Center Gives Ailing Birds of Prey Another Chance to Take Wing

When Sasquatch needs to feel like a bird again, Kim Stroud takes him to a mountaintop in Ojai where he looks over the valley floor and feels the breeze beneath his useless wings.

The red-tailed hawk, crippled by a bone disease, will fluff his feathers and lean into the wind.

“He feels like he’s flying,” said Stroud, director of the Ojai Raptor Center in Oak View. “We try and offer the birds a good quality of life here.”

Stroud rehabilitates injured birds of prey. They include hawks, eagles, owls and falcons, along with an occasional heron or duck.

For those beyond repair, she offers the raptor equivalent of a convalescent home.

Stroud, 45, who started the center two years ago, says it’s the only place between Los Angeles and Santa Maria specializing in raptors.

“I’ve always been drawn to raptors,” she said, looking into the deep yellow eyes of a Harris hawk on her arm. “They are majestic and beautiful. It satisfies a longing in my soul, and it’s an honor to take care of them.”

But raptors, she cautions, aren’t pets. In fact, they don’t like people. Joker, a half-blind black-crowned night heron, will jab his dagger-like beak at the eyes of anyone who gets too close.

And the bald and golden eagles can crush human bones with their sharp yellow talons.

“A lot of people want warm and fuzzy pets,” Stroud said. “These aren’t like that. They are wild animals whose motivation is simply to eat, fly and procreate.”

The 20 birds at the center suffer a variety of ailments and injuries. A golden eagle had a wing shot off. A peregrine falcon, which can dive at more than 100 mph, lost a wing when it hit a power line. A Harris hawk slammed into a building while chasing prey.

And then there are birds like the great horned owl named Luna, who was fed as a baby by humans and can no longer find food on her own or relate to other birds. Once released, Luna was later caught trying to pry open the sliding glass door of a home looking for lunch.

Birds that can be rehabilitated are first taken to a veterinarian.

Dr. Matt Bailey of the Matilija Veterinary Hospital in Ojai treats many of the animals. If a bird breaks a wing, he performs surgery for a reduced fee and applies a wing wrap to immobilize it for a few weeks.

“Kim takes it from there,” Bailey said. “She gives them the antibiotics, changes the wing wraps and gives them restricted exercise. If you are the bird found in the backyard with a broken wing and your choices are either getting thrown in the garbage or having Kim fix your wing and give you a second chance at life, then you will think Kim is providing a huge service.”

The Ventura County Humane Society often refers people with injured raptors to Stroud.

“People like Kim are invaluable because we don’t have the resources or skill to deal with wild animals like that,” said Tim Dewar, spokesman for the society.

Being the local raptor expert has its drawbacks. Stroud, who is helped by a handful of volunteers, is barraged with all sorts of animal calls.

“People ask me how to get raccoons from their yard,” she said. “One guy called and said seagulls kept attacking his car. A lady called asking if she should adopt a dingo puppy.”

During windy spells, Stroud’s phone is constantly ringing. Herons and owls get blown from their nests and end up in people’s yards. Last year she took in 70 baby barn owls, 35 baby great-horned owls, 25 red-tailed hawk chicks and 17 red-shouldered hawk chicks.

Stroud first got involved with birds as a volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Simi Valley. Later, she helped start Wildlife Care of Ventura County before founding the raptor center.

Stroud was raised in Santa Barbara, where her stepfather would take in birds hit by cars.

“I wanted to be a vet for years, but I got married and had kids,” said Stroud, who works at the Patagonia store in Ventura.

As Stroud made her rounds around the center recently, Chloe, a slim, snail-eating Indian runner duck, joined her. Chloe, whose wing was chewed off by a dog, waddled behind Stroud like a web-footed personal assistant.

But unlike the chummy duck, the raptors are aloof. Those who have been here a while, like Sasquatch and Luna, tolerate Stroud. Others, like a glaring bald eagle, are skittish.

The birds are fed once a day. The bald eagle gets trout or salmon, and the others receive rats, quails and day-old chicks called cockerels.

“I buy 5,000 cockerels at a time,” Stroud said.

Stroud depends on private donations to run her half-acre center and hopes someone will donate 20 acres so the raptors will have more space. She also wants to raise $6,000 for two aviaries at the county humane society to house a bald eagle and golden eagle.

She often does paid presentations at local schools.

During a recent appearance at Thelma Bedell Elementary School in Santa Paula, Stroud showed owls, falcons, herons and Chloe.

The students were entranced by the owls and enchanted by the duck. As she wrapped up, Stroud looked at the young faces and furrowed her brow.

“And remember if you want a pet, get a cockatiel or a parakeet,” she said. “Not a wild animal.”