Raptor center gives a hoot

AWENDAW, S.C. -- With owls swooping through trees as a warm breeze washes in from the Atlantic, a raptor center newly opened to the public here may transport some younger visitors straight to the pages of a Harry Potter book.

For their parents, it's a chance to get beyond the South Carolina tourist trip that revolves around golf courses and beaches.

At the Center for Birds of Prey, you can see owls, hawks, kestrels and other raptors in flight demonstrations. And you can wander through the lavishly landscaped 2-acre Owl Wood with its collection of owls from around the world, such as the large white and brown striped Ural owl that skims inches above your head before alighting on a tree stump.

White gravel paths wind past aviaries whose raptor occupants include golden and bald eagles, falcons and red-tailed hawks from the center's collection of about 100 birds.

The center had its beginnings in 1991 as a medical facility a few miles away for injured raptors. That first center was too small to allow visitors, so workers and volunteers took raptors to schools, festivals and other events to show them to the public. It received some widespread publicity a few years back from "Skyward," a novel by best-selling author Mary Alice Monroe that is loosely based on the center.

Now the center, which is part of the Avian Conservation Center, has moved to a 152-acre tract next to the Francis Marion National Forest, about 15 miles northeast of Charleston.

The Avian Conservation Center also operates a new, larger medical clinic and a treatment facility for birds tarred in oil spills.

In its first year of operation, it treated eight raptors. This year, it will treat more than 400 injured birds from South Carolina and five other states. Eventually, the number is expected to rise to as many as 700 a year as workers begin treating injured shore and wading birds, said Jim Elliott, the center's executive director.

The medical treatment informs the public part of the center and helps turn a visit into the biology class you wished you had had in high school.

Stephen Schabel, the center's director of education, leads the 50-minute tours through the aviaries. Even those Latin names on the small signs begin to make sense as Schabel explains the similarities and differences among the majestic birds.

The tour is entertaining, but it's also important to the raptors, Schabel says, because the biggest threat to the birds is people.

"They get hit by cars," he says. "They run into power lines; they get shot; they eat things they shouldn't eat that have poison on them. Most of those things have something to do with us."

For instance, he says, people might think it is harmless to toss an apple core or a banana peel from a car because, after all, they are biodegradable. But the food can attract rodents, which then attract raptors that get hit by cars.

"Perhaps we will make changes in our lives to better protect the birds," he says.

The highlight of the visit is the half-hour flight demonstration. On the day I was there, the demo featured an owl, hawks and kestrels.

Swooping for prey

The birds, all raised from hatchlings, soar into nearby pines and oaks, and then swoop toward handlers to receive treats. At one point, a young boy selected from the tour pulls a line with what appears to be a rabbit.

Quickly, two Harris hawks swoop down on the decoy, sailing within a few feet of the lad's head and sending him scurrying.

But the tawny-colored hawks with white beaks, a patch of yellow on their faces and bells on their talons have little interest in the child. It's the smaller lure they are after.

Jo Anne Gauss, a visitor from Groton, Conn., has been waiting for the center to open ever since she read "Skyward."

"I was just so fascinated by the book and I really wanted to come," she said.