A Win-win for the Winged Ones (Aircraft and Birds)
Visitors to
Sky Meadows State Park are likely to look to the sky and catch a glimpse of one of several raptor species, birds of prey, which call the park home. While the park has over 20 species of raptors, some of these soaring hunters have found themselves here with the help of human intervention.
Since 2014, 653 raptors have been relocated to Sky Meadows from Dulles International Airport.
There is a little-known, but incredibly important, conservation effort underway through a long-standing partnership with wildlife scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect these precious predators. Ryan Stewart is a Wildlife Biologist and describes the project this way: