Rachel Womack is one of our two Auburn Uni-versity interns this year. She’s majoring in natu-ral resources management with a minor in out-door recreation and has a goal to “show people how great life is.”

Womack, 21, is creating a career path where she can focus on working with raptors. She chose Auburn University because it was the only school nearby her hometown of Moulton, Alabama with a raptor center and a well-known vet program.

While at Auburn, Womack focuses on the re-habilitation side of raptor work at the South-eastern Raptor Center. She has over 125 hours of volunteer experience helping injured birds since 2012. Her tasks at Southeastern Raptor Center include administering medicine and feeding incoming patients, as well cleaning out aviaries, training a red-tailed hawk and partici-pating in some educational programs for the University.

In pursuit of her education with raptors, Wom-ack landed an internship with the American Ea-gle Foundation in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee last summer. During her time there she gave public education talks and demonstrated birds in free-flight shows. She also got to work in their prop-agation department where she helped with egg hatching and eaglet hacking (learning to leave the nest, fly and hunt on their own).

When asked why she likes working with rap-tors, Womack said she thinks the way raptors acquire their food via their senses is amazing. “It is the human equivalent of being able to catch a burrito on the ground at night based on the sound they make,” she said. Further, Womack said she’s interested in the role raptors play in the natural environment, and how human ac-tions have an impact and can drastically change wildlife’s habitats.

“I think you need to get people on the same team if you want to make a difference, not yell

at them. Don’t tell them what they can’t do, but instead show them why it’s important to con-serve predators. People protect what they care about, and people care about what they under-stand and what they know,” she said.

While at the American Bald Eagle Foundation, Womack looks forward to learning different training styles and techniques. She said she is enjoying the views and the landscapes and rela-tionship building with our red-tail, Sitka.

She graduates in 2016 and hopes to land a job at the American Eagle Foundation to further teach and educate people about birds of prey.

Welcome, Rachel and thanks for all of your hard work, your bubbly spirit and can-do atti-tude so far this summer.

The American Bald Eagle Foundation wel-comes Felix Thillet (pronounced tea-ay), a Uni-versity of Alaska Southeast (UAS) intern.

Thillet, a sophomore in college, was studying communications until budget cuts forced the school to drop communications classes. He’s now majoring in interdisciplinary studies with emphasis on English and history. Thillet began his higher education in Pennsylvania before transferring to UAS last year. He said he was in-terested in Alaska and when researching uni-versities, and UAS stuck out to him as a good opportunity to complete his education. Since his arrival, he’s quickly integrated himself into the UAS and Juneau community.

“The people here [in Juneau] have been really welcoming. I’ve been able to learn a lot of new things and contribute to philanthropic causes. I’ve become involved in the community and in many ways I’m able to give back to it too, which is nice,” he said.

At UAS, Thillet is a student assistant for the student activities board and the student re-source center. “It’s a job, but I’m able to be a part of the community by helping to plan and orga-nize events on campus,” he said. One thing he did this year was to help turn the annual polar plunge into a fundraising campaign. Students and professors alike could sponsor “celebrity” students and professors on campus to partici-pate in the freezing swim. In February, on what Thillet says was possibly the coldest day of win-ter, with snow and ten degree weather,

students and professors took the plunge and raised $2,600 for the local homeless shelter.

Philanthropy is not a new activity for Thillet. Back in Pennsylvania he was a member of com-munity outreach workers and participated fre-quently in community service projects around the state. After Hurricane Katrina in New Orle-ans, he went to Louisiana for a week to help lo-cals clean up damage caused by the storm. He’s also participated in fundraising campaigns for treatment of pediatric cancer.

While most of Thillet’s philanthropic work has focused on the humanities, he’s always been in-trigued by owls. Last December, staff members

Chloe Goodson, Samantha Wilson and former UAS intern Sidney Campbell gave a presenta-tion to the UAS campus with the ABEF barred owl, Hunter. Thillet was hooked.

“I love owls, and this internship seemed like a really enriching experience for all I could learn in both inter-development and development of my own self,” Thillet said.

One of the main things Thillet is looking for-ward to during his internship is having unique experiences with wild animals. He hopes to leave with a better understanding of raptors and raptor behavior, as well as a better under-standing of where he wants his education to lead him.

Thillet’s main goal right now is to complete his university education. His family emigrated to the United States from Puerto Rico and when he graduates, he will be the first in his family with a college-level degree.

He said his late parents risked and sacrificed a lot to give him the best life they could, and in turn, he wants to give back to whatever com-munity he is living in while doing something that makes him happy.

