S.O.A.R.
Save Our American Raptors

February 25, 2012

Once again we headed off to Martin Dies Jr. State park for a program. This time it was a special treat. Doris Mager and her birds of prey was at the park today. In 1983, Doris created the non-profit organization, S.O.A.R. Inc, “Save Our American Raptors” to educate children about American Raptors.

She travels with several birds including her beautiful 20+ year old Great Horned Owl “E.T.” which stands for “Extra Terrific.”

E.T. is a girl owl, she apparently caught the eye of a wild boy Great Horned Owl that lived in the park because the two were hooting at each other the evening before and again the morning of the program.  This gave us a rare treat of hearing E.T. calling out to her new admirer. We watched her in flight which was wonderful but sadly my camera’s memory filled up seconds before getting to video it.
~ Lesson learned today bring both SD cards and both batteries to event!~

Ms. Doris also brought a screech owl. I have never seen one before and was shocked it was so small.

She also had an American Kestrel which is the smallest falcon in North America.

Ms. Katherine holding “Cara” the Crested Caracara. It is also called a Mexican Eagle because it is the national bird of Mexico.

Ms. Doris would call “Cara” by her name and she would reply back with her high harsh cackle by throwing her head all the way back to where it looked as if she had no head!

We learned a lot about the raptors and also about the laws concerning these birds. At the end of the program for a small donation we were allowed to hold E.T. and Cara and pose for a picture with them, after putting the arm guard on them they were ready to go.

Anna was not real sure about holding these big girls but she managed to overcome her skepticism knowing she would not have an opportunity like this again.
E.T.  was easily distracted so Ms. Doris had to give her a snack to get her focused face-forward for the pictures.

Adam proudly held these beauties without being to nervous even though I was picking on him about getting his ear nibbled on.

Austin being a natural at loving animals had no worries at all holding these ladies. He was advised to turn his hat backward to hold E.T but forgot to with Cara. It didn’t seem to bother Cara much because she was to busy trying to steal Austin’s buttons on his shirt, which of course gave us all a good laugh.

Sadly, we heard that during the summer of 2012, Ms. Doris lost Cara her beloved Crested Caracara bird who died after an incredible life of 36 years in captivity. We were blessed to have held and petted her when we did.

~THE END~