MANSFIELD ─ The Ohio Bird Sanctuary has adapted to the current tourism climate with its usual creativity.
On Wednesday, operations director Emily Smith “visited” an assisted living facility in Grove City, with Monty, a barn owl. She stayed outside of the buildings and had Monty on her hand. She showed the owl from window to window to let residents have a close look or take pictures of the beautiful bird.
Smith said there was a lot of excitement and some of the residents were surprised to see an owl in person. They asked ─ more like yelled ─ Monty’s name through the window how old she is and what kind of bird she is.
It was the first time the Ohio Bird Sanctuary showed a bird in that way.
“It definitely made their day. It made mine, too,” Smith said.
“COVID has certainly forced us to be creative and unique with how we do programming. And so yeah, we’re definitely open to figuring out new and creative ways to be still able to do what we do. And that’s teach people about birds and get people excited about birds.”
The bird sanctuary has officially launched three virtual programs: video tour, video bird encounter and video owl presentation with owl pellet dissection. Smith said they developed the virtual options to reach schools, organizations or families who cannot visit the site.
She said all virtual programs will be real-time on Zoom, Google Meet or other online video applications so that participants can ask questions. For the video tour, a staff member will show people around the sanctuary and go into the bird enclosures to get a closer view of birds, an experience limited to the virtual tour.
The owl presentation has been one of the more popular programs at the bird sanctuary, Smith said. Participants receive owl pellet kits in advance and are able to do a hands-on activity.
“Inside that pellet, you’re gonna find the bones of the animals that had been eaten, whether it was a mouse or bird. It’s a lot of fun to get to play detective and find out what the owls ate for dinner,” Smith said.
Founded in 1988, the bird sanctuary now has close to 70 “permanent residents,” including hawks, owls and vultures.
Founder and executive director Gail Laux said the online tours and programs have opened up “a whole new world” for them, something she did not anticipate.
“I’ve been doing the virtual tours with a homeschool group out of Chicago. That’s exciting,” Laux said. “Would we typically be serving that demographic? We wouldn’t. But because of all of this (the pandemic) has kind of forced us to create these new virtual tours.”
She said the bird sanctuary is licensed in Ohio and not allowed to travel out of the state with the birds. The online opportunities enable them to take their programs “across the borders.”
Besides the virtual tours getting attention, more people are visiting the bird sanctuary in person, even on a cold winter day. Laux said this month’s admission has been twice that of last January.
She also noticed that people are extending their visit at the bird sanctuary to a couple of hours. Some of them traveled to Mansfield just to see the birds.
“That’s something that we’re going to be moving forward with the bird sanctuary is how do we make this a destination for a whole day,” Laux said.
