World Bird Sanctuary

Hi, I'm Rodney Miller and I'm Jan Carl. Thanks for choosing to watch this clip from our Small Town Big Deal YouTube channel. For full episodes, go to our website, SmallTownBigDeal.com. Now, enjoy the video. Everywhere you look, you are eye to very big eye with an amazing array of some of nature's finest feathered friends. The Sanctuary, just 20 miles southwest of St. Louis, Missouri, is in the small town of Valley Park. Population, just under 7,000. Established in 1977, the Sanctuary was the brainchild of Walter Crawford. Started out in my basement, you know, with my son as my only volunteer. Unfortunately, he didn't have child labor laws yet. He worked pretty hard and he still lasts to this day, you know. Well, Walter's idea really took flight and last year alone, more than 400 injured birds were brought into their hospital. Is this patient still here? Yes, and it's going to be here for quite a while. One has a broken wing. Do you have a good chance to get him to fly again? Depends on where it's broke. That wing right there is a good candidate for repair because it's not at the joints. We wanted to see how the bird from the x-ray was doing and we found out it was a juvenile trumpeter swan. Its wing was broke in five different spots. We're giving it some antibiotics. Where's the spoonful of sugar? Now we're going to give it its spoonful of sugar. This is a lot of romaine lettuce and spinach and eggs. And we're going down into its stomach a little bit. Well, with this neck, we're really not down in the stomach. The next patient is an American bald eagle. I mean, never in my life did I ever think I'd be this close to one. It has an injury up in the shoulder, so you don't see too much wrong with them, but they just can't fly away. It will take this one-year-old eagle another three to four years before his eyes and beak become yellow, and he gains his traditional white-feathered head and tail, kind of like we're used to seeing. So how long did it take for you to get your white-feathered head? So we're going to hand-feed him. We're going to give you two a chance at this, too, and I'll get started here. Hold it. There you go. Whoa, no, don't take those. Success. Success. Oh, I feel like a mama. Okay. Then it was my turn. He didn't want just one piece. He wanted the entire bowl. This is really interesting that he won't take the... Both the eagle and the swan should recover and be released back into the wild someday. But today, a red-tailed hawk is scheduled to fly the coop, and they're going to let me help. Okay, we're entering our flight page. The trick is catching the fully-recovered patient. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how he's going to catch him. I'm seeing a little problem here. If a bird is well enough to be released, then he's going to be hard to catch. I'm thinking this is how Joe gets his exercise. And he's ready to go. Wow. Which was a good thing, because he was getting pretty winded. Joe, that is, not the hawk. What's he saying to you right now? He's threatening. It's in a threatening mode, ready to attack. We better watch out. And you're going to hand him. And I'm going to hand him to you. And he's in attack mode. No wonder you didn't volunteer. The care and rehabilitation of a bird can cost up to $1,000 or more. But if you contribute $150, you can come and be part of the release of a wild bird of prey. You're going to stand here, and you're going to throw upward and outward that way. I'm going to hand you. Okay, go have a nice, long, happy life. One, two, three. Bye. You did it. Look at that. Yay. He roughed up those feathers, and he nailed the landing. Releasing the hawk was probably the highlight of the day for Jan, or maybe even the year. But what we're about to see is what I've been looking forward to all day. This is Clark, an 11-year-old American bald eagle. And this is the sanctuary's lead eagle trainer, Roger Wallace. He's been working with raptors for nearly 40 years. And has known Clark since the day he hatched. How many people in America get to do what you do? Very few. Probably a couple of dozen. You never get over it? No, you never get tired of it. The bald eagle is now off the endangered list, and even off the threatened list, thanks to places like the World Bird Sanctuary. Clark is a member of the sanctuary's flying team, which is part of their many different educational programs, including the very popular owl prowl. Go on. It didn't take very long before we got very acquainted with the stars of the show. This is Trevor. He's an eagle owl. They are the largest species of owl in the world. Trevor is like a low-level bomber, but stealth, like a B-2, because you can't hear him coming. This is a vulture wing, and listen closely to how much noise this wing makes. It makes a lot of noise. Now listen to this owl wing. Yeah, you don't hear anything. They have specially designed feathers for silent flight. This is a full-grown eastern screech owl named Timber, who's very excited to be out here. Throughout the night, we saw several species of owls and learned a lot. It doesn't matter how low you duck, he'll just fly lower. The final activity of the night is to go outside and call out to the wild owls in the area and see if they answer back. You know, we did hear one just a second ago. Yeah, a barred owl just answered over there. Well, we'll try to get closer to that. Thank you guys. Thanks for coming. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming to World Bird Sanctuary. Thanks for watching this clip from Small Town Big Deal. Don't forget to click the subscribe button and be sure to click the bell so you'll be notified when we upload new videos. Also, click the like button. To see full episodes, go to www.smalltownbigdeal.com.