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Max ran ahead through the lobby, “Hurry up guys! We have to get there early if we want a good seat!”
“Slow down Max,” Grandpa called, “The birds are still going to be there, and these old bones don’t move so fast anymore.”
Josie stopped, placing her hands on her hips, “You’re not old, Grandpa!”
“Yeah, Grandpa,” Grandma teased playfully, “You’re not old, because I’m not old.”
Grandpa pretended to ponder this before leaning in and kissing Grandma’s check, “You’re right sweetheart, I couldn’t possibly be old.”
Max groaned and covered his eyes, “Gross! Can we get going? Neither of you are old, and I want to see what birds they bring!”
Grandma and Grandpa laughed and followed the kids to where the presentation would take place. Max ran and took a seat in the front row, followed by Josie and their grandparents. Two volunteers stood at the front of the room talking with a young man.
Max squirmed with excitement, rocking from side to side in his chair, “How long before this starts?”
Grandma reached over to ruffle his hair, “Not too much longer, we just need to be patient okay?”
Max sighed, “Okay, I just can’t wait to see these birds up close!”
Josie nodded, before adding, “I wonder which birds will be here today?”
Grandma thought for a moment before she responded, “Well, the sign said that this is put on by the Teton Raptor Center and,” she paused to laugh softly, “it is a Raptor Show. Raptors are mostly birds that hunt like hawks, owls and eagles. So, I would imagine they’ll have raptors indigenous to the area.”
“Indigenous?” Josie asked, squishing her nose up as she tried to figure out the word.
Grandpa pushed Josie’s nose down, laughing as she playfully pushed his arm away. “It means native to the region,” he explained.
Max nodded, “I hope they bring an owl! Their eyes are so cool!”
Just then, one of the volunteers stepped up to the middle of the floor. “Hi all!” She said brightly, “My name is Sara, and I’ll be one of your presenters tonight! And over here we have Andrea!” Andrea waved to the group before Sara continued. “We’ll be showing a few of our birds tonight. We ask that you remain calm, and if you have any questions, save them for the end of the presentation. We’ll answer them then, and afterwards, you’ll be able to come up and meet some of our birds!”
Max bounced excitedly at the mention that he would be able to meet the birds. Josie nudged him to pay attention.
“All of the animals are here because they were injured, and we’re nursing them back to health. Some of the animals are no longer able to care for themselves in the wild so they stay with us to help teach people like you about raptors.”
Sara pulled on a big black glove and held a small treat in her hand. She whistled and a white and brown bird flew out from behind the screen to land on her hand. “Meet Scarlett, our red-tailed hawk! She’s only two years old, and since red tailed hawks can live for up to 25 years, she’s still considered a baby.” She held up the hawk, and Scarlett shifted back and forth on her hand, flaring her wings out to stay balanced on Sara’s hand.
“Red Tailed Hawks are sometimes called Chicken Hawks. While hawks may occasionally eat chickens, their diet consists largely of small mammals or rodents.” Sara held the bird into the air and displayed the bird’s feet. “These claws are called talons, and raptors use them to catch their prey. Red-tailed Hawks soar above open fields, slowly turning circles on their broad, rounded wings. Other times you’ll see them on top of telephone poles, eyes fixed on the ground to catch the movements of a rabbit or another small animal.”
She walked closer to the audience, and continued, “Once they’ve caught their prey, a raptor will either swallow the animal whole, or use their beak to tear the animal into pieces and eat them. After the bird digests the animal, they cough up pellets that are made up of the bones and fur of the animal they ate. We brought some pellets along with us for you to look at after the presentation.”
Max bounced up and down on his seat while Josie pulled a face. She pulled lightly on Grandma’s arm, “Please don’t make me look at the pellets.”
Grandma laughed and assured her that the pellets weren’t that gross, but if Josie felt uncomfortable, she didn’t need to look at them.
Andrea stepped forward and held aloft a treat. The hawk flew across and landed on her hand. She picked up the narrative, “Red Tailed Hawks are native to North America and can be found from Northern Canada to Panama. You may have seen them in your own state. They like to build their nests out of sticks in large trees four to twenty-one meters off the ground. They mate for life and will lay one to five eggs each year. Each set of eggs is called a clutch.” 
She held the hawk aloft and walked to the center of the stage while saying, “The Red-tailed Hawk has a cry that’s two to three seconds long and is a hoarse rasping scream. You’ve probably heard their cry in movies. Whenever a hawk or eagle appears on screen, most of the time, the shrill cry on the soundtrack is a Red-tailed Hawk.” She started to leave the stage and said, “Let’s give Scarlett a big thank you, and we’ll move onto the next part of our presentation.
Sara had left the stage without the audience noticing, and she walked back on as Andrea was leaving. A large grayish, brown owl sat on Sara’s arm, swaying gently with her movements. “Hey everyone! Let’s say hello to our Great Horned Owl, Owlivia!”
