11-Year Volunteer Stephanie Anderson is One of the Flock
Published on April 08, 2024
How does one gain recognition as a trusted member of the flock by a rescue bird, wary of placing its trust in anyone?
If you are Stephanie Anderson, long time raptor sanctuary volunteer at Moccasin Lake Nature Park, you start by carefully placing sticks in a nest formation on the ledge of a habitat.
“Taka would come and play with the sticks and that’s how we became friends,” said Stephanie, speaking of the red-shouldered hawk, Taka, who lives in the raptor sanctuary at Moccasin Lake. She’s also coined as Stephanie’s “spirit animal.”
Stephanie started volunteering at the park back in 2013, after she had seen a newspaper advertisement. She had spent most of her life in bustling New York and wanted to volunteer somewhere she couldn’t such as a nature preserve.
Now in her eleventh year of volunteering with the rescue birds, Stephanie oversees the Birds of Prey Program’s other volunteers and daily tasks, not only cleaning cages, preparing food and doing dishes on-site, but also coordinating volunteers, serving as the Tampa Bay Raptor Rescue Board treasurer and doing administrative work for the program at home, too. Stephanie also brings the birds to events for education and conservation purposes.
In 2023, Stephanie gave more than 850 hours of her time to the rescue, and when observing her daily routine at the park, it is not hard to see why.
“I love it here,” Stephanie said, “These birds are amazing. I feel honored sometimes that they allow us to do this.”
Despite the less-than-glamorous aspects of running the Birds of Prey Program—preparing mice to be feed the birds, losing a button on her boot due to the birds pecking at it and “[never being able] to have a good hair day.”
Stephanie is deeply passionate about caring for the birds at the park, which were given a second chance by being brought to the sanctuary after sustaining life-threatening injuries.
Stephanie both understands the dangers of working with birds and speaks to them as if they were her own children. With her devotion to the birds who live in the raptor sanctuary at Moccasin Lake Nature Park, it is no surprise that Stephanie Anderson has become one of the flock.