For most people, birdwatching entails venturing outdoors to observe birds in their natural environment. For Ed Sones, birdwatching takes place at home with a distinct purpose. He rehabilitates injured and orphaned birds and mammals with the goal of returning them to their natural environments. He will bring some of his permanent raptor residents - birds that cannot safely be returned to the wild - to the meeting so that we can see them in person.

Mr. Sones, a retired chemist, was introduced to wildlife rehabilitation when his dog brought home two newborn squirrels in 1990. Mr. Sones earned wildlife rehabilitation permits through the Texas Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Departments in 1991. He is active with both the Austin Wildlife Rescue and Austin Area Wildlife Rehabilitation organizations.

Mr. Sones has worked with over 5,000 birds and almost all local species of mammals over the past 3 decades. He admitted 1,070 individual wildlife for care just this past year, including about 650 birds and 400 mammals. He specializes in rehabilitating raptors and shorebirds.

Please note that this is HLBWS’s final monthly meeting of the 2021-2022 program year. There will be an early morning bird walk at Haley Nelson Park. Social time will be provided at the AgriLife building beginning at 9:30 a.m. The business portion of the meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m. and the presentation will follow at about 10:30 a.m.