July Rock City Raptors Show

Hello All,




We will be at Rock City http://www.seerockcity.com/ for 11 days in a row in July during the first part of the month. We will be there from July 2nd to July 12th, with daily show times at 11, 1, and 3 p.m. EDT, with an additional Saturday show at 4:30 p.m. We will start using Theo, the Barn Owl during this time. We will initially carry him around and through the audience, and will eventually start flight training him. Come on up and see us! We are now booking programs for Fall '09. If you want one, e-mail or call. Thanks!


John and Dale

s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com
706-657-3278

Theo continues to grow

Hello All,

Here are a few more pictures of Theodore, or Theo, as we call him. He is now six weeks old and is starting to fly some. We hope to have him flying to us within a few weeks and perhaps will have him in our shows at Rock City http://www.seerockcity.com/ Come by and see us and as always, if you want a program at your school or organization, please e-mail s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com or call 706-657-3278. Thanks!

Dale and John

Meet Theodore

Hello All,

Here are a couple of photos of our newest addition, Theodore, or Theo, the Barn Owl. He arrived today from Jonathan Wood's The Raptor Project of Roxbury, New York. Theodore was hatched four weeks ago at the Raptor Project breeding facility and has been hand-raised by Jonathan. We will continue to hand-raise him and hope to have him in our Rock City Raptors http://www.seerockcity.com/ program in a month or so. We will try to post pictures of Theo as he grows. Thanks!

John and Dale

s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com

706-657-3278

Spring Fling photos and Rock City Raptors

Hello,

Here are a few pictures from the Spring Fling at Dunbar Cave in Clarksville, Tennessee. We had on and off showers when we got there and had to do our first program inside the park office. By the time our second show was due, it had gotten sunny and we were able to perform outside for a moderate crowd. Thanks to Debbie Boen of Friends of Dunbar Cave for the pictures. Our fifth season of Rock City Raptors www.seerockcity.com/birds begins on Thursday May 21st and runs through Labor Day weekend. Showtimes are 11, 1 and 3 p.m. EDT, with an additional show at 4:30 on Saturdays. We hope to see you there! Thanks!

Dale and John

Save Our American Raptors, Inc.

P.O. Box 743

Trenton, Georgia 30752

706-657-3278

s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com

May Programs

Hello All,

We have a couple of May programs coming up. The first is on May 2, 2009 at Russell Cave National Monument near Stevenson, Alabama. We will be doing a program at 1 p.m. CDT for the Native American Festival. If you want to see our show and learn more about Native American culture of our region, come on out and enjoy. Next, we will be at Dunbar Cave State Park near Clarksville, Tennessee, for their annual Spring Fling. Our program here will be at 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Come on out and fling some spring with us! Our Rock City Raptors 5th season begins on Thursday May 21st (this is Memorial Day Weekend) and we will be at Rock City (http://www.seerockcity.com/) Thursday-Sunday through Labor Day Weekend. Showtimes are at 11, 1. 3 EDT with an additional program at 4:30 on Saturdays. We hope to see you at one of these events. Thanks!

Dale and John

P.S. If you wish to schedule a program, please call 706-657-3278, e-mail s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com or write:

S.O.A.R. Inc.

P.O. Box 743

Trenton, Georgia 30752

p.s.s. photos of Dale and Thibault, the Barred Owl, Cody, the Red-tailed Hawk and John and Cayce, the Black Vulture by Tim Junker

Hello All,

We are in our third weekend of Earth Dayz at Rock City http://www.seerockcity.com/. We recently finished nine days at the Critter Classroom with weather ranging from the sunny 70's to snow midweek to violent thunderstorms on Friday. These thunderstorms brought down two trees near our theatre, but the crew at Rock City did a great job cleaning everything up so we could do our shows on Saturday. We are sharing the theatre with Chattanooga storyteller, Jim Pfitzer. Jim has worked with raptors in the past and tells the crowd about an eagle that returns 17 years later (it was a banded bird). The Bald Eagle was found on the ground with no apparent injuries, but was not feeling well enough to fly. However, the story has a happy ending and ultimately returns to freedom. Jim is also building, with the audience's help, a life-sized eagle nest, near the Critter Classroom. It is taking shape and looks very authentic. So, come on out, see our shows, listen to Jim's facinating story, and help with the nest. We will be there April 16th-19th and April 23rd-26th. Thanks!

