On Thursday August 18th the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center released Two Red-Shouldered Hawks at the Merriman Soccer Complex. The two Red-shouldered hawks first arrived at Roanoke’s wildlife center on June 4th and another on June 5th as fledglings.
After caring for them until August 3rd the SWVA Wildlife Center was able to transport them to the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro where they could be placed in a large flight aviary to strengthen their wings prior to being released.
After spending two weeks there they were returned to the Roanoke center on August 17th. Transporting these magnificent animals puts them through an immense amount of stress which can be detrimental to the birds. When the group received the young raptors they release them back in an area close to where they were rescued from with a similar habitat to give them the best chance of survival.
The SWVA Wildlife Center has been trying to build their own raptor enclosure for years, but due to litigation filed by two neighbors it has remained in limbo since 2017. Having to send animals away creates unnecessary stress on them and costs time and money to transport. It also creates more traffic and creates a burden on an already overloaded wildlife center.
At times, the Wildlife Center of Virginia is too full to accept transfers of raptors and they are forced to rehab them in their flight pens. The pens are quite large but they are still too small for larger raptors to strengthen their wings properly prior to release. Furthermore, larger birds of prey can end up getting hurt in such a small space requiring the group to extend their recovery; animals must be in pristine condition prior to release.
Until recently the Wildlife Center of Virginia was not taking any transfers of raptor patients due to their own backlog of patients. These two hawks should’ve been released weeks ago. Not having the proper facility to rehab in Roanoke is detrimental to our local birds of prey.
The SWVA Wildlife Center serves all of western Virginia taking in around 100 raptors each year. Studies have shown that the sooner these birds can get back in the wild the greater their chance of survival. Additionally, they are able to begin reproducing faster thus strengthening populations.
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