Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont internship program
QUECHEE — Winged performers dazzled attendees with their aerial acrobatics, gliding through the sky to swoop down on their prey. The soft sound of wingbeats were drowned out by the audience’s cheers as the avian actors returned to their handlers.
That was the scene at the annual Owl Festival, hosted by the Vermont Institute of Natural Sciences. Over 1,800 birdwatchers flocked to the science center in Quechee, Vermont to get up close and personal with their nocturnal neighbors.
“People love owls,” Mya Wiles, an environmental educator at VINS, said. “It has become a phenomenon. We had done it for a couple of years and suddenly one year later, it went viral.”
People of all ages were drawn to the event: young children, elderly bird watchers and those in their “birdie thirties,” said volunteer Janice Beale.
“It’s a great hobby and endlessly fascinating,” she said.
A number of organizations and companies helped handle the birds, sell arts and crafts and educate attendees.
One of those groups, Pool Nature Center in Marlboro, Vermont, brought a special guest: Alistaire, a barred owl. Named for their horizontal barring on their throat and upper breast, barred owls are native to Vermont and have expanded into Southern Canada and the Pacific Northwest.
Alistaire was hit by a car near the Vermont Museum of Natural History in 2010, which left him partially blind after one of his retinas detached. Seven years later, Alistaire joined the VINS team, serving as an educational ambassador of the most common owl in the Northeast U.S.
Birds that have been previously injured, or bred in captivity, become educational ambassadors because they are unable to live in the wild on their own. Whether raised in captivity, or rehabilitated after an injury, the birds at VINS are given “free food, housing and medical care,” Wiles said.
“That gives these people an opportunity to see an animal they’ve never seen before and realize that there are animals that they share their whole life with. Whom you might not know are there, but are still important,” she said.
Spectators watched owls and hawks dive through the air and peck at bits of rats and mice.
Chesterland and St. Louis, a harris hawk and barn owl, performed a flight demonstration with Anna Morris, director of the Wildlife Ambassador Programs at VINS. Neither Chesterland nor St. Louis are native to Vermont, and both were bred in captivity.
During the demonstration, Chesterland was perched atop the ventilation system for longer than expected, refusing to come down. St. Louis flapped above the crowd for a few moments and ducked back out of sight almost instantly. The crowd in attendance voiced their appreciation for the antics on display, even if they were short-lived.
Chesterland and St. Louis’ decision-making reflected VINS’ training system, which staff refer to as a “choice-based paradigm.”
“We train them so they understand what we’re asking them to do and they can refuse to do it if they want,” Morris said. “It has made our birds very, very resilient to a lot of different things.”
New England Falconry brought feathered friends from across the ocean, too.
One bird, a young, spectacled owl named Coruja, perched atop Jessica Snyder’s gloved left arm. The species is named for its facial feather patterns, resembling white-rimmed glasses.
His baby call and “rattle-like hiss,” according to Snyder, drew many onlookers.
Sibley, a Eurasian eagle owl, stared down spectators with her fluorescent orange eyes. Sibley, who is one of the largest owl species in the world, drew hundreds of spectators who took photos of her looming stature.
Many attendees brought cameras designed to snap stillframes of the birds in action.
Dave Pearson, armed with his camera, said it was exciting to photograph so many different owl species.
“Normally, these birds are tough when it comes to photography,” he said.