Birds-of-prey talks

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A special thank you to those who attending my two Identifying Local Birds of Prey talks in the past week.

Of course, the presentations included Doc, the state-permitted, non-flighted American kestrel under my care. Doc seems to enjoy the road trips and the enrichment of getting out and sharing his story and the current status of kestrels, the smallest falcon found in the Americas. After his injury a year ago, he is now a wildlife ambassador for the state of Tennessee.  

We also learned how to quickly identify the vultures, owls, hawks and other falcons found in our valley. And with the hawks: the difference between the Buteos and Accipiters. We have two species from each genus here year round.

This is a good time of the year to focus on this topic with the leaves still off the trees and the raptors being more observable.

The two talks were well attended with a total of 127 people giving up watching Jeopardy! for one evening.  

First, thank you to my friends at the University of Tennessee Arboretum and to Janet and Michelle for inviting us.


And second thank you to the good folks with the Tellico Village Naturalists Club and to Lynda for inviting us.

UT Arboretum

Tellico Village Naturalists Club

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