Special Visitors
We’ve had special visitors this week. We first met Ken and Kirsti Strandberg when they found an injured American Kestrel in Long Creek, OR and transported it to Pendleton for care. They are full-time RVers and were visiting Long Creek to watch the solar eclipse. After the eclipse, they brought there RV to Pendleton to spend two weeks volunteering at BMW! This past week they have done lots of pruning and almost completed the new small flight pen. Thank You Ken and Kirsti!
A New Species: Red-necked Grebe 17-552
We normally admit migrating grebes after they land on wet pavement, thinking it is a body of water. We haven’t seen rain for weeks, however, so who knows why this grebe landed a stone’s through from the rodeo grounds. Perhaps he wanted to attend the world famous Pendleton Round-Up? Aaron Skirvin of the Pendleton Bird Club did some checking and found that this is the first sighting of the species in Umatilla County in 2017 (on average there are 0 - 3 sightings/year).
We could find no injuries and the grebe passed his swimming test. Samantha released him into the Columbia River at the Umatilla Marina. She reported that he seemed to be very happy to be back in the water!
Peregrine Falcon Release
An adult Peregrine Falcon was admitted in early June with metacarpal fractures in his left wing. After 2 1/2 months he was ready for release. We watched him spiral upward for several minutes until he was a tiny dot in the sky. It was a very satisfying release.
Two Red-tailed Hawk Releases
Kirsti also shared her photography skills with us, capturing Samantha releasing two Red-tailed Hawks.
