Katie McFarland is an upcoming senior at Hopewell High School. She has been volunteering at CRC for almost 2 years, but her first visit to Carolina Raptor Center was when she was 4 years old. When Katie is not volunteering at Carolina Raptor Center she is sleeping, spending time with her friends or reading, the current book she is reading is Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. Katie's mom Sandy McFarland has been volunteering as a docent, exhibit and resident bird care volunteer for years.

“Well my mom loved it and I thought it was really cool every time I came out here with her. I really wanted to get close to the birds, and resident bird care seemed like the place where I could do that, I also wanted to eventually handle the birds like my mom does.”

“I clean Skoshi (Red Tailed Hawk) and Maria's (Merlin) cages once a week. I also weight Dudley (Great Horned Owl) and Lana (Eastern Screech Owl) once a week. We weigh them at least once a week to keep an eye on their health and make sure they are staying at the appropriate weight.”

“This summer I am doing a Resident Bird Care internship, I spend about 20 hours a week doing various resident bird care related jobs. I clean Aletta (Rough Legged Hawk) and Aragorn's (Peregrine Falcon) cages every Tuesday and help with whatever else the resident bird curator needs, jobs range from cage repair to feeding the birds.”

“The first day I was here, I used to clean Cinnamons (imprinted American Kestrel) cage, my mom would have to take her out before I could clean it. I remember my first day Cinnamon went for my moms face and cut her and I was like holy crap. I was thinking I would rather not go in there while she is still in the cage. Normally when I saw the birds and they were very calm sitting in the corner but then after seeing Cinnamon do that it made me more cautious around them, and I now have a healthy respect for these wild creatures.”

“I really enjoy training vultures. The director of education and I have been training them this summer to go into their kennels when asked. We toss food closer and closer to the kennels to get them to go into them. This is being done so that when they need to be taken to the rehab center for check ups they won’t need to be grabbed, we can just get them to go into kennels. This will reduce the stress put on them when doing health checks.”

“The vultures are so smart it’s really surprising how fast they pick up on what we want them to do. Vultures are really funny; they come at you and then pull away at the last second.”

“Barn Owls are my favorite birds, and Emma the Barn Owl is my favorite resident bird here.”

“I love the experience, I want to do something like this as a permanent job and I know I am learning a lot here.”

“It’s a really an enlightening experience, most people just see these birds and they are just kind of sitting around in a tree near your house doing nothing but then you come here and see they are really important, not just things that don’t matter.”

“Helping out here would be one of the best things that you can do with your life, you are helping creatures that are injured and can’t really help themselves. You are helping to get them back into nature.”

“You should come out and join CRC, it’s a great place to be.”

We spotlight a new volunteer every month, please email lbhavnani@carolinaraptorcenter.org if you would like to see a certain volunteer spotlighted.