Little Joe still AWOL

Hello,

Our Broad-winged Hawk, Little Joe, is still roaming the Huntsville, Alabama area near Three Caves at the Base of Monte Sano Mountain. Originally lost five weeks ago, he was spotted last week in the neighborhood around Cleermont, Fagan Springs, Waller, Watt and Desoto Roads. He was also seen near the Maple Hill Cemetery on July 26th. Little Joe was lost during our June 23rd presentation for the Land Trust of Huntsville and North Alabama http://landtrust-hsv.org/ . He was harassed by the local bird population for the rest of the day and was too spooked to fly down to us. I (John) returned the next day and located him where he had roosted. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays and Robins were still after him and after two hours, I lost sight of him. He is wearing his leather jesse straps, an ID tag, and a bell, but not a transmitter, which would have helped us find him. The local Huntsville media has been great at helping us spread the word. After several weeks of sporadic sighting, several residents of the neighborhood saw him and Hallie Davenport of the Land Trust got within 5-10 feet of him. I went to Huntsville after our last show on Saturday and searched the area until dark. After a search all day Sunday (Dale joined me in the afternoon) revealed nothing, we had to abandon our efforts at dark. He is still in the vicinity and we hope to be able to get close enough to entice him with a savory rat or mouse. If you see Little Joe, call us at 423-605-8908 or 423-605-8917. Thanks to everyone who has helped us so far!

John (and Dale)

p.s. special thanks to Falconer Curt Cearley who has been running down all the possible sightings!

Peregrine Release Delayed

Hello,

The Peregrine Falcon released scheduled for today has been postponed until 8/2/10 due to the fact that the smaller Peregrine, Ted, has lagged behind in development compared to his brother, Zenith. They will both be fitted with transmitters and leg bands on Sunday afternoon, 8/1/10 and will be liberated early Monday morning.

Dale and John

Peregrines arrive at Rock City

Hello,

Today, we received two male Anatum Peregrine Falcons from falcon breeder Andy Kramer of Minnesota. Two years ago, we got the male Peregrine "Rocky" from Andy and now we have the latest two. The birds are 30 days old and will be held in a "hack" box for two full weeks. The birds will be fed without human contact and will continue their growth and development. At 40-45 days of age, the young falcons will be fully grown. After two weeks, the birds will be fitted with Federal leg bands and radio transmitters so we can track their movements after release. On the morning of July 28th, the front door of the box will be opened before dawn and the birds will be able to liberate themselves at their leisure. This year's release is about two weeks earlier than our last two, so we are hopeful that the birds will stay in the area longer. It is our hope that these birds will return to the Lookout Mountain area to nest. So far, we have released three Peregrines: Garnet and Frieda in 2006 and Rocky in 2008. This year's project is fully funded by Rock City and we are most thankful to them for the support! Stay tuned for more news...

Dale and John

Hello,



We are now at Rock City for the Summer doing our sixth season of the Rock City Raptors Birds of Prey Shows http://www.seerockcity.com/pages/Rock-City-Raptors/ We are at the "Rock" Thursday-Sunday through Labor Day and our show times are at 11, 1, and 3 p.m. EDT with an additional 4:30 show on Saturday( in July, we will be doing presentations July 1st-11th). We finally have Theo, the Barn Owl, free flying in our shows. So, if you get a chance, come on up to the cooler side of Lookout Mountain and catch Theo and the other birds. Also, we are currently booking programs for Fall/Winter 2010-11. If you want to schedule a program call 706-657-3278 or e-mail at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com Thanks!

