A Visit From Sky Hunters

Sky Hunters is a non-profit group located in East San Diego County, dedicated to the recovery and preservation of raptors. They rescue, rehabilitate, and hopefully release back into the wild, injured birds of prey each year. Some birds unfortunately can never be released, and are housed on the Sky Hunters property in Alpine. One of the group's goals is to educate the public about raptors.

Nancy Conney, the director of Sky Hunters and a registered Falconer, paid us a visit on April 10, 2006 to share 2 of the residents of the facility. The students were mesmerized as Ms. Conney explained the characteristics of each bird while holding the birds on her gloved hand. Ms. Conney's soft, calm voice kept the birds comfortable ~ she is a "bird whisperer". We hope you enjoy the pictures as you share this experience with us. You can read the article that appeared in the Corridor News, our local paper, here.

	This is her American Kestrel Falcon, the smallest of the falcons. He listened very attentively as Ms. Conney spoke and answered our questions.
He vocalized and talked to the audience several times.

The highlight of the morning was seeing one of the two Peregrine Falcons at Sky Hunters, "Bandito".



It is easy to see that Ms. Conney truly loves these birds. And if you are wondering if Bandito was really that close to her face ~ he was! Just like the Kestrel, Bandito listened to her every word.