Upcoming programs-November 2009

Hello Everyone,




We have several public programs coming up in November. The first is at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for the 12th Annual Eaglefest on November 7th sponsored by the Eagle Nature Foundation http://www.eaglenature.com/ We have shows at 10:00, 12:00 and 2:30 CST at Ullsvik Hall. This is the first year that the festival will be held in Platteville. On Sunday November 8th, We will be at the Midwest Museum of Natural History http://www.mmnh.org/ for two shows at 12:30 and 2:30 CST. We then get to do some shows closer to home. On Saturday, November 14th, we will be in Birchwood, Tennessee for the Crane Festival and Cherokee Heritage Days with our presentation at 1:00 EST. The next day, we will be at Cumberland Mountain State Park near Crossville, Tennessee for a program at 2:00 CST. The following weeke we will go south to do some shows at General Coffee State Park, near Douglas, Georgia with two shows at 11:00 and 1:00 EST on November 21st. The next day we will be in Chipley, Florida for the Washington County Chamber Expo with programs at 11:00 and 3:00 EST. We hope to see you at one of these events. If you are interested in scheduling a program, call 706-657-3278 or e-mail us at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!


Dale and John Stokes

Upcoming Programs-The Alabama Tour

Hello Everyone,

We have several upcoming public programs, all in Alabama. The first is on October 3rd at the Madison Street Festival http://www.madisonstreetfestival.org/ Our programs, sponsored by the Land Trust of Hunstville, are at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. CDT. Check the Madison Street Festival website for the exact location. The next week, we will be back in the Huntsville area at the Huntsville Botanical Garden http://www.hsvbg.org/ on October 9th for two programs at 11 and 1 p.m. CDT. This is our second year at the Botanical Garden and we had a lot of fun there last year. We travel down I-65 to Moundville Archaelogical Park http://moundville.ua.edu/ for their Native American Festival on October 10th. The next day, we are closer to home at Russell Cave National Monument www.nps.gov/ruca , near Steveson, Alabama for a program at 2:00 CDT, with a rain date of October 25th (our spingtime show in May was rained out!). Stop in and see us at one of these events. As always, we are booking programs for Fall 2009-Spring 2010. Call us at 706-657-3278 or e-mail us at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com
Thanks!

Dale and John

Last week for Rock City Raptors 2009 and upcoming Memphis program

Hey,

This is our last week for Rock City Raptors 2009. It has been a great season for us and we had tremendous turnout for our shows. The Critter Classroom will probably hold 100 people, max. But on at least a dozen occasions this summer we had twice that many people at our programs. We have a good problem here...we need more seats! We look forward to next April when we will be back at Rock City http://www.seerockcity.com/ for Earth Dayz.

We have an upcoming program, actually three programs in Memphis on September 12th. These programs will be at 11:30, 1:30 and 3:30 CDT at the Evergreen Presbyterian Church on University Avenue across from the Memphis Zoo (where John got his start 32 years ago). The programs are in conjunction with the Wolf River Conservancy's Wolf River Day http://www.wolfriver.org/ This fine organization is helping to restore this beautiful river and its environs and generally making the public aware of this treasure. Come on out and see us. We look forward to returning to Memphis for this event. We are currently booking programs for Fall/Winter, so if you are interested, give us a call at 706-657-3278 or email at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com Thanks!

John and Dale

photos by Eleanor Davies, Tim Junker and S.O.A.R. Inc.

Rock City Raptors continue until Labor Day

Hello All,

Just a note to let you know if you haven't seen our 2009 Rock City Raptors Birds of Prey show www.seerockcity.com/pages/Rock-City-Raptors continues on until Monday, September 7th. Our showtimes are 11:00, 1:00, 3:00 pm. Eastern Time with an additional show on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Come on up and see us. Also, we are booking programs for the Fall and Winter 2009-2010. You can either e-mail us at: s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com or call 706-657-3278. You can even snail mail us at: S.O.A.R., Inc. P.O. Box 743, Trenton, Georgia 30752. Thanks!

Dale and John

p.s. photos are of Atsa Yazhi , the Bald Eagle and Karl Gumpright, Secretary of Save Our American Raptors, holding Penelope, the Barred Owl.

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!