Dale and John

Upcoming Programs-May 2010

Hello,

We have several upcoming public programs in May. The first stop is at Dunbar Cave State Park, Clarksville, Tennessee http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/DunbarCave/ for their annual Spring Fling. The date is May 1st and we have programs at 10:00 and 12:40 CDT. The next day, we are at Russell Cave National Monument http://www.nps.gov/ruca/index.htm near Stevenson, Alabama. Our program is part of the Native American Festival and will be conducted at 1:00 CDT. The next weekend on May 8th, we will be in Altoona, Alabama for Altoona Days with two programs, the first at 11:45 CDT and the second at 2:45. The programs will be at the Altoona First United Methodist Church on 6th Avenue next to the Exchange Bank. Just look for the gym and that's where we will be. This program is sponsored in part by Wild South www.wildsouth.org . At the end of the month, Memorial Day Weekend, we return to Rock City for our sixth season of Rock City Raptors http://www.seerockcity.com/pages/Rock-City-Raptors/ Come and see us at one of these events. Thanks!

Dale and John

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

706-657-3278

p.s. photos by Debbie Boen, Friends of Dunbar Cave

Bonnie the Peregrine and Earth Dayz

Hello Everyone,

We recently acquired a new bird. Her name is Bonnie and she is a Peregrine Falcon. She is of the anatum subspecies, which is the Peregrine that has been historically found in the continental U.S. This Peregrine subspecies was greatly impacted by DDT pesticide and by the early 1970's was nearly extirpated from the Lower 48 states. The Peregrine Fund http://www.peregrinefund.org/ was started by Dr. Tom Cade of Cornell University and several other falconers who decided to try to save the Anatum Peregrine Falcon through a captive breeding and release program. It has been a huge success and the Peregrine is now nesting again at many locations across the U.S. This species has been part of a small release program we have had a Rock City. Peregrines have nested in the Chattanooga area, but about three years ago, the male of the breeding pair was found injured and ultimately died. We hope to aid in the re-establishment of Peregrines in this area by releasing more of these speedy predators. This is one of the reasons we acquired Bonnie. She was donated to us by a Falconer named Christopher Lynn. He had her as a breeding bird and last year, she laid four eggs. Unfortunately, they were not fertile and not too long after this, someone broke into Chris' facility and released Bonnie's mate. Bonnie came from the Peregrine Fund which removed her out of a wild nest as a youngster. Nest site observers noticed that she seemed to have a problem with her left eye. Someone was sent to check her in the nest and sure enough, she had trauma to her eye and was removed. Her chances for her wild survival were very slim, since she would have been handicapped in her hunting ability. We will, at first, use Bonnie in our upcoming shows at Rock City. Hopefully, by the end of the summer, we will be able to find a mate for her and get them into a breeding situation. Stayed tuned...

On Friday, April 2nd, we will be at Rock City for their Second Annual Earth Dayz event http://www.seerockcity.com/pages/EarthDayz/ We will conduct our shows every weekend in April. To quote Kim Jackson, Rock City's Special Events Coordinator: "Earth Dayz (Fridays-Sundays in April, excluding 4/30)) will be a value add event for our Spring break guests that will include the Birds of Prey show at Critter Classroom (11am, 1pm & 3pm) , an artist-in-residence interactive sculpture experience outside the Pavilion and a hands-on recycling/planting activity at the Lovers Leap stage (11am-4pm). In addition to these free activities, the following activities will be available during the event (for an additional charge): RockQuest Adventure package, climbing wall, and panning for gems." Come on up and join us in April.

A quick note, we had a great time in Wabasha, Minnesota at the National Eagle Center's Soar with the Eagles Weekend http://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/ The folks had us doing programs in a school gymnasium (as opposed to an outdoor tent), the weather was nice, with temps on Sunday reaching 50 degrees (as opposed to -10 degrees two years ago). We had great attendance for our four presentations and the people at the NEC were wonderful. We hope they'll invite us back (hint, hint) for this event in the future. If you are in SE Minnesota, check out the Eagle Center and stop by Slippery's Bar, where part of the movie, Grumpy Old Men, was filmed.

We still have a few slots open for programs this spring (not too many). If you wish to schedule a program this Spring or for the Fall/Winter 2010-11 please call us at 706-657-3278 or e-mail us at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com Thanks!