Thillet displays a vast amount of initiative as an intern at the ABEF, addressing needs of the Foundation often before staff has to ask. He’s a quick learner, studies hard and keeps staff, fel-low interns and guests smiling with his enthusi-asm and clever jokes.

Thank you Felix for your interest in our work and for being a keen learner and educator.

(e) agle newsletter Friday, June 12 2015

www.baldeagles.org 113 Haines Highway Haines, Alaska 99827 907.766.3094 The American Bald Eagle Foundation is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of our national bird and its habitat throughout North America.

In this issue: ° ABEF inherits 14.3 acres ° Two intern features ° Hans celebrates two years

Haines icon leaves ABEF over 14 acres

On June 6, 2015 the Foundation celebrat-ed our Eurasian eagle owl’s second hatch-day. In 2013, Hans was acquired from Cedar Creek Raptors in Scappoose, Oregon in order to ful-fill services our disabled native birds cannot, such as free-flight education opportunities and fundraising.

Since this time, Hans has interacted with and taught over 3200 visitors at the American Bald Eagle Foundation about owls and has partici-pated in outreach programs in Skagway. Hans is currently working on flying longer distances so he can perform free-flighted shows for our guests in the future. On a day-to-day basis, Hans works hard shredding paper in the office, exercising by targeting in his aviary and our lobby and helping guests on the Alaska Moun-tain Guide tour experience owl flight.

Although Hans is a fairly large owl at about four and a half pounds, it often surprises our guests to learn that he is relatively small for his species. A large female could be up to nine pounds! Hence, the name “eagle” owl refers to the species’ large size. While he may be small for his species, he’s large in comparison to most North American owls.

Eurasian eagle owls (Bubo bubo) are a non-na-tive to North America, but their cousin, the great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) can look very similar. At first glance, The biggest differ-ence between them is the bright orange eyes of the Eurasian eagle owl and the bright yellow eyes of the great horned.

To see Hans in action and to learn more about Eurasian eagle owls, drop by the American Bald Eagle Foundation Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

On April 15, 2015, Former Haines mayor Robert Henderson passed away at 95, leaving the American Bald Eagle Foundation with 14.32

acres of land. Henderson left his land to the Foundation in a Life Estate Agreement which allowed him to live on and tend his property while the Foundation could utilize it for rap-tor housing purposes.

Henderson met our founder Dave Olerud while they were both teaching at the local Haines school where Henderson was a math and science teacher. The two generated ideas with each other and after years of talking, Henderson signed the Life Estate Agreement with the Foundation in 2010 on the condi-tions that his land cannot be divided for 20 years and the land will also always be used for agricultural purposes.

“As you get more birds, you’re going to need more space. I have the exact space in front of my house that would be a perfect fit. I’m looking at a real future with the Bald Eagle Foundation and my property,” Hender-son said at an ABEF luncheon in his honor in 2010.

Henderson purchased the land in 1960 and began farming produce such as strawberries, potatoes, oats and wild hay. He also raised goats, chicken, sheep, turkeys and had hors-es, too.

Since his generous land donation in 2010, the ABEF built a flight barn for our birds as well as utilized his farm for raising our own feed rabbits and mice.

Within the next few months, we hope to improve the flight barn, making it a possible place to house more birds. Our long-term goals include guided tours of our raptor cen-ter on the property and free-flighted shows for our guests.

Currently, local farmer Spencer Douthit is managing the garden on the Henderson property.

Robert Henderson (left) chats with ABEF founder Dave Olerud (right) at a 2010 luncheon in his honor.

Photo by Cheryl McRoberts

Auburn University intern seeks to make raptors part of her long-term career, education route

Intern from University of Alaska Southeast finds new education path with raptors

Felix Thillet, UAS intern gets a warm welcome from a Haines bald eagle. Photo by Chloe Goodson

Rachel Womack, Auburn University intern cuts apart a large rabbit for our resident raptors to eat.

Photo by Cheryl McRoberts

Checked out our Amazon Wish List? We have a constant need for everyday items such as hand soap and trash bags as well as a need for materials to prepare us for an emergency. You can help us offset costs by purchasing and donating enrich-ment items for the birds, everyday necessities or equipment for our emergency action plan. Best yet, your donation is tax-deductible. Click here to check out our wish lists.

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Happy hatch day, Hans

Hans, the Eurasian eagle owl in action at the ABEF. Photo by Cheryl McRoberts

For more information about new our new monthly e-newsletter or to subscribe or unsubscribe, please contact our education & outreach coordinator at leia@baldeagles.org

www.baldeagles.org P.O. Box 49 Haines, AK 99827 click here to support our work.