Dale and John

s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com

706-657-3278

p.s. There is a 90 second promo video for Earth Dayz on You Tube. The address is as follows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TfavcObvgA

Upcoming Programs

Hello Everyone,

We have a few programs coming up for Spring 09. We will list what we have and update when we get a few more. On March 21st, we have two programs at the Sawnee Mt. Preserve (http://www.sawneemountain.org/) near Cummin, Georgia. The first program is at 11:00 a.m. and the second at 1:00 p.m. We then start our Spring Break/Earth Dayz programs at Rock City (http://www.seerockcity.com/) in April. We will be there April 4th-12th, April 16th-19th, and April 23rd-26th. Our showtimes for our Earth Day themed programs are 11, 1, and 3 p.m. Eastern Time. On Saturday May 2nd, we will be at Russell Cave National Monument, near Stevenson, Alabama, for the Native American Festival, with our program beginning at 2 p.m. Central Time. The next weekend, on May 9th, we will be at Dunbar Cave State Park in Clarksville, Tennessee. We will do two programs here, with the exact starting times TBA (probably 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Central Time). We still have some open dates for spring, so if you want a program featuring our fine flying friends, either e-mail us at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com or call 706-657-3278 . By the way, our Founder, Doris Mager, during the Spring is in Texas and Florida. If you wish to contact her for an event in these areas, please call 828-506-8106. This amazing lady continues to astound everyone with her wonderful presentations. Hopefully, we will see you all somewhere on the road. Thanks!

Dale and John

p.s. The Sawnee Mt. program has been cancelled due to budget constraints. Maybe next year...

Upcoming Programs-early 2009

Hello,

We have a few upcoming programs in the early part of 2009. The first two are at Dale Hollow State Resort Park near Burkesville, Kentucky. We will be there for two Eagles Weekends in a row...January 17th and 24th at 7 p.m. CST at the Lodge. We will next be at Lake Guntersville State Park near Guntersville, Alabama on February 7th, 2009 at 1 p.m. CST, also at the Lodge at LGSP. The next weekend, we will be loving it up on Valentine's Day (for those of you that don't know, that's 2/14) at Reelfoot Lake State Park (near Tiptonville, Tennessee, Carl Perkins birthplace-"Don't Step on My Blue Suede Shoes" guy) at the Museum on the south side across from World Famous Boyette's Restaurant. Our program is a 7 p.m. CST. We are also still booking program for Winter/Spring 2009. If your school or organization is interested in a raptor program, please call us at 706-657-3278 or e-mail us at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com We look forward to seeing you! As always, thanks and Happy Holidays!

Dale and John

p.s. We added two contrasting pictures...The "Holiday" one is of us in our Santa hats at the Santa Barbara Zoo and the other is Dale and Atza Yazhi at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota. Santa Barbara temperature at photo time...70 degrees. Wabasha temperature at photo time...10 degrees! (it had be -10 F earlier that morning).

Hey There,

We recently taught a Birds, Flight and Falconry class for Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee. The class consisted of bird watching, hang gliding and falconry demonstrations over a six week class period. We met once a week (although we skipped a few weeks due to high winds when we were to do our outside hawk flights). The students learned to I.D. some common birds on one field trip, took to the sky on their own (actually took tandem hang gliding flights at Lookout Mt. Flight Park near Chattanooga-www.hanglide.com) on another trip and participated in raptor flights in the field with Cody the Red-tailed Hawk and Dante', the Harris' Hawk, in the pictures with several of the students. The elective class earned the students one credit and an easy "A", but perhaps gave them a different life experience worth more than any college credit. Dale and I sure had fun and we hope to teach it again next Fall.

John (and Dale)

Upcoming Programs-Fall 2008

Hello,

We have a number of public programs coming up this Fall. The first is in Blue Ridge, Georgia at the Arts and Wildlife Festival (www.blueridgeart.net/Wildlife_Festival.html) on September 20th and 21st. Our program times are at 12:30 and 3:30 both days and will be in the old Fannin County Courthouse. The next will be on October 3rd and 4th at Moundville Archaeological Site (http://moundville.ua.edu/) near Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This is for the annual Native American Festival. We next move to northern Alabama at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens (http://www.hsvbg.org/) for two shows (11:00 and 1:00) on October 10th at the Amphitheater. The following day, we will be at the Carl Perkins Bass Classic in Parsons, Tennessee with a show at 2 p.m. at the Fairgrounds. Later in the month, on Halloween, we will be in the beautiful town of Sycamore, Illinois to do programs for the Midwest Museum of Natural History (http://www.mmnh.org/). We will have presentations at 9:00 and 11:00 in the State Theatre across from the Museum. We travel to the B&B community of Galena, Illinois for the Eagle Nature Foundation's Eagle Festival (http://www.eaglenature.com/) on November 1st. We return to Sycamore to the Museum for a program at 2 p.m. in the Museum. We then go to Winterville Mounds near Greenville, Mississippi for programs on November 6th, 7th, and 8th. We return home to do a few "local" programs at the Crane Festival in Birchwood, Tennessee on November 15th. Our show time is at 11:00 (surprised?!?). On November 16th, we will be at Cumberland Mountain State Park near Crossville, Tennessee for a show in the Recreation Lodge at 2 p.m. We hope to see you at one of these events! We are still booking programs for the Fall through Spring 2008-2009. If you would like a lively and educational live birds of prey program, enjoyed by school children to senior citizens, please call 706-657-3278 or e-mail at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com . Thanks!

