Indiana Raptor Center helps birds in need
Hawks, owls, eagles and falcons among those provided shelter
NASHVILLE — Laura Edmund’s “gateway drug” isn’t what you’d expect. For her, it was a yellow cockatiel she received for her 30th birthday.
In her humorous way, Edmunds explains that gift led to a lifetime with birds, stating, “Eventually, there’s an eagle in the bedroom.”
That’s not far from the truth at the Nashville house owned by Edmunds and her partner, Patti Reynolds. Behind their home the yard is full of structures, all housing various types of raptors — owls, hawks, eagles, falcons.
On her front porch, wind chimes softly peal in the slight breeze while eagles call and owls hoot from behind the house. Sitting in a rocking chair on a fall afternoon, Edmunds talks about her first time helping with peregrine falcons. An eye-to-eye look with one chick changed her life forever. Staring into the eye of a raptor while breathing in the smell — “It never occurred to me that wild birds had a wild smell” — led Edmunds to pursue training and volunteering with birds, leaving behind her career as a emergency room and surgical nurse for years of training and being mentored by bird rehabbers.
“I knew life would be dedicated to them,” Edmunds said.
That dedication began in 1987 and has never wavered, even when she faced an aggressive form of cancer that was found in 2003. Given a 5% chance of survival, Edmunds spent the next 2 1/2 years battling the cancer with help of Indiana Un i ve r s i t y doctors. Throughout the ordeal, Edmunds never stopped caring for her birds, even when she was sick from chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Throughout that time, Reynolds was her companion, retiring early from Eli Lilly in Indianapolis to help at the Indiana Raptor Center, the homebased center they founded together in 2002.
One of the raptors currently needing skilled care from Edmunds is a redtailed hawk, after two of the hawks suddenly attacked each other while at the raptor center. Edmunds, with help from Reynolds, administers medication and uses special syringes to feed the bird, which calmly settles into Reynold’s arms under her firm but gentle grip.
“Red-tails are like pickup trucks,” Edmunds explained. “They’re rough and tumble.”
Indiana Raptor Center cares for hawks, owls, eagles, falcons, woodpeckers and vultures. Even with the often live-saving care, only 50% to 65% of the birds survive. While that may seem like a low survival rate, Reynolds explains that for most raptors, 70% to 90% can die within their first year of life.
While Reynolds and Edmunds are president and vice president, respectively, of the Indiana Raptor Center, they have 52 volunteers — from veterinarians to graphic artists to people who transport injured birds to the center — who make it possible for the center to provide care for more than 100 birds each year. Indiana Raptor Center takes birds — from Greenwood down to almost Scottsburg and from Terre Haute east to Greensburg — that have been hit by cars, are suffering from lead poisoning or fell out of nests before they fledged.
Rex Watters, wildlife specialist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources at Lake Monroe, has called the center many times when there’s an injured raptor.
“They do all that they can to make the birds releasable,” Watters said, adding that all the released birds have done well. “The chances are most likely that those birds, with their care, have been given an extended life and have been able to get back into the wild.”
Sometimes the birds deposit themselves on the c o u p l e ’s front porch. They’ve discovered injured vultures there, waiting for help. It doesn’t surprise Edmunds and Reynolds, who know there are crows, vultures and various species of owls that watch the care they give to other raptors.
The women also found some of their captive birds helping other birds of their species. They noticed owl pellets in their front yard and couldn’t figure out how they rolled uphill, far from the cages where the owls were. They solved that mystery when they noticed wild owls were flying to the top of the cages to accept food given to them by the captive birds.
With plastic bags filled with dead mice and pheasant chicks, Edmunds begins the feeding rounds. A short walk down the hill behind the house leads to a shed with three rooms, each containing raptors eager for their meals.
While she’s feeding the raptors in the shed, loud hoots, screeches and calls of other raptors in other structures fill the air.
“I’m coming,” Edmunds almost coos to the birds as she heads out of the first shed and selects a mouse for another raptor, this time one of the four bald eagles at the center.
The next bald eagle is one of Indiana’s special birds: C-14. That’s the number on the band she received when she was a fledgling eagle taken from her nest in Minnesota and transported to the special towers at Lake Monroe, where state biologists cared for young bald eagles as part of the state’s bald eagle reintroduction program.
As an adult, C-14 spent time in northern Indiana and then New York before returning to Indiana. When she was 25 years old, she was hit by a vehicle. Her shoulder was dislocated — an injury that will keep her from ever flying again. So, she’s found a home at the raptor center, where she eagerly awaits a mouse tossed to her from a short distance.
“She had several triples,” Edmunds proudly states, explaining the female eagle had three healthy eaglets several years in a row. “She’s not in any pain,” Edmunds continued. “Even though she’s 32 years old, she doesn’t show any arthritis at all.”
Plans are under way to open up an area for an office and an area for workshops and clinics for volunteers and visitors.
“Wildlife rehabilitation is not financially supported in Indiana by the government,” Reynolds noted.
The necessity of fundraising reduces the time she and Edmunds have to care for the raptors and train volunteers. Reynolds has applied for and received several grants this year and in the past from the Community Foundation of Brown County and the Amos Butler Audubon Society in Indianapolis.
Those donations help the birds get back into the wild more quickly, Edmunds said.
Eventually, the Nicholsons will become registered rehabbers and will take on the responsibilities of caring for patients on their own, establishing their own set of volunteers and funding sources.