've heard from former docents who've reached out to console our current ones, and from many members around the country who've been supporting us for decades. Several of the messages and notes included peoples' own recollections of the first time they saw her face-to-face, and the indelible impression she left in their minds and hearts. It lets us know that we did our job, and she did hers. Though she is gone, she will never be forgotten. I would also like to thank everyone who made donations in her memory, and in particular one supporter who within a day of the news, covered the cost of vaccinating ALL of our birds against West Nile virus this year.
As our nation re-opens and we prepare to celebrate our 245th Independence Day, I hope each of you will take a moment to reflect upon what it means to live in the United States of America, where bald eagles are once again plentiful. Our remaining female eagle is now six years old, and as you can see in the video below, she's a card-carrying ham and proving herself a worthy successor to Blondie.
More exciting news follows, so once again, thank to all of you for your caring support of our birds!~Anne Price, President
"Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages."--George Washington
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FALL OPEN HOUSE ANNOUNCEMENT!
FINALLY! After 18 very long months and three missed gatherings, we are excited let everyone know that we are holding our
Fall Open House on Saturday, September 25th from 10:30AM to 1:30 PM. Mark your calendars now, and look for our RSVP link (which will be repeated and oft-publicized on our other platforms, we promise!) near the end of July. We may have a few changes due to Covid, but we'll have the mews open for folks to visit, as well as raptors on the front porch to enjoy up-close and personal. We're looking forward to seeing our friends and supporters in person once again!
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New Feathered Family Members |
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We're excited to introduce you to our new male peregrine falcon, just one year old. He was generously gifted to us by a falconer in Montana and was hatched by a local propagator. He is starting to molt into his adult plumage, but as you can see from the photo above, he's still sporting the immature brown and cream colors that he was "born" with. He looks just like Fidget's brother "Echo" in the two Fidget books by author Stacey Patterson and illustrated by Vadim Gorbatov. He's already done his first program and we anticipate many appearances with him before the end of the year.
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As many of you might remember, our former male gray screech owl was a beloved fixture with REF for nearly 16 years. There were some mighty big jesses to fill, so to speak. Enter this handsome fellow, direct from Eaton Rapids, Michigan. We had him DNA sexed and have verified that he is a male, just like our previous screech. However, his feet are huge! He was likely hit by a car late in 2020 and suffered fractures in both wings. The right wing has healed almost perfectly, however his left wing does have decreased extension due to a humeral fracture. Our red morph eastern screech owl from North Carolina is showing the new guy the ropes and most importantly, they are getting along very well. Be sure to come to the Open House in September to meet both of these dapper gentlemen! |
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Hudson Street Red-Tails in 2021 |
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The urban red tailed-hawks living across the street from Peter's house in Denver were a little tardy in getting their nursery up and operational, but they 're showing off with THREE young hawks this year. This video is from June 23-26th. Their behavior and size indicates they will be fledging around the 4th of July. This will put them onto rooftops and in front and back yards, but their human neighbors have grown very fond of them. They're waiting for their food-begging calls to begin, until their parents get tired of all the work and encourage them to be off on their own. There are many young cottontail rabbits in the immediate vicinity to spice things up for Independence Day! |
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Lots of Other Ways to Help! |
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A Special Anniversary Offer on All Three of Our Books!
Celebrate our 41st anniversary by purchasing our
three books at this special price!
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Our Online Store is Open!
A new look...click on the image below.
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Help Our Book Take Flight: Order Today!
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Listen for us the first Saturday of the month at
12:00 noon for five minutes of "raptorous" delight
with the BirdTalk Guys,
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Help us put another 1,000 eagles on the streets of our great state. Qualified members of REF are entitled to display them on their cars. Put Colorado's first and best environmental plates on YOUR vehicle!
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One of our members sent us this picture of his Cobra with our license plates. Anyone else out there with a classic car wearing our eagle? Send us your image! |
Special thanks to The Kroenke Group & THF Realty for extending our lease and keeping the fee at zero dollars though 2023! 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!
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WISH LIST
We're 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!
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Eagle Scout Court of Honor |
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On June 26th we were privileged to present our Eagle Scout Court of Honor program for Christopher Aragon and his family in Greeley, Colorado. It was a delightfully-cool and rainy afternoon, which suited our bald eagle just fine. Congratulations to Christopher and his family on this special achievement.
This is one of Anne's very favorite programs, as she's married to an Eagle Scout and is a huge history nerd. If you're interested in having these chatty ladies attend your next special scouting event, click here.
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Celebrate the Fourth of July
in Style!
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An exclusive creation for us, this fine pewter pin has been hand painted to let everyone know what you think of America's living national symbol. Available in a very limited edition while they last. This beautiful pin measures 1 1/8" by 1 1/2". Two clasps keep it firmly attached. $50 each includes shipping. Discounts for multiple purchases. Just click to order.
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This beautiful five-year study of our female bald eagle was photographed and composited by Marilyn Stevens. It measures 16″ x 20″ and is printed on fine photo paper with a “luster” finish. The print will fit many ready-made frames. To our knowledge this is the only available photographic sequence of an immature bald eagle showing off the plumage changes as she matures. Remember, both male and female look identical except for their size, but the male is about 30% smaller. Our foil seal is attached to the bottom of each print. (Not shown in the image above). This is a limited offer and the price includes shipping anywhere in the continental U.S.A. Only 10 left!
