Eagles, Owls and You, Oh My

Eagle Center (Photo by Seth Vreeman)

You don’t have to go too far to find a couple of the best centers for a couple of nature’s biggest flying predators. The International Owl Center and National Eagle Center are conveniently located in southeastern Minnesota. Owls are among our most fascinating birds, both to watch and to hear. They have long evoked curiosity in people, due to their secretive and often nocturnal habits, fierce predatory behavior, and interesting appearance. Many people might be surprised by how common owls are; it just takes a bit of knowledge and searching to find them; and the effort is worthwhile.

Despite their feeding habits, bald eagles are graceful and fascinating creatures. At five years old, these birds seek a lifelong partner by performing courtship calls and aerial displays, including a cartwheel maneuver known as the death spiral. The spectacle begins at a high altitude as the eagles lock their talons while tumbling down, breaking apart just before hitting the ground. The dangerous display exhibits the fitness levels of the eagles, a factor in choosing a partner.

International Owl Center (126 E. Cedar St. - Houston, MN) Houston’s International Owl Center is the only all-owl education center in the United States. Karla Bloem is Executive Director of the IOC. “The International Owl Center is focused mostly on owl education with a secondary focus on research. Our primary audience is the general public, but we also do special programs for schools, libraries, nursing homes, Audubon societies and many, many more,” said Bloem. Alice, the Great Horned Owl, is the inspiration behind the inception of the Owl Center; learn more at internationalowlcenter.org/history.html.

Some of the special events featured at the Center: International Festival of Owls (the first weekend in March each year); International Owl Awareness Day (in early August); “This year we acquired Bea, the Burrowing Owl, as our newest ambassador owl. She was hatched in late May. When COVID hit, we started a very successful Virtual Owl Expert Speaker series, a free series featuring presentations by owl experts from around the world,” Bloem explained. In 2020, Karla began research on utilizing acoustic monitoring for Barn Owls in southeastern Minnesota. “Surprisingly, we found them almost everywhere we monitored.” said Bloem.

Future plans for the Owl Center include a new, circa 15,000 square foot facility. “We have hired a builder, architect and fund-raising firm, and we have already purchased the five properties at the entrance to Trailhead Park, the proposed site of the new center,” Bloem said. The new facility will allow the owls to live on-site. Most of the owls the public sees will live in spacious display aviaries, and there will be walkthrough aviaries in the park; where there is nothing between visitors and the owls (the design of the aviaries keeps the owls away from the people). It will also allow the Owl Center to house a lot more owls, including those that need climatecontrolled environments.

The International Owl Center, located in Houston, is a bit of an oxymoron. How can it be “international” in such a small town? Karla has one foreign owl species now and plans to add more in the

Owl Center (Photo by Alan Stankevitz) Owl Center future; Bloem presents the World Owl Hall of Fame awards to owl experts from around the world; she gets thousands of children’s owl art from 3-4 dozen countries every year; Bloem’s cultural program

“While most of us don’t discusses various views about owls around the realize it, humans are the world throughout hisbiggest problem for owls. Our tory; the Center has a display to teach people goal is to empower people to how to say “owl” in make small changes in their various languages; and Karla hosts virtual daily lives, that will make the presentations by owl world a better place for owls. experts from around the world. By reaching enough people, “While most of us all those little changes add up don’t realize it, humans are the biggest problem to big changes, and those big for owls. Our goal is changes help the owls.” to empower people to make small changes in Karla Bloem, Executive Director of the IOC their daily lives, that will make the world a better place for owls. By reaching enough people, all those little changes add up to big changes, and those big changes help the owls,” Bloem said. (internationalowlcenter.org) CONTINUED page 24

“There have been lots of changes during the past year, and we are so excited to share them all with the public. If you haven’t visited the National Eagle Center for several years, now is a great time to come back and get reacquainted.”

