When Willie the barn owl hatched, she fell from her nest. She was found by someone and they took her home to raise her. She was fed cat food, and grew up in about two months. But because she didn’t get the proper nutrition, she tried to flap her wings and one of them broke badly, inhibiting her from flying very well. Willie is what is called a human imprint, associating with humans more than owls, and she thinks food comes from her caretakers, prohibiting her from living on her own in the wild. Now, full grown, she spends her time with the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center.

“The purpose of our center is to educate the public about birds of prey and their importance to our environment,” Eric Neupert, the Executive Director of the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center said. “They are carnivores so they eat mice, rats, snakes, rabbits, even cockroaches. As predators, they help keep nature in balance so we don’t have too many of those animals running around.”

The raptor center offers programs to the public on the first Saturday of every month, featuring raptors that have been brought to the facility and are unable to return to their natural habitat.

“We do programs with raptors that have been injured and can’t get back to the wild,” Neupert said. “This includes hawks, owls, falcons and a Mississippi Kite. The first Saturday of each month we are open to the public so people can come out and see the raptors up close and learn all about them.”

The public can help the center and birds like Willie by donating or volunteering, or participating in fundraising events.

“The public can help either by donating through our website, or volunteering,” Neupert said. “Donations help pay for our education, birds food, and care, or help to take care of an injured raptor that will go back to the wild. We have a fundraiser called Ribs n’ Raptors on November 14th which will be raising money for our raptor rehabilitation hospital. Soon it will be on our website so we can get lots of people to help support our hospital.”

As the cities of Fairview and Lucas become more and more developed, this fundraiser could help warn people about the implications this puts on the birds.

“This fundraiser seems like a great way to donate and help these animals,” junior Ellie Stockton said. “It’s so awesome that in a place like Fairview, that’s building malls and stuff, we can have a place for these birds to call home and raise awareness for them.”

The prospect of seeing these animals up close and personal catches the public’s eye and draws their attention.

“I would definitely visit this center,” sophomore Lacey Jones said. “It’s really cool to be up close to birds that I really have only seen pictures of.”