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KIRKWOOD, Mo—Bird buffs, falcon fanciers, and anyone enraptured by raptors is invited to meet the objects of their admiration online during this year’s An Evening with Raptors virtual event.
The annual An Evening with Raptors hosted by the Missouri Department of Conservation’s (MDC) Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center will be held virtually again this year on Friday, Jan. 28 from 7-9 p.m. The event is free and is open to all ages.
It’s the ultimate partnership between man and bird. The sport of falconry goes back thousands of years and you can learn about it at An Evening with Raptors virtual event. “Several area falconers will gather virtually to offer the rare chance to observe and learn about these fascinating feathered hunters,” said MDC Assistant Nature Center Manager, Robyn Parker. “They will also explain how viewers can get started in this age-old sport themselves,” she added.
The falconers will display their falconry tools, hoods, and other equipment, as well as live birds – the same birds that they use in their sport. Participants will also have the chance to ask the falconry team questions through the WebEx online chat feature.
Falconry is the art of training raptors—birds of prey like hawks and falcons—to capture wild game, so that bird and trainer essentially become hunting partners. The use of falconry can be traced back to 700 B.C.E., and by some accounts even farther back in time.
An Evening with Raptors is a free WebEx event, but advanced registration is required for each person attending. To sign up, participants should go to https://short.mdc.mo.gov/4kv. Attendees will receive an invitation by email from the MDC Event Management System with a WebEx program link 24 hours before the program. It’s recommended to check junk mail folders if no email is received.
Program registrants should note that families now have the option to link their children’s accounts to their own which will streamline the program registration process. Once a group account is set up, parents will be able to register their children to an event without having to logoff and login for each person. This allows parents to register an entire family or select family members to an event at the same time.
Stay informed of MDC latest programs by going to the MDC St. Louis regional events page at https://short.mdc.mo.gov/ZP6.
