Mexico, an Elder Statesman

Mexico's wintertime, indoor space

One of the responsibilities that we have is providing the best possible care for our educational ambassadors. This includes being aware of any special care requirements for a particular species as well as the idiosyncracies of the different individuals. Such is the case with our elderly Mississippi Kite, whom we call Mexico, so named because the entire population flies south to Mexico, Central and South America for the winter. Mississippi Kites are insectivores that forage aerially for moths, grasshoppers, cicadas, flying ants and more. As the insects decline with the onset of cooler temperatures, so does the kite population. Mexico, already wearing adult plumage, arrived in 2000. This means that he is at least 11 years old now, the upper limit of a life span of a wild Mississippi Kite. He is not equipped to winter outdoors. During the fall as nighttime temperatures drop, he is only outside during mid-day, and by November he is a permanent indoor resident. However, he seems to take it all in stride and easily transitions to his indoor environment near a sunny window with several perches, a water pan, and food stump. In fact, he seems so comfortable that he spends much of the winter months courting his human companion and artfully arranging towels and stuffed toys in a nestful sort of way.

Avian Awareness Training

Did you ever wonder who or what might be staying in the room next door at your hotel? I'll bet you never imagined that it might be a few hawks, a couple of owls, and a crow! Well, that is exactly what was spending the night in southern New Mexico hotel earlier this week. You can see the tons of sheets and towels covering the area surrounding the ferruginous and Swainson's hawk that night.

Gail Garber and Kristin Madden traveled to Artesia with a vanload of birds to participate in an avian protection training session for utility workers. What a wonderful event it was! All 6 birds were perched around the room for the duration of the session. The crow happily accepted grapes and hard-boiled egg from one gentleman. Our Swainson's hawk captivated everyone at the end of the program when she caught mice tossed by another gentleman and chowed them down right in front of everyone.

The linemen that attended the session were wonderful. They were all interested in meeting the birds and learning more about compliance with the laws and the development of avian protection plans. A few myths were dispelled and everyone had a great sense of humor. In spite of the dry nature of some of the topics covered that day, the faces of the audience lit up when we talked about the birds and shared something about their individual personalities.

After a delicious lunch at a restaurant that was clearly a local favorite, Gail & Kristin headed home. Pulling into Albuquerque around 6:20 p.m., they congratulated each other on arriving home early enough to put birds back in their mews (raptor cage) before dark. They obviously spoke far too soon. What they encountered was one of the worst traffic jams they could remember. Finally, arriving at an exit, they ditched the freeway and south another way across the river. Every crossing was packed! Neither of them arrived home before 8 p.m. It was a very long day.

Indigo the American Crow

Indigo is the newest addition to the Hawks Aloft family of education ambassadors. Found in Oregon as a youngster, she was kept as a pet indoors. We assume that her rescuers, who cared for her very much, were not aware that it is illegal to keep a crow without the appropriate permits. When her rescuers needed to move, they turned her in to the Cascades Raptor Center. So the little beauty grew up with nearly constant human contact. As you can imagine, she is a human imprint. When she arrived, she was afraid to be outside, particularly after dark, and was terrified of anything flying near her.

Indigo has an immediate and very humorous reaction to being in the sun. She starts by fluffing out all the feathers on her neck. Then one wing comes out and her head drops to one shoulder. She opens her mouth and looks as if she is about to pass out. It doesn’t matter if she is outside in the heat or sitting near a window in the air-conditioned Hawks Aloft office.

One thing that Indigo absolutely loves is a good bath. Here you can see her during bath time at the Hawks Aloft office. She does look a little like a drenched cat, doesn't she? You can see right into her ears when she's wet. Of course, she doesn't care how she looks. Bath time is her favorite game and she will dive back in over and over until the whole area is soaked and her bowl is empty. It is obviously great fun!

Indigo is a beautiful, engaging bird. In her short time with us, she has already captivated her fair share of utility workers and children, eliminating many negative beliefs regarding crows. As you can tell, she is quite the character, so you can expect us to post more amusing stories about her.

Beaks and Talons

In the wild, animals keep their claws and beaks trimmed down by all the movement they do in the course of everyday living. We clip our dog's nails - most of the time they don't have to go far for food - but wolves, which run for miles, don't need our help in that regard! So, too, our Educational Raptors, which are all unreleasable due to injuries, occasionally need a pedicure!



Our birds, which are conditioned to stand on a glove, are still wild animals! So a certain amount of wrestling is needed to accomplish this very necessary task. So, out comes the towel, along with a Dremel tool, which does a quick and precise job on overgrown beaks and talons.



Although the birds don't like the initial grabbing, they are remarkably quiet while being "coped", as the trimming is called in the falconry world. Being wrapped in a towel, like a Bird Burrito, is much like using a hood.

After trimming, the slightly ruffled raptors hop back onto the glove. We also weigh them, and it's amazing how quickly they settle down after the ordeal! Of course, just like people, our birds have individual personalities. So our Swainson's Hawk is letting us know he did NOT enjoy that!

2008 New Mexico State Fair

On Friday, September 12, Hawks Aloft set up a booth at the State Fair for Celebra la Ciencia!, their Science and Technology day. Our booth was outside on the main concourse, strategically placed AWAY from the chemistry booth, where they were firing off rockets! We were next to the Rio Grande Nature Center and Outdoor Space booths, which turned out to be excellent company.

Attending the event were Kim Villescas, Hawks Aloft Educator; Sandy Skeba, Biologist and Outreach Coordinator; and wonderful volunteers Chuck Brandt, who has been with Hawks Aloft since its inception in 1994, and Jim Lakatos, who just started volunteering with us a month ago. Also attending were four Avian Educational Ambassadors: a Mississippi Kite, a Merlin, a Burrowing Owl, and a Red-tailed Hawk. They stole the show!

Visitors to the booth ran the full spectrum from nature lovers who marveled at the beauty of the birds, to people who were afraid (that type of bird ate my chihuahua!), to people who wanted one of their own. All of us explained politely, many times, the wonderful facts about each bird and how, sorry, it's illegal to own one unless you go through lots of training and permits. And no, they don't like being petted! As always, the kids were the most responsive and awed by our raptors.

So, despite it being a wearying day mentally and physically, we contacted lots of people and hopefully instilled a little bit of our enthusiasm about protecting birds and the habitats they need to survive.