Xtreme Raptor Day 2026 Saturday at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center

Welcome back to Real Milwaukee, everybody. So, up-close encounters, interactive experiences, and so much more. Lindsay Foch is here from the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center ahead of Extreme Raptor Day, which is this weekend. It is this Saturday at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center from 10 to 4. It's our all-day raptor festival where we're celebrating these amazing birds. Okay, so you brought some of the amazing birds that are going to be on display there to our studio this morning. It kind of looks like a raptor fashion show in here this morning because we have three wonderful handlers. and three incredible birds. Can we start with Valkyrie? We would love to. She is a World Series famous eagle. She is, yes. Our wonderful Valkyrie. She's been dubbed Milwaukee's eagle. She was wonderfully invited by the Brewers to participate in their postseason games. And so she attended the first game of each series We'll be right back. unbelievably the world series and so we are out on the field during the anthem just a magical moment to be able to celebrate Milwaukee and celebrate this historic event. I mean for you all and for all the work that you do in the community but also for everybody else because I think that there's just Excuse me, a majesty, a, I don't want to describe it. It's, it's, it's, it's spectacular. Yeah, no, absolutely. It absolutely is. And the fact that we're able to kind of provide this experience for people and be a part of it and shed light on Milwaukee and Wisconsin's conservation work and our messaging. It was just really, really something special. Now, do you think that she knows what's going on when she's at a packed? Baseball game like do you think she gets it? I think she understands there's an energy in the air. Okay, so it's palpable And I know that she's very tuned into it. So she knows that when we step out on the field It is it's showtime. She knows does she get nervous? Like can you tell that there I know because I know you're just an expert Lindsay in terms of Raptor behavior like is you know, I would be Is she nervous? No, I understand. I think that, yeah, her humans are more nervous than she is. She's a very confident bird. She's been very well trained and exposed to these kinds of situations, so she is just ready to rock when we go and do those. And to be on the field with everybody and represent what we can do in Milwaukee is amazing. Yeah, ready for her moment, ready to shine in front of tens of thousands of people and the whole world. Okay, so now should we go down the line here and meet Perseus next? Yeah, absolutely. So Perseus is our cover girl this year. Every year for Extreme Raptor Day, we do showcase one of our wonderful ambassadors. So Perseus is our barred owl. She was hatched out in the wild. 2018, which makes her eight years old, and she lives with us because she is way too comfortable around people. So, as a very, very young chick, she was exposed to people, and they were picking her up, and they were petting her, and so she actually seeks out human companionship. Which is so interesting. That's not a little counterintuitive to owl behavior, right? Absolutely right, yes. In fact, yeah, she sees us as her flock, really, but it makes her an amazing ambassador, and so she's able to go out to schools and libraries and teach people about these amazing birds that we don't often get to see. That was clearly Perseus' calling in life, was to do this kind of work and to live with you guys. She excels at it completely. You can tell. She just is so chill. Every time she comes into the studio, she's completely unfazed by everything here. So, lovely. She likes the spotlight, yep. And visitors to Extreme Raptor Day this Saturday will actually go home with a button pin of Perseus as their takeaway, so they can kind of sport some bar-double flair on their way home. And walking around. Counting the mascot. Yeah, exactly. And then, yeah, next up is one of our hawk ambassadors. So in total, we have 16 raptor ambassadors that live at Schlitz Audubon. Okay. So it's a variety of hawks and owls. We have falcons, of course, our wonderful bald eagles. And so this little hawk that is with us, this is Nico. Nico is one of three hawks that lives with us. He is a broad-winged hawk. Beautiful. He was out in the wild just in his first year of life and he was hit by a car. And so when he was wonderfully found, went into wildlife rehabilitation and they found that that car collision did a lot of damage to his body. These little tiny hawks will actually migrate every fall and every spring, but in the fall they will migrate all the way down to South America. So because it's an amazing feat, but because of all of those injuries in his body, he can't make those flights at all. So he was it was decided that he would stay in professional care and he moved in with us shortly afterwards and we're able to teach people about the importance of protecting our habitats and migration paths and really just the amazing feats that birds will do. Can I ask you a potentially dumb question? Never a dumb question. You'd be surprised. Well, let's see. You just wait. You just wait. Because this animal is inclined to not be here during the winter months, Does Niko get like seasonal effective? Yes. That's not a, that's not a weird question at all. It's a little weird. So our animals. I feel like I would want to be in South America if I were Niko. Yeah. Because something triggers in their brains with the sunlight, the daylight. Yeah. They know. Yeah. And, and they get a hormonal mental shift and then they start to get antsy. So we see it in the wild birds. They start eating a lot of food and like fattening up for the winter or for the migrations. And so we'll see that in professional care as well. is that our birds will get a little bit more antsy, like there's a change in the wind. And we just kind of help give them like extra enrichment, extra stuff to do, so they can kind of work that out for themselves and then they calm down. So we do so birds eat more in the winter time too, it's not just humans. You know what I mean? I just feel like I have a lot in common with Nico. I feel seen. Yeah, I know. We're all animals, just different kinds. Exactly right, yeah. Beautiful. Okay, so this event is this Saturday. It's all day long. For folks who want to go, do they need tickets or anything, or can they just show up? Yeah, you can do both. So you can purchase tickets on our website at schlitzautobahn.org, or you can show up the day of. We do suggest that you buy them ahead of time so it's just easier for you to get through the line. But the event runs 10 to 15 minutes. One to four, it is our Raptor Festival. You get to see all of our birds out on the trails. We have fun, interactive activities, so it's great for all ages. And it's just an amazing experience and a way to support our raptors. So the entire event is a fundraiser for the raptors of Schlitz Audubon. And we have to support them and all the work that you do, because obviously, you know, like an animal like Niko, for example, you really give it a second chance at life. So it's a beautiful thing. Absolutely. We're proud to be able to do it. Wonderful. It's a great responsibility. Well, thank you, Lindsay. Thank you for having us. We have our fabulous Raptor models, Valkyrie, Perseus, and Nico. You look wonderful. And we will be right back after this with Speaking of Eating. We're talking about eating carbs. Oh, my favorite. Same, same. And apparently it's all hot girls like to eat carbs. Nobody knows it better than our dietitian, Kate Peterson. She's going to be walking us through some different ways we can eat carbs because I'm always open to more ways to do that. We'll be right back.