Our unique and precious birds of prey are in trouble. Sadly, we humans are poor neighbours. Although we share our environment with many remarkable species of diurnal raptors and owls, we take and destroy their habitat for our ever expanding cities, rural residential expansion and our insatiable hunger for natural resources. The Red Goshawk, Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle and the Powerful Owl are already threatened with extinction thanks to us. Others, once considered common, like the Little Eagle, are now declining in numbers according to recent reports (the Bird Atlas reporting rate of Little Eagles declined by 14% in the two decades to 2000).

Here at the Leigh Valley Hawk and Owl Sanctuary (see our Facebook page here), we often see the impact of human technology on these birds first hand. Broken wings as a result of collision with cars and electricity lines, poisoning and gunshot wounds are just some of the trauma related injuries we have treated in wild birds of prey.

Australian Hobby with a wing fracture after being hit by a car.
To date over 400 individuals have been treated at our wildlife shelter with many making full recoveries and returning to the wild. But what ‘wild’ do we have left? With our ever increasing population and the demands of a consumeristic society, the exploitation and vandalism of the natural world continues unabated. Please help us to make a difference. We are launching a new education program to encourage students and adults alike to live more sustainable and environmentally ethical lives. Using live, highly trained birds of prey, held on a wildlife demonstrator’s licence, we will travel to schools, environmental learning centres and other venues to deliver our education programs. With solid roots in environmental science, but also with a big measure of inspiration and fun, those experiencing our programs will learn about the remarkable lives of the diurnal birds of prey and owls. In addition we hope that the awe inspiring experience of a face to beak encounter with our highly trained birds will be the catalyst for a new environmental ethic in our audience. Could you go on harming the natural world if you were ‘personally’ asked not to by a Wedge-tailed or Little Eagle? With the help of us as interpreters, of course!

Thank You!


Martin shares his knowledge of raptors with a group of school children.

Project Team

Acknowledgements

Initial Target – $4,148
This will allow us to cover some essential costs for a business of this type:

-Public Liability Insurance through Ledermans NSW - $1,100

-Website design and domain name - $2,000

-Cost of Rewards - $850

-Pozible service fee – $197.50


Stretch Goal – $6,500
If we can raise $6,500, we would be able to afford to fulfill these other goals on our wish list:

-Membership to the Zoos and Aquariums Association of Australia ($750) – enabling us to gain valuable credibility with partner organisations.

-Van signage (approximately $1600) – to create a professional outlook for our environmental education program.


Ultimate Goal -$9,500
With $9,500 in funding, we could achieve all of the above plus build a raptor breeding enclosure (approximately $3000) – to ensure we have healthy and happy birds to use for our displays and to help propagate an ‘insurance population’ of rare species.