Dale and John

Programs-March & April 2010

Hello,

We have two upcoming public programs in March. We first travel to the frosty North and will be in Wabasha, Minnesota at the National Eagle Center's Soar With The Eagles Weekend http://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/ on March 6th and 7th. Our shows this year will be INSIDE! In 2008, we were in an outdoor tent, which would have been fine, except the heaters did not arrive as scheduled. It was -3 degrees outside and 5 degrees in the tent. We did a program for about 450 school children...coldest we've ever been doing a show. The birds did well, however. This year, we will be at the St. Felix school gymnasium, heat and all with programs on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Central Time and on Sunday at 12 and 2 p.m. Next, we travel south and warm up a bit for a program at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge http://www.fws.gov/wheeler/ near Decatur, Alabama. The program will be on March 13th at 2:00 Central Time at the Visitors Center. We will be at Rock City in April for the Second Annual Earth Dayz http://www.seerockcity.com/pages/EarthDayz/ We will have shows on weekends, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 11, 1, and 3 p.m. EST . We hope to see you at one of these presentations! If you want to book a program for March-May this year, we still have some dates open (except weekend in April). Give us a call at 706-657-3278 or e-mail s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com Thanks!

Dale and John

photo: Dale and Atsa Yazhi in balmy , Minnesota, Wabasha in March 2008

I have finally posted a video of the shows in August. I combined videos of both shows for a 5.5 minute highlight video. We hope that you enjoy it, and have a great 2010 ! John and Dale

Programs in the New Year

Hello All,

We have a few public programs early in the new year, 2010. The first is at Dale Hollow State Resort Park http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/resortparks/dh/on January 16th at 7:00 CST in the Lodge. This is for their Eagles Weekend. Next we go south to Montgomery, Alabama for the Greater Montgomery Home and Garden Show http://www.showtechnology.com/shows/Montgomery/Montgomery.html We have one show on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. CST and one on Sunday at 11:15 a.m., the 30th and 31st. We then have two programs on February 6th. The first is at Lake Guntersville State Park http://www.alapark.com/LakeGuntersville/ for their Eagles Weekend. The program is at 1 p.m. CST in the Lodge. After this we pack up and head north for an evening program at KenLake State Park http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/resortparks/kl/ with the show starting at 8 p.m., also in the Lodge (see a trend here?). The next is our annual program at Reelfoot Lake State Park http://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/ReelfootLake/ on February 13th at 7:00 CST in the R.C. Donaldson Museum. This is across from World Famous Boyette's Restaurant. All of the Eagles Weekends in Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee offer excellent chances to see Bald Eagles in the wild, for the parks have organized eagle tours. If you get a chance, get out and see some eagles and maybe catch one of our shows. Also, we are booking programs for 2010. If you wish to schedule a show, give us a call at 706-657-3278 or e-mail at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com

Thanks!

Dale and John Stokes

photos by Tim Junker

p.s. The Dale Hollow show has been cancelled due to the fact the Eagle Weekend has been cancelled. The park couldn't get a barge for the Eagle Tours on the lake. Sorry!

p.s.s We also have a video on YouTube of highlights of our 2009 Rock City Raptors presentation.

To view it, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO6LSdi9bWk

Upcoming programs in s. Georgia and NW Florida

Hello,

This is a late post, but we have two programs this weekend in southern Georgia and northwest Florida. Our first programs are on Saturday, November 21st at General Coffee State Park near Douglas, Georgia http://gastateparks.org/info/gencoffee/. This is for the Pioneer Harvest Festival. We have two shows at 11:00 and 1:00 p.m. EST. We then travel to Chipley, Florida for the Washington County Outdoor Expo http://www.wcexpo.org/ with programs at 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. EST. This will be on Sunday, November 22nd. We hope to see you at one of these programs. Thanks!

Dale and John Stokes

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

706-657-3278

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