PUEBLO — Forty-five years ago, a small, turn-of-the-century hog barn reinvented itself as southern Colorado’s only raptor rehabilitation center.

Some of the same faces are still around, nearly a half-century later.

Diana Miller, director of the Raptor Center, an extension of the Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center, started working at the facility in 1983 as an intern; just two years after the sanctuary’s doors opened.

“I did two back-to-back internships, one in education and one in rehab. And I just became enamored with the birds. I’m like, this is what I want to do,” Miller said with a smile.

In 1987, she was hired as the administrative assistant; Soon after, in 1989, she was promoted to director.

“By the time I retire, I will have been director for 40 years,” she said.

Miller has seen ups and downs, but all the headaches — and heartaches — are worth it for the rewarding journey of rehabilitating a raptor and releasing them into the wild. Since she started, she has seen the center nearly double in size.

She remembers the first time she released a rehabilitated bald eagle into the wild like it was yesterday — really, it was roughly four decades ago.

“It was just a gorgeous day,” she recalled. “Just to be able to hold that bird and give him a toss into the sky and watch him go free… That was pretty special. I can still see it like yesterday in my brain.”

Every year, the facility takes in and rehabs around 600 raptors, Miller said, with busy season peaking in the summer, as babies are hatched and temperatures spike.

This summer, the facility is especially booked and busy, with the squawks of ravens and hooting of owls echoing around the campus. Miller said the center receives an average of six avians a day, mostly young birds struggling in triple digit temps.

On especially hot days, every room of the Raptor Center converts into intensive care units, with crates stacked high. Miller said the center couldn’t survive those days without their dedicated volunteers.

Volunteers keep the doors open

While touring the maze-like sanctuary, volunteers can be found around every corner.

The Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center, as a whole, has around 50 dedicated volunteers, while the Raptor Center has just a handful. However, they make up the heart of the facility.

Volunteers do the work that typically goes unnoticed — at least, to visitors of the facility. They clean cages, fill water bowls, tend to rodents and give cool-down showers on hot days.

The Raptor Center raises about two-thirds of the mice and one-third of the rats fed to the birds of prey.

“Fresh is best,” Miller said.

And the volunteers make it all happen.

“The prerequisite (for volunteering) is: can you clean?” Miller joked. “If you can use a scrub brush and a hose, you’re probably in.”

No matter the work, the job is rewarding; Volunteers get to spend quality time with stars of the show — the reason for volunteering in the first place.

Big, Beautiful Birds

While the goal at the Raptor Center is always to rehabilitate and release, the release of some avian residents would be a death sentence.

The longest resident at the sanctuary, a 27-year-old Swainsons hawk named Ernest, was bird-napped from his nest as a hatchling.

“He was extremely malnourished, so he can’t fly, plus, he’s an imprint,” Miller explained.

When birds of prey imprint on humans, their survival in the wild becomes extremely unlikely.

Luckily, Ernest’s story is not too common among the permanent residents and ambassador birds at the Raptor Center; many of the 11 ambassadors were left non-flighted after broken bones and other severe injuries.

A 45-year-old turkey vulture named Lurch is one of the center’s oldest raptors, and he acts like age is nothing but a number. When visitors walk up to his large, outdoor enclosure, he hops right up to the barrier.

Lurch has been around the block, or rather, has made his way through several other raptor sanctuaries in Colorado.

“Lurch has been in captivity for nearly 40 years,” Miller said. “He was injured on the west slope of Colorado and was at a wildlife center for about 20 years as an ambassador. Then, that center closed, and all the birds there had to be rehomed.”

Lurch then made his way to another sanctuary for about a year and a half before that center had to close, too.

“It’s hard,” she said. “We are all nonprofits, and some people just unfortunately can’t make it. It’s even a struggle here, but we are still going.”

Lurch has now lived at the Raptor Center for 20 years, where he will likely live out the rest of his days. He is an ambassador for the center, with his vulture friend, Izzy.

Check out the other ambassador birds here, where you can read their stories and see their feathered faces.

Raptor Center feels devastation from 100,000+ acre fire

As hundreds of Coloradans grapple with the loss of their homes from the Aspen Acres fire, much of the state mourns the loss of Pueblo Mountain Park and the historic Horseshoe Lodge.

Many Coloradans have memories of visiting the Horseshoe Lodge, which hosted classes and camps for kids for decades, deepening their appreciation for the natural world on trails through the surrounding wilderness, The Gazette previously reported.

Much of the Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center operates out of the lodge in Pueblo Mountain Park, and the Raptor Center’s camping supplies were incinerated by the blaze.

Typically, the Raptor Center organizes two main summer camps; one for fourth, fifth and sixth graders, and one for middle and high school students.

“We’ve lost all of our (camping) equipment,” Miller said. “We had to cancel a couple of camps because our equipment’s gone. So, we couldn’t take kids backpacking or anything this summer.

Fortunately, the Raptor Center is located at the River Campus, where educational camping events remain scheduled, but all Pueblo Mountain Park activities were canceled.

In an effort to rebuild what was lost in the fire, the Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center has a goal of raising $50,000. So far, they have raised over $28,000, according to their website.

“We could always do better”

— Diana Miller, Director of the Raptor Center

In Miller’s 43 years at the Raptor Center, she has seen several raptor sanctuaries around the state shut their doors.

While she says the facility is doing fine, it could always do better.

“It just makes me sad for all the injured raptors who have nowhere to go,” she said. “A lot of them are likely euthanized.”

Roughly one-third of the center’s avians come from El Paso County, Miller said, and they never turn an injured bird of prey away.

The center hosts several fundraising events throughout the year, plus camping and educational trips; private tours; school and outreach opportunities at a modest price; and the chance to symbolically adopt raptors, supporting their veterinarian and dietary needs.

On Sept. 5, the Raptor Center is hosting an event for International Vulture Day, where the public is invited to learn more about vultures by meeting Lurch and Izzy, engaging educational demonstrations and creating fake “vulture vomit.”

Thanks to a donation by the Colorado Lottery, the center also hosts free tours every other Saturday, until October. Learn more about all opportunities offered by the center by visiting https://www.hikeandlearn.org/raptorcenter.