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

Rock City Raptors-2008

Hello there:

After a busy spring schedule, which saw us "adjusting" to -10 degrees in Minnesota to dodging tornadoes in Georgia in March and May, we return May 23rd to Rock City (http://www.seerockcity.com/) for our 4th full season of Rock City Raptors . We will be there Thursday through Sundays until Labor Day weekend. We will also be adding Wednesdays to our schedule from June 18th through July 30th. We hope to see you at our presentations. We are now booking programs for Autumn/Winter '08. If you are interested please e-mail s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com snail mail us at: S.O.A.R., Inc. P.O. Box 743, Trenton, Georgia 30752 or call 706-657-3278. As always, thank you!

John and Dale

p.s. Photos by Danny Smith