Human & Animal Health

Baby season—the peak reproductive months for local raptors, falling roughly between February and August—is always one of the busiest times at the California Raptor Center. Staff and volunteers expect to be bustling about the facility, working long hours in the heat of the summer to care for the inevitable influx of baby raptors. It is an annual, anticipated challenge, but 2020 presented a whole new set of hardships on top of the norm: with a global pandemic that led to lockdowns and closures in early spring, the CRC faced baby season with only a skeleton crew of essential staff.

"Hobbits really are amazing creatures, as I have said before." -Gandalf the Grey, The Fellowship of the Ring

Joleen fell in love with birds when she was about 7 years old. A friend's talking parrot was what first captured her attention–she got her own first large parrot in 1981 and hired a behaviorist, who ultimately introduced her to Bird Rescue of Santa Rosa. She became a raptor rehabilitation volunteer at Bird Rescue and has continued on and off for the past 38 years.

Many people begin the New Year with resolutions to hit the gym, but for the California Raptor Center’s first patient of the year, a visit to a Woodland gymnasium turned into a days-long saga and rescue operation.

Dr. Lujan-Vega studied veterinary medicine at the oldest university in America (founded in 1551), Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima, Peru. She obtained her veterinary degree in 2012 there and then completed her master’s degree in Avian Sciences at UC Davis in 2015 with Dr.