Pick it up at our office for only $25!
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Denver Botanic Gardens Collaboration |
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In advance of a special day-long event at the Denver Botanic Gardens, tech wizard Billy Kanaly from the Audio-Visual department recently visited our facility to film several of our birds. The camera you see him using shoots in 8K, an extraordinarily
high-resolution format.
Fast-forward a few weeks and you can see the results on the incredible 40 foot-wide screen in the Freyer-Newman Atrium at the DBG York Street location…wow! Our 26 year-old female ferruginous hawk looks stunning on the huge wall. The entire video loop is about three hours and features breathtaking Colorado vistas and plants. Mark your calendars now for Friday, September 10th for “Raptor Day” at the Gardens, and a special evening program on golden eagles in falconry in advance of a screening of “The Eagle Huntress”. Visit here for more information. Hope to see you there, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of our birds look like, eight feet tall!
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Join the 41 Families Supporting Our Raptor Sanctuary
Help Us Reach 100 Supporting Families!
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Have you signed up for the King Soopers Community Rewards Program yet? Do you have a Loyalty Card and digital account? Just visit https://www.kingsoopers.com/o/store-services/community-rewards , log in and enroll to have REF receive donated funds from King Soopers and Kroger! We'd love to increase the number of families supporting us...please share with your friends and family!
OUR COMMUNITY REWARDS NUMBER IS TF405. Simply log into your account, look for "Community Rewards" on the left hand side, and enter TF405. Our name will appear, and you can link your card to REF. You save on groceries, earn fuel points, and we'll receive a quarterly donation from King Soopers.
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The Osprey (and Kite!) Edition |
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South of Astoria and in the little town of Seaside, Oregon on Hwy 101, an observant traveler will easily find the two osprey nests shown in this video. One nest is on a natural platform while the other is on an artificial platform which ospreys take to readily. These very specialized fish hunters are found world-wide, except for the Antarctic. Both nests have been active for a number of years and both are very close to the famous highway that winds along the West Coast from the Washington western peninsula all the way into Mexico.~Peter Reshetniak, Founder
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Jeff Wang's Raptor Captures |
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Once again, courtesy of Jeff Wang, we have some amazing, instructive and simply stunning photos of two of Colorado's most unusual spring and summer visitors: the osprey and the Mississippi kite. In the photo above you can see the incredible maneuverability and strength of the osprey as it plucks a fish from the water, yet somehow doesn't stall out and fall into the lake. |
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Here is a fantastic shot of an osprey committing to a plunge into the water to grab lunch. If you look at the tail closely, you'll see a couple of talons and toes poking out on either side. Unlike a falcon who would have both feet close together and tucked under the tail, this bird has its feet exactly where they need to be in order to quickly grab a swimming fish. Accuracy, not necessarily aerodynamics, are the keys to success here. |
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This is not a watering hole in Africa...it's a small creek running through a park in Lamar, Colorado. Even a tropical species that spends most of its year in South America can get thirsty, and Jeff's shot of three adult Mississippi kites drinking courtesy of a drain pipe in southeastern Colorado left us speechless with its beauty. Catching a highly-aerial species like this on the ground is a huge rarity. |
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Although Mississippi kites are primarily insect eaters, they are not above snatching an occasional songbird, and here in Colorado, one of their frequent targets are nestling western kingbirds. Jeff has previously photographed the highly-defensive parents "riding" the backs of many raptor species, including great-horned owls and Swainson's hawks. As you can see, this adult kite is keeping a watchful eye on the parent kingbird driving it out of its territory.
Directly above, another thirsty kite wades into the stream for a drink. This bird is turning one year old and is molting into its adult plumage. You can see that some tail feathers are still striped, and the the undertail coverts are spotted, as are the flanks and legs of the bird. Raptors in this "in-between" stage can be tricky to identify, but it's good to see that this little raptor has now made it through its first year, with a round-trip to South American thrown in! Thank you Jeff!
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In Seattle recently, Peter's attention focused on a large construction crane. Up on top were two osprey. One was obviously eating. The tongue-in-cheek reference to the osprey as "crane hawks" actually refers to a raptor species, Geranospiza caerulescens, which is the crane hawk native to Mexico and South America. All of this was taking place with a lot of traffic and construction noise around. Talk about raptors adapting to busy urban settings! A special thanks to our Seattle and Washington members for watching our videos!
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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 monthly pledges automatically...thank you!!
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REF Staff: Anne Price, President & Curator; Peter Reshetniak, Founder & Director of Special Projects; Savannah Grout, Mews Manager
Docents: Elise Bales, Morgan Brantmeyer, Kevin Corwin, Karen Gonzalez, Bernhard Hafner, Kim Kistler, Linda Julia, Jennifer McAllister, Anne Price, Jennifer Redmond, Peter Reshetniak, Beverly Rice, Mitch Skinner, Ann Stanz
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