#InTheLoop | Spend a Day with Birds of Prey on Oct. 17 – QEDC

#InTheLoop | Spend a Day with Birds of Prey on Oct. 17

BY QEDC It's In Queens

A raptor is a hooked-beak bird of prey with large talons that eats animals it hunts or finds.

Raptorama is a four-hour event that provides up-close views of hawks, owls, and eagles, along with related activities at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and Fort Tilden on Sunday, Oct. 17.

Organized by the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, NYC Audubon, American Littoral Society, and National Park Service, the fourth annual Raptorama is free with a $15 suggested donation. RSVP is requested.

The day starts with oohs and aahs with Bobby Horvath from the Long Island-based nonprofit Wildlife in Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation presenting live raptor demonstrations from 10 am to noon. The audience will learn about behavior, biology, and migration. (NYC Audubon and NPS plan educational tabling and crafts near the visitors center from 10 am to 2 pm.)

Then at 1 pm, Kellye Rosenheim, co-author of Birdwatching in New York City and on Long Island, leads a walk around the wildlife refuge’s pond.

Also at 1 pm, Don Riepe of American Littoral Society organizes a look out near Fort Tilden, a hotspot for migrating birds – especially Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks, Peregrine Falcons, Northern Harriers, and sometimes Bald Eagles — during the fall migration. (Meet at the Chapel at Fort Tilden on Murray Road by the Beach 169th Street entrance in Breezy Point.)

The wildlife refuge’s entrance is at 175-10 Cross Bay Blvd. in Broad Channel.