How Friends With Feathers Came to Be
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Walker decided to apply for the required federal and state permits to enable him to continue the programs on his own. To support the owls, he started doing outreach programs for youth/adult groups and asking for donations. All fees and donations are used to house and feed the Friends With Feathers raptors. An injured male barred owl, a female great horned owl, two screech owls and a female red-tailed hawk were Walker's first ambassadors.
The Friends With Feathers aviary in the Livingston County countryside -- 140 feet long!
Part of the arrangements in establishing an aviary included setting up a not-for-profit organization, complete with a board of directors to oversee it. Friends With Feathers Ltd. was formed.
Veterinarians Beth and Jeff Jamison of the Livonia Veterinary Hospital joined Walker on the board of directors. Besides being members of the board, the Jamisons provide medical care when needed to all the Friends With Feathers raptors.
'Non-releasable' and why the birds aren't given pet names
When rehabilitators and veterinarians treat injured raptors they have some that will not ever be able fly or see and hear on one side of their head.
Birds with these kinds of injuries will never be able to hunt or escape predation. They need to be cared for the rest of their lives. In these situations the rehabilitators and veterinarians contact zoos and wildlife educators looking for a home for the non-releasable raptor.
Once a home is located, a letter is sent to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation requesting permission to acquire the permanently injured raptor. As soon as permission is granted, the new member joins one of the Friends With Feathers educational teams. All of the Friends With Feathers raptors have been injured and, because of their injury, would not survive in the wild.
It is best to have several teams of birds since there is a certain amount of stress on the raptors during each presentation. After each presentation the team gets several days off to calm down and resume normal eating behavior.
As part of the training to do programs at the Cumming Nature Center, The Rochester Museum and Science Center sent Walker and several co-workers to visit the San Diego Zoo and to the San Diego Wild Animal Park for a week. The record-keeping charts and some of the philosophies used by Friends With Feathers have been derived from what was learned on that trip.
Ron Walker introduces a Red-tail Hawk to a young class.
An example would be the common question asked during presentations: "What is the name of that bird of prey?" The name is broad-winged hawk or eastern screech-owl. Friends With Feather's birds of prey are wild animals -- not pets. They do not want to be touched, be close to another species or often even close to their own kind!
Also by not giving the bird a pet name, the handler tends to be more alert when working with it and more apt to read its body language for possible trouble. So, similar to the policy at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, Walker doesn't name the Friends With Feather's birds with pet names.
The reason some zoos and wildlife groups do use pet names is it's easier for the staff members to communicate about the different animals. Also, it is possible to raise funds by selling adoption papers to school classes, clubs and families.