Dale and John

p.s. all photos, except Screech Owl, courtesy of Jayne Trapnell

p.s.s. We have added another program, actually two days of programs at Chehaw Park near Albany, Georgia. We will be doing programs for the public at the Zoo on November 22nd and 23rd, 2008. Our shows on Saturday will be at 11:00, 1:30 and 3:30 and on Sunday at 1:30 and 3:00 p,=.m. For more info contact: http://www.parksatchehaw.org/ We hope to see you there!

Rocky update

Well,

It has been almost two weeks since Rocky was released. We have not located his transmitter signal in about 9 days. Last Tuesday, We searched for his signal from the air via an ultralight aircraft called a trike. We were able to get high enough to do a pretty broad sweep, but found nothing. We continue to do a daily search from the ground, but have failed to locate him. We have been putting food out on his hack box, but has yet to return to feed. Still, no signal is not a bad thing. He may have completely left the area. He is banded on both legs, so if he is spotted somewhere, he can be identified. Our main hope is that he survives to return to the area and comes back to set up a breeding territory. Time will tell...

John and Dale

By the way, Rocky has both Federal and Georgia State leg bands on him. The U.S. Fish and Fish and Wildlife Service (Federal) band is on his right leg. The number is: 816-35947. The Georgia
DNR bands are on the left leg and it is a two part black and green band. The black part has an "X" on it, while the lower green part has "65" on it.

Rocky Released

Hey,

Yesterday morning, August 12th, Rocky the Peregrine Falcon was released. We opened the front of his release box before first light and by 6:25, he quickly left the hack box. He took us by surprise on how quickly he departed. He shot out of the box with very strong wingbeats and flew about 1/4 mile from the site and landed in some nearby trees. He stayed in that location throughout the day and was there before dusk. He was probably trying to figure where he was. We will continue to track his movements with radio telemetry. For more info on Rocky, go to: www.seerockcity.com/birds/rocky.htm We hope to see Rocky some before he begins his lifelong journey (as we will now provide food at his hack box in case he has difficulty hunting) and maybe we will see him in a few years around Lookout Mountain as a nesting bird.

John and Dale

Rock City Raptors and Peregrine Release Project

Hey,

Rock City Raptors continues through Labor Day, September 1, 2008 with shows Wednesday-Sunday at 11, 1, and 3 Eastern Time (an additional show on Saturday ay 4:30). We are in the middle of a Peregrine Falcon Hacking program. We currently have a male captive hatched Peregrine named "Rocky" in a hacking box located at Rock City. Rocky will be released on August 12th and it is hoped that he will return to the Lookout Mountain area in 2-3 years to nest. The general idea behind hacking is where a young bird of prey makes its first flight is the area it will return to nest. This technique has been used to restore many populations of raptors including Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, Osprey and Peregrine Falcons. In the Chattanooga area, a male Peregrine Falcon named Roi established a nesting territory on a railroad bridge near the Chickamauga Dam. Roi was originally hacked from a release site at Cloudland Canyon State Park, near Trenton, Georgia in 1992. This release site is some 20 miles from the Dam nest site. He was there for many years and fledged a number of young with several different females, the last being Dreama. Unfortunately, last year, Roi was injured and ultimately died from his injuries at UT Vet School in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dreama was sighted around the nest site until around March of this year and then left, perhaps lured away by a new mate. We hope that Rocky or perhaps Garnet, a male released two years ago at Rock City, will return to continue the Peregrine breeding in this area. For more info about Rocky, and his journey, please go to: www.seerockcity.com/birds/rocky.htm .

Thanks!

John and Dale

p.s. We are booking program for the Fall-Spring now. Please call 706-657-3278 or e-mail us at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com

p.s.s. photos of Rocky and the hack box by Harold Sharp of the Riverwalk Bird Club. Thanks, Harold!

Rock City Raptors

Hey You All,

We are about to finish our first full month of the regular Rock City Raptors 2008 season. We had a recent visitor, Jayne Trapnell and her husband, and they e-mailed some great pictures of the birds in our show. Included in the photos are the two Screech Owls Jerri (Reddish) and Buddy (Grey), Atsa Yazhi, the Bald Eagle. Dale with Thibault, the Barred Owl, Cody, the very light Red-tailed Hawk (on the perch) and Little Joe, the Broad-winged Hawk. Thanks, Jane! Please come to see us. We are at the "Rock" Wednesday-Sunday through July with shows at 11, 1, and 3 p.m.(with an additional program at 4:30 on Saturday). The regular season continues through Labor Day Weekend. For more info, e-mail us at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com. Snail mail at S.O.A.R., Inc. P.O. Box 743, Trenton, GA 30752. Or phone: 706-657-3278. Also check out Rock City's website at http://www.seerockcity.com/ . Thanks!

Dale and John