{"id":41487,"date":"2013-11-04T12:24:17","date_gmt":"2013-11-04T17:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nybg.org\/plant-talk\/?p=41487"},"modified":"2013-11-04T12:24:17","modified_gmt":"2013-11-04T17:24:17","slug":"fall-forest-weekends-raptors-on-the-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/2013\/11\/around-the-garden\/fall-forest-weekends-raptors-on-the-wing\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall Forest Weekends: Raptors on the Wing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Great-horned<\/a>Big, small, fierce, or cute, the birds of prey that live out their lives in the northeast are an uncommon cadre of sharp-eyed hunters, though seldom seen by your average park wanderer. Here in the New York Botanical Garden<\/a>, our most popular visitors are definitely the Red-tailed Hawks that patrol the skies around our grounds, as well as the occasional Great-horned Owl, but the many local species that you might not<\/em> always see are equally fascinating! And I admit they’re also pretty adorable if you’re not a squirrel or a chipmunk.<\/p>\n

As part of our Fall Forest Weekends<\/em><\/a> events and activities, which kicked off this past weekend and run through the next, our friends from the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary & Audubon Center<\/a> stopped off at the Garden with a few clever companions in tow, among them an American Kestrel, an Eastern Screech Owl, and a Barred Owl\u2014some of which you can see hunting around our grounds if you’re lucky. Many of the birds in the Audubon Center’s care are rescues, brought in to be rehabilitated after sustaining injuries that won’t allow them to survive back in the wild. But they do plenty of good in their downtime, educating people about the importance of raptors for a healthy, diverse ecosystem.
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\nPat Gonzalez<\/a>, our Visitor Services Attendant, raptor enthusiast, and lifelong Garden friend, stopped in over the weekend to record some of these birds, and was kind enough to share her video with us.<\/p>\n