Max nearly fell out of his seat trying to get closer to the owl. Grandpa laughed and pulled Max back, “Don’t worry kiddo, you can get a closer look at the end of the presentation.” Max nodded, his eyes never leaving the owl.
Sara had continued with her presentation, “Great Horned Owls are also known as the Tiger Owl. Early naturalists described these owls as the ‘tigers of the air.’ They can be found throughout all of South America, Central America and North America.”
Owlivia ruffled her feathers and twisted her head from side to side, watching the audience with her wide eyes. Sara gave her another treat before saying, “Their primary diet is composed of rabbits, rats, mice and voles, although Great Horned Owls will hunt anything they can overtake, including smaller birds or frogs. As we mentioned at the start of our presentation, most of the birds we have at the Raptor Center were injured, and we take care of them until they can return to the wild.”
“During summer months, frogs will go onto the blacktop of roads in the evenings to get warm. Owls will watch the roads from telephone poles and nearby trees before swooping down to eat the frogs. Occasionally they will get hit by cars, and they end up with us, so we can nurse them back to health. Owlivia is one of these owls. She was hit by a car as a young owl and was unable to return to the wild. She is now fifteen years old! Older than some of you I bet.” Andrea winked at Max and Josie’s awestruck faces before she went on, “Great Horned Owls can live for up to 29 years, although the average lifespan in the wild is 13 years.”
“Most Great Horned Owls mate for life and they will lay two or three eggs each season. The mother owl will sit on the eggs for 30 days before they hatch. Both the father and the mother will feed the babies. When the babies are about nine weeks old, they learn to fly. Before that point, the owlets will leave the nest and climb from branch to branch.”
Sara stepped forward at this point, holding the hawk now. “Thank you to everyone who came today to listen to us! Feel free to come up and meet the birds but be careful not to crowd them with too many people at once.” As she spoke, a few people left the patio to wander through the hotel. Both Andrea and Sara smiled and invited people to come up and meet the raptors.
Max had been bouncing with excitement waiting to meet the birds. Once they announced that the audience could come up, Max grabbed Josie’s hand and darted forward, dragging her along.
“Max,” she cried, “Slow down! You don’t want to scare the birds!”
Max laughed and slowed down as they got closer. “Josie, I’m not going to scare the birds. I’m sure they’re good with kids or else they wouldn’t have brought them in the first place.”
They were the first to reach the volunteers and the birds, and Max turned to address them brightly, “Hi! I’m Max! Do you have to train to work with these birds?”
Andrea smiled, “Yes, although a formal education isn’t required, you need to work with the birds in order to learn how to properly handle them and to understand them. I’m working on my degree in biology and am planning on working as a park ranger. I come and volunteer here in the summer to get some hands-on experience.”
Sara chimed in, “I’m working on my degree too, although I’m studying environmental education. There are a couple of different degrees that you can study if you want to be a park ranger.”
Josie nodded, while Max looked fascinated at the birds. He looked up, “So I probably can’t hold the birds then?”
The women laughed, “No, being touched can be stressful to the birds, but we can let you stand by them and take a picture.”
Max sighed, “Well, if I can’t hold them, getting a picture with them is the next best thing.”
Josie brightened, “Grandpa! Can you take a picture of us with the birds so we can send it to our parents?”
“Sure thing, Josie-Jo!” Grandpa said, pulling out his camera. “Smile big kiddos!”
They thanked the volunteers and walked away from the group so another family could come meet the birds. “Look!” Max pointed, another volunteer had come out and was standing by a table with brown shapes on them, “Do you think those are the bird pellets? Can I go look at them?”
Josie made a face, “Ew, no thanks! Count me out!”
Grandpa rested a hand on her shoulder, “I’ll stay here with you Josie, while Max and Grandma go check them out. I’ve seen owl pellets before and can wait to see them again.”
As Max and Grandma walked over to the man with the pellets, Josie looked up at Grandpa. “Thank you for staying with me.”
“Of course,” Grandpa said. “We want you kids to have a good time and learn new things, but if you don’t feel comfortable doing something, be sure to let us know and we’ll figure out something else to do.” He held up his camera, “Want to come with me, and I’ll teach you how to take some pictures of the Tetons?”
Josie nodded, and they walked to the other end of the patio to look at the Tetons again.
Grandma and Max came over as Josie was showing Grandpa the picture she had taken. “Looks great Josie-Jo! We’ll make a photographer of you yet!”
Grandma took a look, “Great job Josie! Now I don’t want to pull you guys away from these mountains, but I’m pretty hungry after all that excitement. You guys want to head back to camp and we can cook up those yummy trout from this morning?”
Max’s stomach rumbled and he groaned, “I’m so hungry, I don’t know if I can wait for the fish to cook!”
Grandpa laughed and scooped up Max, swinging him onto his shoulder, “Well in that case, let’s go cook some trout, so Max here doesn’t starve! I have some fruit packed that you guys can snack on while we cook up the fish!”