Center Takes Birds of Prey Under Its Wing

Between now and the first of the year, zoologist Diane Van De Water estimates, the Placerita Canyon Nature Center in Newhall will take in and nurse back to health at least 20 young, ailing, red-tailed hawks that have become lost in the maze of city streets.

Last year, the hawks would have been sent elsewhere because the center was not equipped to care for them. Naturalist Suzanne Charboneau, then the only staff bird rehabilitator, had little expertise in dealing with injured hawks.

“I do better with songbirds and owls,” Charboneau said. “I’d try to trade a hawk for an owl with another nature center.”

Now in its fifth year, the bird rehabilitation program at the Los Angeles County-run center has added Van De Water to its staff and has made other changes, partly because the area’s burgeoning population has created a demand for more services for injured birds of all types. The center started treating only small songbirds, but began taking in larger birds of prey such as owls in 1986.

Patients Vary With Seasons

Often the types of birds found at the center vary with the seasons. During their spring and summer nesting seasons, as many as 75 smaller varieties of birds, such as sparrows, mockingbirds and robins, will be brought in for treatment, Van De Water said. Birds of prey--mostly hawks and owls of various types--wind up at the center in the fall and winter after heading down from the mountains to nest in lower elevations and warmer weather.

Many of the birds land at the center because they have trouble coping with urban sprawl.

“Their nesting areas are not that isolated anymore and things happen to them,” Charboneau said.

Illustrating the problem, she said, is a red-shouldered hawk now at the center. The hawk dislocated its jaw when it flew into a building. “It couldn’t eat,” she said. “We had to feed it by hand. But it’s getting better.”

Driven into unfamiliar territory by spreading urban development, some young hawks have difficulty finding food and eventually become so weak they can’t fly. Many starve to death or die from injuries, Van De Water said.

“People find them and call us or they’ll take them to a veterinarian or an animal shelter and they call us,” said Van De Water, 40. “We’ll go almost anywhere to pick up an injured bird. I get a lot of calls from downtown Los Angeles to pick up birds these days. We always go.”

The center is one of the few facilities in Los Angeles County where hurt and sick birds of prey are treated. Others are the Whittier Narrows and San Dimas nature centers. In addition, Van De Water said, several individuals rehabilitate birds.

Van De Water is a licensed veterinarian technician with a bachelor’s degree in zoology. She drives 100 miles to the nature center 5 days a week from her home in Big Bear. She and Charboneau, 34, of Lake Los Angeles, also a licensed veterinarian technician, place splints on broken legs, exercise stiff wings and even perform some surgery.

Charboneau estimated that the center will be able to take in at least 50 birds of prey simultaneously this year. Last year, she said, she was able to care for only a dozen full-grown owls at the same time.

Quails Treated at Center

Quails and road runners also have been treated at the center. Once, Van De Water said, workers at Edwards Air Force Base in the Antelope Valley found an injured osprey, a large fish-eating bird. It wound up at the center.

Most of the birds brought to the center have been shot or hit by cars, Van De Water said. One, an American kestrel, a type of hawk, was brought to the facility with a gunshot wound in its wing.

“Almost every X-ray I take has evidence of pellets,” she said.

Van De Water estimated that the center has a 50% recovery rate among the birds it treats.

“The bottom line is how best can we get them back to their natural environment?” she said. “We try to make sure they’re 100% cured. If they’re not 100%, then they’re going to starve to death.”

Birds of prey returned to the wild are banded so that center workers can better track their progress. Animal shelters report their findings to the center. Injured birds that cannot be turned loose are either kept at the center for educational purposes or given to zoos, other nature centers and educational facilities.

The bird population at the center one recent day included five great horned owls, five red-tailed hawks, two Cooper’s hawks, two kestrels, one barn owl, two red-shouldered hawks, a mockingbird and six other birds, including Greg, a pet falcon named after Olympic diving gold medalist Greg Louganis.

“He likes to dive into the water,” Van De Water said.

When the center expanded, it had to obtain appropriate state and federal permits to treat bigger birds of prey. Center workers can even treat eagles, which are much larger than other birds of prey commonly found in the Los Angeles area. The golden eagle has a wing span of up to 7 1/2 feet and stands up to 3 feet tall.

Center Plans Mew

Van De Water said the nature center’s plans call for construction of a mew, a large cage in which big birds can be exercised.

Another goal is to build a $10,000 surgical facility, an expensive proposition considering that the county has no special budget for bird rehabilitation programs.

“We would love to have surgery facilities,” Charboneau said, noting that the center has had to get by with makeshift facilities. “I did a 40-minute surgery on a duck on the kitchen table last week. I had to sew up its stomach. A dog had torn it up. But it’s going to live.”

For complicated surgeries, a Los Angeles veterinarian, Walter Rosskopf of the Avian and Exotic Animal Hospital, donates his time. Other volunteers help feed and care for the birds, and lead free bird walks and tours at the center.

Baby birds are brought to the center each spring after falling out of their nests or after “the mother kicks them out because there’s something wrong with them,” Charboneau said.

Center workers have created several programs to help pay for bird rehabilitation. In one called Adopt-a-Hawk, a donor pledges to pay for a bird’s treatment for the duration of its stay.

“All of the animal care here happens because of private donations,” Van De Water said. “People have been really good to help us out.”

Both Van De Water and Charboneau take critically injured birds home with them at times. Van De Water, who started working with birds about 10 years ago, has created the Red Tail Research Foundation in Big Bear to further her work with birds.

“I do it because I have a special interest in it,” she said. “The greatest feeling in the world is gaining the trust of an injured wild hawk. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing you were able to help.”