Edgerton Explorit Center hosts live raptor display

AURORA, Neb. (KSNB) - Kids got up close and personal with live raptors at the Edgerton Explorit Center. Specialists shared facts and stories about the feathery creatures.

Lauryn Ommert attended the event today and said she learned a lot.

“I thought it was kind of interesting to get to see all these raptors up close and feel the feathers, and like how soft and rough they could be,” she said.

The Edgerton Center partnered with Conservation Nebraska to educate kids about its raptor rescue program.

“Our raptor recovery program is through Fontenelle Forest," Raptor Specialist Deb Miller said. “We go out and rescue birds throughout the whole state of Nebraska.”

Fontenelle Forest is the only licensed program in the state allowed to rescue birds. Once specialists finds an injured animal, they take it back to be rehabilitated.

“They have the facilities to, the hospital to take care of them, get them back so they can be released,” Miller said.

Miller showed three rescued raptors during the class: an American Kestrel named Ted, an owl named Dock, and a hawk named Roy.

“Roy here was found very ill in the fall of 2018, and he had a fracture in his wing which we can see the feathers are a little displaced," Miller said. "They didn’t grow quite right, and that’s where his fracture was.”

Kids got to see and touch the birds, learn facts about them and ask questions.

“When I was up close with Roy, I was like is he going to eat me, because he’s a hawk with a pointy beak and sharp talons - so who wouldn’t be scared,” Ommert said.

The class was also live streamed for people across the state to learn about the program.

“They asked some very good questions, and it’s always good to see their faces when they are alive, they’re right here and they weren’t a stuffed animal sitting there,” Miller said.

The raptor program is fairly new, but the center plans to host more of these events in the future. People interested in seeing the raptors can call them to set up programming.

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