Thank you, thank you, thank you, MOU members and birders. We at The Raptor= =20 Center are very grateful for your support and have been overwhelmed by your= =20 responses. To date, we have admitted 103 great gray owls, 3 northern=20 hawkowls and 6 boreal owls. While not all the owls survive or become=20 surgical patients, we are still working very hard to treat and rehabilitate= =20 the ones we can. To come up with the cost of rehabilitating the owls we=20 are treating, we have used average costs based on whether a bird received=20 orthopedic surgery or medical care.
Conservation and education are extremely vital issues that we at The Raptor= =20 Center are intimately involved in. Many of you know The Raptor Center for= =20 our rehabilitation efforts because public release of wild raptors is so=20 inspiring and news worthy. Our work is much larger than that, however. We= =20 have an international veterinary training focus that has resulted in over=20 250 veterinarians from 26 countries being trained by us in the past 30=20 years; many of these veterinarians are now doing conservation work around=20 the world. Our rehabilitation work is part of our service mission; it is a= =20 vital piece that helps engage and connect the public (over 150,000 people=20 reached each year) to the natural world, along with conservation and=20 behavior-changing messages. The third piece of our mission is research in=20 avian medicine and surgery. All three of these pieces are closely=20 interconnected and dependent on each other; they also all share the same=20 operating budget. The Raptor Center is incredibly grateful for the support of the birding=20 community during this irruption =96 we have had an outpouring of people=20 willing to transport birds and help us wherever possible, as well as=20 financial response. We invite everyone to our open house on Sunday, April=20 3rd, from 11am to 4pm. As a result of this year=92s phenomenon, we will have= =20 a video system set up to observe great gray owls in a flight room, where=20 they are living while undergoing flight rehabilitation, as well as a=20 beautiful new educational mount of a great gray owl. Please introduce=20 yourself as an MOU member supporting the Give A Hoot fund =96 we are anxious= =20 to meet you and thank you in person. If you do have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. And= =20 thanks again for all your support. The Raptor Center Staff & Volunteers=20
