Birds of Prey staff member Jessica Olsen with one of the two snowy owls on display at the Coaldale facility. (Photo courtesy the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre)

By Justin Goulet/LethbridgeNewsNOW

Birds of Prey Centre ready to fly for last weekend of the season

Sep 2, 2021 | 10:44 AM

COALDALE, AB – The Alberta Birds of Prey Centre is set to welcome guests for the last weekend of the season.

The facility in Coaldale’s last day of welcoming the public for the year is Sept. 6.

The centre has some new additions guests will be able to see, with managing director Colin Weir explaining, “we hatched some baby snowy owls in late July and that’s kind of a first for us after many years [of] trying to breed them.”

Snowy owls breed on the Arctic tundra and frequent the prairies in southern Alberta during the winter from November through March.

Weir added, “we’ve got two hatchlings that are going to be on display basically throughout the weekend for visitors to get up close to and take pictures of.”

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The Birds of Prey Centre will be open all weekend long, every day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

PANDEMIC CHALLENGES

Weir told LNN that this year presented more financial challenges for the centre, due to COVID-19 restrictions and a surge in cases.

“We weren’t able to have our regular activities or charge our regular admission prices.”

He said traveling bird displays across the province, in areas like Calgary, Banff and Jasper, serve as an added source of income.

“Those, unfortunately, have been cancelled indefinitely as well, so that’s had quite a negative impact on our revenue for this year.”

LNN asked Weir is the financial issues cause strain on caring for the animals at the centre. He said it does, however, “fortunately we’ve been able to rely on our volunteers to kind of make up for the time that’s required to care for the birds.”

There are also a few projects in the works that have been put on hold due to COVID-19.

“We’re always trying to improve the facilities that we have for the injured birds coming in, so we’re building new aviaries that we’ve got planned right now [and] new facilities for eagles, as well as new interpretive displays around the site that we were hoping to open for 2022 – for next year – but it will probably get put off another couple of years now.”

Community donations are accepted year-round, with Weir noting the centre is a registered charity, so “we can give tax receipts for any donations.”

“We do carry on with our wildlife rescue operations, even through the wintertime when we’re closed for visitors and that’s always a big expense for us through winter.”

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Weir noted that although times have been tough, the entire Bird of Prey team is grateful for the support and involvement of the community.

He told LNN, “one interesting little footnote about the pandemic is that even though we’ve seen lower visitation, we’ve actually seen quite an increase in the number of phone calls for help from people, with injured birds as well as birds that are delivered to us from different parts of southern Alberta.”

“We certainly couldn’t do it without everybody’s support across southern Alberta, so we just want to thank [anyone] who has either visited us or made a donation already this year. That’s been very appreciated.”

Weir concluded that the team prides itself on delivering an unforgettable experience for guests.

“There’s not many places or facilities you can visit, like in Canada or North America, when you know you’re going, to go in [and] you’re actually going to touch a live owl for example, or have one perch on your arm, so we try to make it very experiential for all visitors and especially children.”

More on the Alberta Birds of Prey can be found here.