The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Parks district to open raptor amphitheater
Work continues to ready birds for programming
Lorain County Metro Parks Raptor Center plans to open an outdoor raptor amphitheater for education.
Lorain County Metro Parks’ Raptor Center has seen quite a few changes during the past few months.
In efforts to continue rescuing birds that can’t survive in the wild, Mary Ewers Joyner, the avian program curator for the Lorain County Metro Parks, has worked with barn owl Luna, the latest addition to the Raptor Center.
Luna came to the Metro Parks at 10 weeks old.
Joyner is working with Luna to become part of the Metro Parks educational programming.
Jennifer Bracken, assistant director of the Lorain County Metro Parks, said Joyner has been very hands-on in Luna’s training process.
“Mary is working very hard to get her to fly to dif ferent perches and the glove,” Bracken said. “She’s doing well and she’s definitely part of the family now. She’s doing great.”
With the recent deaths of its two Red-tailed hawks, Aphrodite and Callie, the Metro Parks is doing its best to continue in its developments and training.
On Oct. 6, the parks system announced the death of Callie.
Callie was 24. Aphrodite died in August at age 25. Both birds died from agerelated complications.
Currently, there are seven raptors at the center, and some are working toward training.
Luna is not on display,
but Metro Parks officials hope to display the owl by the spring.
“She’s off display, but she works with Mary daily,” Bracken said. “She will be
a program bird.”
In addition to Luna’s training, there’s been a focus on revamping the Metro Parks outdoor education programs.
During a Lorain County Metro Parks board meeting Oct. 15, director James Ziemnik said there’s been progress in the development of a new outdoor amphitheater.
“The good news is we’re right on the cusp of putting out the bid package for the Raptor amphitheater here,” Ziemnik said.
The amphitheater is expected to open in the spring and will give Joyner and park naturalists a chance to utilize the outdoor space for educational programming, he said.
“The idea is that we’ll get this out on the streets, get the bids in, get this under construction and be ready for some programming in early spring with Mary and the raptors and all the naturalists,” Ziemnik said.
The novel coronavirus pandemic gave the Metro Parks a chance to go back to its roots and focus on outdoor programming again, he said.
“That whole focus of shifting to outdoor education and outdoor classrooms, we’ve kind of embraced that and captured that back in as we go forward here as a lesson from the pandemic,” Ziemnik said.