Raptor Release 2026
I love the St. Croix River Valley. We are lucky to live in a place that has 2 amazing rivers, The St. Croix and the Mississippi.
The Raptor Center is part of the U of M. They take in injured raptors and provide medical care and rehabilitation. When the birds are healthy enough and the time of year is right they return them to the wild. If a bird can’t be released into the wild for some reason, they sometimes become Ambasadors, which means they are used to teach the public about Birds of Prey in Minnesota.
I first found out about the Raptor Center when a bird flew into my window. I was working at home on a Friday and heard this big ka-boom noise. I didn’t know what the noise was. About a half hour later I realized there was a bird on the ground. It looked like he had knocked himself out. But he was alert. I put him in a box because he obviously wasn’t getting up on his own and it looked like he had injured one of his wings. I called Minnesota Wildlife Rehab and they directed me the the Raptor Center. The Raptor Center had me drop him off at their location at the University by the State Fair grounds.
I did email them after and they said it was a Male Merlin and that he had sustained injuries due to flying into my window. They said they will let me know if he is able to be released. I donated some money and ended up on their mailing list. That’s how I found out about the release.
They had some people from a Falconry Club there. We were talking to one of the guys. He said there are about 60 falconers in the State of Minnesota. The hobby is regulated and inspected by the DNR. I asked him if he has to take his bird out for flying like people have to walk a dog. He said he does and brings his bird out 5 to 6 times a week!
For the release, there were 2 Broad Winged Hawks and a Bald Eagle. We heard that its pretty special to be able to see a Bald Eagle released, it doesn’t happen every year. It was really fun to see the birds fly free. I wonder if the birds knew they were being cared for when they were getting treatment. It must feel great to be free and flying on your own again.
Raptor Center Website -->https://raptor.umn.edu/
This is the bird that flew into my window when he was on the ground. Sarah refered to him as Tony because we thought he was a hawk. When the Raptor Center emailed me, they said he was a Male Merlin.......Whoops!
Now that I know what he is, I have noticed other Merlins in the neighborhood hanging around on telephone wires.
This was the field. There was a nice hill for all the spectators to sit on to watch the release. Its kind of like a natural ampitheater. This is before all the people arrived.
This is the first Hawk being released. Its kind of blurry because I had to zoom in so much. You can kind of make out the brownish blob. That was the Broad Tailed Hawk.
I took this video of the 2nd Hawk to be released. You can see it fly out of its crate. Sorry about the audio, there were a lot of little kids around.
This is video of the release of the bald eagle. It takes a while before you actually see it fly off. It flew towards the river. It was so neat to see.