ALFRED — Her stare is intense, and so it is no wonder that Ruby and other red tailed hawks can see up to about a mile away.

“Their eyesight is impeccable, “ said Katie Brodeur, a resident environmental educator with the Center for Wildlife in Cape Neddick.

Ruby, who came to the wildlife rehabilitation center with a broken shoulder from being hit by a car, won’t ever be able to be released to the wild because of her injury, and has become an “ambassador” with the wildlife center. Other red tailed hawks like to fly high, to be better able to see food sources, said Brodeur during a presentation and discussion Sunday at the Alfred Shaker Museum.

Ruby, a peregrine falcon named Freya with a shoulder injury similar to Ruby’s, a petite Eastern Screech-Owl named Miss Lucy and a barred owl named Byron were welcome ambassadors on Sunday when they, Brodeur and the center’s education and outreach fellow Kristen Brewster stopped by the museum to talk about the center, its mission, the birds and other creatures they help.

A nonprofit founded in 1986, the Center for Wildlife’s mission is to provide emergency care to orphaned, injured and displaced native wildlife and to promote the conservation of wildlife through scientific research and educational and outreach programs.

The center treats about 2,000 patients annually, mostly injured animals brought in by York County residents, said Brodeur. For the most part, the center treats birds, small mammals and some reptiles like turtles and snakes.

The center provides 350 educational programs annually, at schools, libraries, senior centers and other venues, like the Sid Emery Memorial Forum at the Alfred Shaker Museum.

The Emery Forum talks are grant-funded and sponsored by the museum, in conjunction with the Sanford-Springvale Historical Society. Sunday’s presentation was the last in the series for the year.

While it used to be that most of the injured wildlife entered through the center’s doors for treatment due to collision with cars, and while those collisions still occur, the center is seeing more injuries  because of other reasons – like displacement due to development, intentional harm, or being ‘kidnapped,” while young and then abandoned, as Miss Lucy was, Brodeur explained.

Miss Lucy is an Eastern Screech-Owl, a little bigger than the familiar Maine saw whet owl, but not by much. She weighs about 190 grams and  can turn her head 270 degrees.

Eastern Screech-Owls live in Maine during breeding season, then head south to Massachusetts and beyond to hatch their eggs.

“She weights about as much as a hot dog,” said Brewster. Found and kidnapped as an owlet with her two owlet siblings, she was raised by a family in Massachusetts for about a month until they realized that the owls would be better off elsewhere. They were brought to the Blue Hills Trailside Museum, part of the Massachusetts Audubon Society in Milton. The museum is raising one of the owlets, another went to Rhode Island, and Miss Lucy came to Maine.

The birds all elicited oohs and ahhs from the audience — like Freya, a 13-year-old peregrine falcon called the “Queen Bee” of the wildlife center. At one time on the endangered species list, peregrine falcons have made a comeback since DDT and other pesticides were banned, and now are considered threatened, rather than endangered.

Brodeur explained the falcons are hunters, looking for songbirds, pigeons, ducks and other waterfowl. They’re fast, she said, and can fly up to 300 mph, Brodeur said. While hunting, the peregrine falcon can ball up its talons like a fist and punch the bird they’re hunting out of the air, rendering it unconscious.

Freya doesn’t though – she cannot fly because of her injury – and so lives permanently at the center,

Byron is a barred owl, the variety that can be heard in the evenings or early mornings, calling what often sounds like “who cooks for you.” Byron, 12, and his mate, Bianca, who recently passed away at 23, together fostered about 50 owlets, said Brodeur.

During the talk, the audience was encouraged to ask questions, and they did. In particular, people were curious about the snowy owls often seen in Maine in the winter.
Brodeur explained that the snowy owls tend to come down from the northern tundra in cycles, when the lemmings they eat are in short supply. They seek out marshes, stretches of beach, and airport runways, because the terrain is open, like the tundra they’re familiar with.

Brodeur and Brewster reminded the audience that if they find an injured wild animal to call the Center for Wildlife hot line at 361-1400, which is monitored 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Altogether, the Center for Wildlife has 27 “ambassadors,” from Dante the crow to Violet the vulture, among others.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 780-9016 or twells@journaltribune.com