Birds of prey are an important part of Michigan’s ecosystem and bring variety to the wildlife in your own backyard. How much do you know about them? Sarah Miller spent several weeks working with local raptor specialists Joe and Barb Rogers discovering the ins and outs of the bird life. This is Sarah Miller’s Honors Program final project.

Joe and Barb Rogers are cuckoo about birds—birds of prey to be exact. The couple share their passion with the community through their organization, the Wildlife Recovery Association.

Owned and Managed by the Rodgers, the WRA is a group that rehabilitates birds of prey while also educating the community and doing researching about them.

Joe Rogers is a Biologist and Central Michigan University alumni who has been studying and working with wildlife for more than 25 years. His wife, Barb, is a teacher who has always loved animals. The Oil City residents both agree that the most important thing about their work is education. People need to know about wildlife to understand their own impact on it.


“The more you know about animals, the more you know that 90% of the time people are the problem,” Joe said.


WRA runs many educational programs each year, travelling around the state performing informational programs for senior citizens, elementary school children and college groups.


Education, however, is not their only function. They also spend much of thier time rehabilitating Raptors, or birds of prey, such as owls, hawks and eagles in hopes of successfully returning them to the wild.

They rehabilitate anywhere from 50 to 100 injured birds per year, a number that has significantly dropped due to a tighter budget. In past years, the Wildlife Recovery Association could rehabilitate up to 300 raptors per year. Unfortunately, because of the WRA’s non-profit status, recieving adequate funding often proves challanging.

Joe and Barb pride themselves on their rehabilitative skills. They make sure the birds can survive without human help by having little direct contact with them and feeding them only natural foods they would find in the wild. They have had several animals dropped off to them that have been raised by humans and cannot survive without human help. “In Michigan, most rehabilitated animals die after release because they don’t know their natural enemies or foods. Animals raised by people come up to people and try to get into houses,” Joe said, “This is hands-off, keep ‘em wild kind of work.”

One example is Sarah the turkey vulture. She came to Joe and Barb displaying strange characteristics. She fears humans, yet begs for their attention. She prefers to eat out of somebody’s hand then to eat on her own, and is the newest permanent addition to WRA. She’ll join other program birds—birds that, because of injury, or a specific situation cannot be released back into the wild. They will travel with Joe and others to programs
across the state acting as an example to the importance of understanding the world outside and all its feathered friends.