Dale Kernahan of Wings to Soar holds Atsa Yashi the bald eagle, whose name means “littlest eagle” in Navajo.
Kacey the black vulture glided back and forth across the audience several times, talons no more than a foot or so above their heads.
The audience took it all in stride. Or in flight, as the case may be.
“Nobody screamed. That’s always good,” Dale Kernahan said a little later.
Kacey was one of several raptors—birds of prey—shown to the audience in Benwood Auditorium at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The birds were handled by Kernahan and Alix Parks, founder of Wings to Soar, a nonprofit environmental education organization that saves wounded raptors and uses them to teach audiences about the birds.
After they’re better, however, the birds can’t be returned to the wild because they’ve become used to humans and see them as a food source.
Katherine Kinnear, senior lecturer and lab coordinator in the Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science at UTC, has worked with Parks on wildlife rehabilitation projects and invited him to the University.
The day of Kacey’s on-campus flight, the Wings to Soar crew also brought five other raptors: Bob the barn owl, Buddy the screech owl, Gilbert the kestrel, Zeke the Harris hawk and bald eagle Atsa Yashi, which means “littlest eagle” in Navajo.
When the bald eagle was presented during a show at Rock City, a woman came up to Parks afterward and asked whether its name meant “littlest eagle.” She had understood the words.
“She said, ‘I’m Navajo,'” Parks said.
