Bird Expert Nominated For $40K Award

By

A Wisconsin bird rehabilitation expert has been nominated for a corporate award. Marge Gibson says the $40,000 cash prize would be used entirely to support her work.

Marge Gibson’s Raptor Education Group center near Antigo is well known for rehabilitating injured eagles, hawks and owls. But when we visited the center, we found Gibson hand-feeding three pileated woodpecker chicks, left homeless when a dead tree was cut down in the city of Shawano.

Gibson: “A tree service was called to cut down this dead tree and they didn’t realize that it indeed was very alive inside (laughs). So we have three little babies that came out. They actually today, just today, met their foster mom. We have a pileated female here.”

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The foster mom is teaching her adopted chicks the adult pileated woodpecker’s maniacal laugh, used as the model for Woody Woodpecker cartoons. Gibson has taken hundreds of birds under her own wing: raptors, cranes, waterfowl, songbirds and hummingbirds.

Gibson: “We have probably about 300 here right now. You know, it’s very busy. They just keep coming in.”

The small staff at the Raptor Education Group works on a tight budget with no federal or state funds, so it came as good news that Gibson has been nominated for the corporate Rare Life award, which comes with a $40,000 prize.

Gibson: “I was nominated, which is just incredible and it’s just a wonderful and very humbling experience. It certainly would go a long way to help us with our work.”

The Rare Life Award is an annual contest put on by Eagle Rare Single Barrel Bourbon Whiskey. People can vote for nominees on the company’s website. Marge Gibson says the prize money is for the birds.

Related Stories