It’s certainly not unusual to see people walking dogs, or maybe even cats for those desiring more of a challenge. Walking a hawk, however, does fall under the banner of the unusual.
But every Sunday on the trails at the Heller Nature Center in Highland Park, visitors may encounter a 17-year-old on a mission not only to help save the planet but also to do a little favor for a fellow creature, Sky, a red-tail hawk, by taking her out to see the sights.
Now bound for the College of Lake County and, she hopes, a career in wildlife management, Lisa Collins of unincorporated Deerfield had met Sky about a year ago through Stevenson High School’s S.A.V.E. (Students Against Violations of the Earth) group. “I heard that birds-of-prey care was needed at the Heller Nature Center, and it interested me,” Collins said. “Something reached out to me.”
The new Stevenson graduate is glad she still will be in the area to let Sky perch on her arm for their regular outings, designed to help her bond with the bird and get it outdoors. Collins “fell in love with Sky and her power and strength,” she said. “I don’t consider myself a volunteer; I consider myself a friend of Sky. We take walks in the woods together, and we learn from each other. She’s very alert, and she listens to all the sounds around her. It’s made me more aware of my surroundings.”
The hawk was enlisted for use in Heller nature education when personnel there realized early in the hawk’s life that it had physical problems. “She kept falling out of the nest,” Collins said. “They would put her back, but then they noticed that the bird had something wrong with it,” blindness in one eye being a major problem. “So they adopted her and use her for education.”
Steve Bard, Heller manager for the Park District of Highland Park, said that upon meeting Collins, “you can tell she loves animals. It’s been nice in (another way). We need help over the weekends because we don’t have our naturalist who cares for the birds.”
Few volunteers work in raptor education, according to Bard, because they need to feel comfortable in working with a bird of prey. “It’s a specific job role, and Lisa has been great at developing a relationship with the bird,” he said. “That takes awhile. You need to be consistent and be there all the time. She’s made that commitment.”
Sky has noticed. “She rattles her bells a lot when she sees me coming,” Collins said. “She knows that I’m doing something special with her that day, that we have that special outing.”
As part of her S.A.V.E. activities, Collins also assists the Lake County Forest Preserve District in annual crane counting and frog monitoring. Stevenson High School art teacher Gloria Huntoon, sponsor of S.A.V.E., said Collins and her peers work with the Lake County Volunteer Stewards Network under the auspices of the Lake County Forest Preserve District and the Nature Conservancy to restore and preserve woodland and prairie sites throughout the county.
“The wonderful thing about Lisa is that she’s so faithful about showing up at everything we do,” Huntoon said. “She brings a lot of understanding to what we do because she’s real scientifically aware. She gets the big picture and keeps learning more and more. She’s not afraid to get muddy and dirty on our field trips.”
Heller isn’t the only nature center benefiting from Collins’ ardor. The teenager assists in feeding animals and cleaning cages at The Grove in Glenview.
Lorin Ottlinger, naturalist at The Grove, welcomes Collins’ expertise. “Lisa has ideas on exhibit suggestions and feeding schedules,” Ottlinger said. “She’s had snakes and turtles and frogs at home, . . . so I feel very comfortable with asking her advice. She knows everything about reptiles and amphibians.”
“Lisa is concerned about man’s influence on the environment and wants to correct it wherever she can,” said her mother, Jessie. “She’s gone in a positive direction because of her love for the environment and conservation. When someone finds a passion in life, it can’t be anything but good.”
