(By John Terhune/Journal & Courier)
Carol Blacketer holds an American golden plover at her residence Wednesday in Lafayette. The plover was found injured in Benton County in May. Blacketer and volunteers at the Wildcat Wildlife Center nursed the bird back to health.
By BOB SCOTT
An injured American golden plover, a migratory bird found last May in Benton County, is headed to an aviary at the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo.
"We're so excited," said Carol Blacketer of the Wildcat Wildlife Center near Delphi. "Jack Hanna and Columbus Zoo are members of the center.
"We have many of the same beliefs about animals that are unreleasable."
Hanna is the director emeritus at the Columbus Zoo and has gained fame from late-night television appearances with animals from the zoo.
The male plover was found on Nature Conservancy of Indiana property near Fowler. It couldn't fly because an injured left wing did not heal properly.
"This is a tough little bird," Blacketer said Wednesday at her Lafayette home.
A shorebird, the American golden plover also can be found in pastures and open ground. The bird has one of the longest migrations in nature -- 2,500 miles. It breeds on the arctic tundra of Alaska and in Canada and winters in the grasslands of South America.
"These birds only go through Indiana in the spring," Blacketer said.
Volunteer Katie Hrdy, a student at Ivy Tech Community College, helped take care of the bird, which consumed 10,000 meal worms and 1,000 crickets a month.
"People think we just put birds in a cage and feed them," she said. "We had this bird in a big aquarium with special grass so it was like a marshy area."
Last spring, the Wildcat Wildlife Center also donated a cedar waxwing to the Columbus Zoo.
Blacketer said the bird, which is on the threatened list, will be taken this morning from her Lafayette home to Indianapolis.
Jeremy Carpenter of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium will meet her to take the bird back to Ohio. He is the assistant curator of the North American area at the zoo.
"This is our only American golden plover," he said. "Our aviary has about 60 birds and roughly 30 different species. About 40 birds are rehab birds.
"We are giving them a second chance at life," Carpenter said.
He said the aviary is a popular site for visitors taking nature photos.
"They stay a long time," he said.
