Open house brings bird experience to life

Sat., April 7, 2007

Steve Christilaw The Spokesman-Review

The sad truth is that, for the vast majority of people in this country, the closest encounter they will ever have with a bald eagle – the living symbol of the United States of America – will be the raised emblem on the back of a coin.

Like most marvels of nature, your perspective of them changes when you experience them firsthand. Your perspective of life on the Great Plains before the arrival of Wild Bill Hickock, and the buffalo hunters changes once you’ve actually been eye-to-eye with a real, live bison.

Which makes next Saturday’s Raptor Open House at the West Valley Outdoor Life Center a not-to-be-missed opportunity.

The center, 8706 E. Upriver Drive, will be open from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., with special programs scheduled for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The event is for ages 8 and up and costs $7 per person.

“People will have the chance to meet our nine educational birds that live there full time,” said Jami Ostby Marsh, one of the program’s environmental educators. “We have two hawks, six owls and a bald eagle that was shot by a hunter near Colville. We’re in the middle of building him an outdoor enclosure and, hopefully, we can have that finished before the open house.”

The center’s Raptor Outreach program teaches area students about these majestic hunters, allowing them to meet these birds of prey face-to-face.

Each of the birds in the program has been injured and is unable to return to the wild, Marsh said.

Saturday’s visitors will meet Willie the barn owl, who was donated to the program from Washington State University. She was admitted to the WSU veterinary hospital with an injured eye that ultimately needed to be removed, making it impossible for her to hunt. And they can meet Albert and Hanovi, great horned owls

They can also meet Pantelones, a rough-legged hawk, so named because of the feathers that cover her legs, and Kiwi, a red-tailed hawk that was found with a damaged wing near Colville.

Saturday’s programs, like all of the center’s outreach programs, are designed to take education beyond the book and bring it to life.

“It’s amazing what actually meeting one of these birds does for a kid,” Marsh said. “It’s one thing to read about them. Actually seeing them takes learning to a whole new level and that’s what this program is all about.”

The Outdoor Learning Center has a number of programs that parents can obtain information about during the open house.

“We have some summer programs that we will be doing through the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department,” Marsh said.

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