Healing raptors a 'passion' for nonprofit rehabilitator

Mike Tincher spends every day healing patients that will never say thank you.

The Rocky Mountain Raptor Program rehabilitation coordinator cares for around 300 injured birds of prey. The tasks include the ugly business of butchering rabbits, mice and rats to help them heal and be free once again. But his patients aren't grateful at all.

Even the educational birds that have lived at RMRP for decades don't grow fond of their caregivers. "They never forget that they're wild animals," he said. "They get used to the process of what we do, but they never like us. They just tolerate us."

But that didn't stop Tincher, 52, from pursuing his calling: volunteering 40 hours a week while holding down a full-time job before eventually joining the staff.

Larimer County is a birders' paradise

He knew from the moment he started volunteer orientation at RMRP just over 10 years ago that he wanted to be part of that process. Tincher joined staff in 2006 and became a licensed wildlife rehabilitator with the state of Colorado. He's never looked back.

"There are some days I get up in the morning and I'm tired," he said. "I'm no spring chicken anymore. But I never dread coming to work. I charge up that hill every single day. It's what I was meant to do."

A profound respect for nature and its creatures drives his work.

"The outdoors is my cathedral," he said. "Man has changed the balance of nature, so we have a responsibility to care for those animals when they're injured."

Success in his calling is when a bird finds its way back into the wild. RMRP re-releases more than 80 percent of admitted birds that are deemed treatable, meaning they have a chance at successful rehabilitation.

This month, Tincher released a male bald eagle that was brought to the organization two months ago after being extricated from the grill of a F-350 truck near Weldona.

"He was probably just taking advantage of road kill," he said. "That's what bald eagles do."

Though such collisions are often fatal for raptors, he said the bird was "lucky" and is now flying the open skies.

His release was a powerful moment, Tincher said.

"It's always great when we can get any raptor back in the wild, but it's really special to get a bald eagle back out there," he said. "The bald eagle is a huge conservation success story."

Healing his patients and helping them go back to the wild is rarely easy.

Raptors and birds of prey require specialized care to give them their best chance at returning to the skies, Tincher said. They can also be "very dangerous," armed with sharp talons, beaks and quick wits.

A male ferruginous hawk — which Tincher considers one of his most challenging and, perhaps, one of his favorite patients — once attacked so many volunteers that Tincher ended up taking sole responsibility of the bird until his release.

The hawk suffered high voltage trauma before being admitted to RMRP.

Ferruginous hawks are the largest hawks in Colorado but are smaller than bald eagles. Their speed and ability to use their feet to attack makes them dangerous, he said.

"It's only good skills and good reflexes that keep you from getting injured," he said. "I would much rather catch a bald eagle or a golden eagle any day than one of them. Impressive, impressive birds."

Beyond safety concerns, the job requires providing birds the food and environment they need to recover.

There's a science and biology behind rehabilitation, and his patients "can't get food from Safeway," Tincher said.

"Raptors don't eat carrots," he said. "They eat meat — rabbits, mice, rats and all kinds of good stuff like that. Our volunteers have to learn how to butcher that food and process it."

Every piece of the puzzle focuses on keeping the animals wild and returning them to their habitat.

"What I've turned into over the past 10 years is a defender of wildlife," he said. "It's about preserving the wild and those that don't have a voice: wildlife."

Follow Sarah Jane Kyle on Twitter @sarahjanekyle or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/reportersarahjane.

Watch

Learn about a bald eagle's recovery and release in a video at www.coloradoan.com.