Thank you! and REGI in the News Again!

Thank you to all of you who have been donating food items for REGI! We have been getting calls about food items and the donations have been coming in. With the high patient load that we have been dealing with we will still be in great need of any donations that you can spare. We are currently the only facility accepting raptors in the northern part of Wisconsin! Our clinic is full, our enclosures are full and we are so busy! Channel 7 contacted us last week. They heard about our need for food and Steve Fisher stopped by the station to tell them a little bit more about it. Check our this video clip to see what they had to say.


One of the birds who is greatly benefiting from donated food is this beautiful dark morph Rough-legged Hawk patient. (Above) This beautiful bird has a rare coloration with light eyes, their eye color is not typically a blue-grey color. He was admitted from Upper Michigan. He has a fractured wing but got to us early, so it was set right. The future looks bright for this beauty. We are looking forward to the day when we can return him to the wild. (The DNR called us to say that they normally bring birds to another facility a bit further north, but they can no longer accept birds. Birds are being transported from all over to REGI.)

For comparison, this light morph Rough-legged Hawk (Above) who was in the clinic in December being treated. The Rough-legged Hawk is a beautiful bird that makes it way down from the Arctic regions during the winter months. We like to say that this is their Florida! They are feathered all the way down their legs for warmth, this is where the name Rough-legged comes from. You may notice that Rough-legged Hawks have very tiny feet relative to their bodies, this is because they eat mostly very small mammals, like mice.

In addition to the normal REGI events and patients we have been fielding calls from people who would like Marge's expert opinion about the reported mass bird deaths in Arkansas. Last week Newsline 9 from Wausau paid us a visit to interview Marge. Watch the video to hear what she had to say. Something that experts, including Marge, believe played a huge role in these deaths were the New Years Eve celebratory fireworks. If you are interested in learning more about acoustic concussions after you watch the Newsline 9 video follow this link to read an interesting article.