Inside the basement freezer at John
and Vivian Maxson’s home in Bradford are more than 750 frozen mice, along with
hundreds of dead rats and an uncounted number of frozen quail.
“We have to be careful what we thaw out for
dinner,” John joked.
All of the frozen animals are destined to be meals
for the 14 hawks, owls and falcons in temporary housing in large cages
scattered around their backyard.
The owners of the Born to be Wild Nature Center, the Maxsons rehabilitate and care for dozens of injured raptors
each year, most of which were hit by cars. After they recover from head
injuries, broken wings and other damage, almost all of them are released back
into the wild.
“We’re just interceding on behalf of
the wildlife, giving them a chance when they normally
wouldn’t have one,” John
said. “A lot of it is just giving them time to recover that they wouldn’t have
in nature. If they’re on the ground with a head injury, they’d be susceptible
to predation. But if they get rescued, they get the time to get right, and
eventually they will fly off on their own.”
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| Snowy owl being released after rehabilitation (Peter Green) |
The Maxsons have been caring for
wild animals for 20 years, and while it makes it difficult to go on vacation or
enjoy free time, they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The whole concept of wildlife rehab
was completely foreign to me back in 1998,” said Vivian, a medical assistant at
South County Hospital. “The idea of being allowed to work with wild animals
intrigued me, so I signed up for a two-day certification class.” She was soon
teamed with a mentor who provided her with the experience necessary to earn a
wildlife rehabilitator’s license. “And we’re still at it,” she said.
Vivian said that her husband quickly
embraced her newfound passion and began constructing a nature center in their
backyard, starting with a cage the size of a card table and soon progressing to
larger and larger ones. They began by rehabilitating whatever animals needed assistance,
from foxes and raccoons to squirrels and songbirds. But they eventually decided
to focus on raptors.
“At that point we knew a lot of
little stuff about a lot of animals, but nothing in depth about any of them,”
John said. “Now that we’re focused on raptors, our knowledge and skills are
pretty deep.”
Inside a 24-foot flight cage just
beyond the Maxson’s front door are two red-tailed hawks testing their wings. Another
perches in a nearby cage waiting to molt so she can fly more efficiently after
damaging her feathers in a collision. Other cages contain barred owls,
peregrine falcons, a turkey vulture and other birds, some of which are too
injured to survive on their own. Wild hawks and owls often visit the yard to
interact with their recovering cousins.
The red-tailed hawks are Vivian’s
favorites.
“They are so majestic and powerful,”
she said. “Red-tails are so beautiful, and each has their own personality.
Lucky for me, they are a common hawk here on the East Coast, so we get in a lot
of them.”
This winter was an unusually busy
time for barred owls. The Maxsons rehabilitated seven of the gray streaked
birds after they were hit by cars during a six-week period in January and
February. Spring and early summer is the busiest time of year – they call it
baby season – when young hawks and owls injure themselves as they learn to fly
or the trees that hold their nests are cut down or fall in storms.
“Babies are a lot of work,” said
John, a retired special education teacher. “You can’t just hand them a whole
mouse. You’ve got to cut it up and give it to them in pieces with forceps. A
great horned owl baby can eat two dozen mice a day, so that puts a big tax on
our food bill.”
Last year, the Maxsons spent more than
$10,000 on food for the rehabilitating birds. But they say it’s worth it when
they watch their patients fly back into the wild.
“That’s the wonderful part – putting
them back where they belong,” John said. “That really rejuvenates us.”
He especially recalls the release of
a juvenile bald eagle in Matunuck last year on Easter Sunday. “The whole
release lasted 10 seconds,” he said. “He was raring to go. He came out of that
box and he was gone in a flash.”
Best of all, the Maxsons say, is
when they can involve the person who initially rescued the bird in its release.
“We want them to be there when the
bird is set free so they will understand how important their role was in this
whole process,” said Vivian. “We have met so many wonderful, compassionate people
in our journey. It restores my faith in humanity.”
To help pay some of the costs of
raptor rehabilitation, the Maxsons offer tours of their nature center to see
the birds and hear their stories. They also bring some of the birds on visits
to local schools, libraries and senior centers. Last year, they presented 53
programs in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts to more than 2,500
people of all ages.
“You’d think we’d be tired of it after 20 years,
but not at all,” concluded John. “We get a lot of satisfaction helping the
birds and helping people who don’t know what to do when they come across an
injured bird. This nature center is my little oasis.”
I would highly recommend a visit to their well run rehab facility. They are wonderful committed individuals. We are so lucky to have them in this state.
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