SKC celebrates fine feathered friends
Berl Tiskus
A young owl enthusiast gently touches a stuffed owl’s feathers at the Community Bird Festival.
Berl Tiskus
Linda Pulse looks at an assortment of owl pictures at the Community Bird Festival
Berl Tiskus
Harris’ hawk
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Carlos Rodriques holds Sweetie Pie, the goshawk he uses for hunting. Sweetie Pie was raised in captivity.
Berl Tiskus
Carlos Rodriques holds Sweetie Pie, the goshawk he uses for hunting. Sweetie Pie was raised in captivity.
Berl Tiskus
Goshawk
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Sofia Leighton-Pahlen, left, and Kena Sutton model their bird masks.
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
A tiny Saw-whet Owl looks at the crowd looking at her.
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
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PABLO — Sweetie Pie perched on Carlos Rodriques’ arm and watched the crowd at the Joe McDonald Health and Fitness Center. Sweetie Pie is a goshawk, and Rodriques hunts with her. The goshawk was raised in captivity, Rodriques said, and when he picked her up she was about two weeks old, just a little fluff ball, and she bit him.
The pair was part of the 2nd annual Community Bird Festival.
The festival celebrated all sides of birds — from hunting to inspiration art to bird watching to seed dispersal and pollination. Information was available on insect and rodent control. The event also celebrated birds in cultures, such as Native American, Alaska Natives and others.
The event came about because of a migratory bird poster contest that the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribal Wildlife Management Program has hosted for third graders across the reservation for at least 15 years, said Whisper Camel-Means, CSKT Wildlife Biologist.
CSKT Trial Wildlife Management wanted to build on the poster contest and reach more community members, such as people without kids and bird enthusiasts, as well as the third graders and their families.
Bird films where shown at the Johnny Arlee and Vic Charlo Theater. Also, children worked in the theater classroom, making bird masks and coloring birds. Face painter Shayne Parker had a long line of children waiting to have their faces painted to resemble a bird or a raptor.
Raptors weren’t Marcy Bishop’s main interest; cormorants were. Years ago, Bishop said her husband told her she had to take one day a week and go do something. At the time she and her husband had four children and were in business together. A bird-lover since she was a child, Bishop chose to go to the Ninepipe area and just happened to see the first pair of nesting cormorants, “just juveniles,” she said.
They were trying to nest on a heronry. Next year there were six more pairs of cormorants. Bishop was there for the establishment of a new cormorant colony and ended up keeping records on the colony for at least 20 years.
Three of her boys helped her band the birds, she said. They’d go at night. One boy donned a motorcycle helmet so the herons wouldn’t get him and climbed up to catch the birds while another son belayed him. Another child caught the satchel containing the cormorants as it was lowered down, and Bishop herself did the banding.
Animal Wonders Inc, an educational outreach organization, doesn’t band birds but they did bring a Harris’ hawk that lives in the desert, a crimson-romped Tulane, a ring neck dove, and a green-cheeked conure. As they talked to visitors about the feathered friends, children were allowed to feed the conure.
Montana Wild Wings Recovery Center brought some of their rehabbed birds, including a Saw-whet Owl, a male Peregrine falcon called a tiercel, and a Long-eared Owl. Staffers answered questions and chatted about their birds.
Approximately 300 folks visited the festival, and Camel-Means was pleased with the turnout.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Wildlife Management Program, Salish Kootenai College Natural Resources and Mission Mountain Audubon Society sponsored the event.