Ed Hahn, Director of Marketing & Communications at The National Eagle Center

Eagle Center (Photo by Seth Vreeman)

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The National Eagle Center (Downtown Wabasha, MN) Ed Hahn is Director of Marketing & Communications at The National Eagle Center, located at 50 Pembroke Avenue South, Wabasha, MN. The National Eagle Center is the world’s premier resource for impactful eagle education and experiences. Visitors to the Center get to meet live eagle ambassadors upclose, explore two floors of interactive exhibits, attend exciting and engaging educational programs, and enjoy unforgettable experiences, such as guided field trips and behind-the-scenes programs. “In short, our mission is to ensure a world where eagles are known.

What does that mean? It means that we work to educate the world about eagles and raptors, and help them to understand the rich connections that eagles have to human cultures; with exhibits like the American Eagle Gallery and Cultural Connections Gallery, and to come away with a greater appreciation for them, their habitats, and stewardship of them,” explained Hahn. Ed and his staff’s work continues to tell that story to new generations of learners, so that future generations can continue to enjoy these majestic creatures.

The origins of the National Eagle Center go back to the 1980s when the Bald Eagle was still a critically endangered species. Wabasha has proven to be a special place for Bald Eagle viewing during the winter, when eagles searching for open water would gather in the Wabasha area. It was one of the only places that people could come and reliably see a Bald Eagle. Local eagle enthusiasts and bird watchers would bring their family and friends to Wabasha in the winter, to watch the eagles. This dedicated group eventually organized into EagleWatch, Inc. and worked to bring the Eagle Center to life. Today, the Bald Eagle is no longer endangered (de-listed in 2007), but the eagle viewing in and around Wabasha remains phenomenal.

The National Eagle Center is open throughout the year and hosts different experiences and events to match the different seasons. In the winter months, the NEC staff features large group-guided Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle field trips. In the summer, there are eagle-viewing cruises on the Mississippi River, in addition to a summer fishing program called Fishing on the Refuge. The National Eagle Center also offers private-guided “Habitat Tours” throughout the year for private groups and individuals.

Many changes have surfaced at the National Eagle Center in 2022. This year a long-planned renovation of the Center came to fruition. The existing Riverfront building, which people are familiar with, underwent massive remodeling that transformed office space into exhibit space, expanded in-house eagle care facilities, and transformed the grounds around the Center on the Wabasha riverfront. The Center was closed to visitors from November 2021 to June 2022. A temporary classroom space was created across the alley from the Riverfront building in the new “Program Center”. Not only was space renovated, but exhibits were updated and refreshed, and the eagles now have a much larger living space in which they are displayed to our guests. As part of the exterior riverfront renovation, a new outdoor amphitheater was constructed to host outdoor education programs, concerts, as well as other community and private events. The renovations completed this year (2022) are just Phase One of a planned two-phase project. Phase Two will see the renovation of the Center’s buildings across the alley on Main Street. The portion of the project will create a permanent indoor auditorium, permanent office space for staff, and additional exhibit space.

“We are a private non-profit organization, and we receive no government funding. NEC is supported entirely by admission from visitors, memberships, and private donations,” said Hahn. Too, the National Eagle Center is not an eagle rescue and rehab organization. The ambassadors in NEC’s care are permanent residents and cannot be re-released back into the wild, due to the nature of their injuries. As for eagle rescues, it is not something the Center does because of the health risks that poses to our resident eagles, especially with things such as Avian Flu. If you come across an injured eagle, contact the Raptor Center by calling 612-624-4745. “There have been lots of changes during the past year, and we are so excited to share them all with the public. If you haven’t visited the National Eagle Center for several years, now is a great time to come back and get reacquainted. It isn’t just new exhibits on display, we also have new programs designed to keep our fans and members connected with the eagles in many new ways; one of these is the Adopt An Eagle Program. Now individuals can adopt the ambassador(s) of their choice at the level of their choice and receive different benefits throughout the year.” — Ed Hahn (nationaleaglecenter.org) 

“We are a private non-profit organization, and we receive no government funding. NEC is supported entirely by admission from visitors, memberships, and private donations”

Ed Hahn, Director of Marketing & Communications at The National Eagle Center