Program Mews

Construction begins at BPRC

Dirt is flying at Brockdale Park, Lucas, the site of BPRC’s new raptor center.  With help from many private donors, Collin County Open Space, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Pinnacle Excavation, work is under way of Phase One to build our driveway, parking lot, pad sites for administration buildings and education bird cages as well as the education cages.

The work began in January with Pinnacle Excavation clearing and moving material to create our entrance, driveway, parking lot plus pad sites for our buildings and education cages.

Crushed recycled concrete was brought in to complete our driveway, parking lot and building site.

Finally the pad site for the education bird cages was created.

After many hours of design development, Pam Dancaster, Resident Bird Care Specialist, working with volunteer Rich Lefebvre came up with a final layout for the education mews. This caging follows all federally mandated regulations required to house education raptors and includes large mews for each bird, appropriate airlocks, weathering areas and a work area for volunteers.

Update April 3, 2009:  Concrete was poured for the 64 piers that will support the caging for our raptors. Four hours of work by an excellent group of volunteers and all the anchor bolts were set in the concrete. A special thanks goes to Collin County Ready-Mix in Princeton for their donation of the concrete and Simpson Strong-Tie in McKinney for donating all the hardware to build this facility.

Concrete truck arrives.

Volunteers set the anchor bolts.

Update July 24, 2009: 

We’ve been making great progress at our new home. Below are some of the recent highlights of the construction project:

French Drain System Installed

To make sure water is not sitting near the caging, a French drain system was placed underneath the entire building.

Wire Under Caging

Wire was placed to create a barrier for any animals that might try to dig under the cage and come up inside.

Gravel in Place

Two types of gravel we laid to allow proper drainage.  Pea gravel is required for the top layer as the material the education birds will be in contact with. It is important to minimize possible foot issues with these birds and pea gravel is an excellent material.

Framing Begins

This caging has specific requirements for housing education raptors and volunteers begin the task of building to standards.

Structure Continues to Grow

Roofing is underway. Soon walls will go in!

Update August 28, 2009: 

Slatted Walls Go Up

Slatted walls go up with help from Prairie & Timbers Audubon members and other volunteers.

Update October 10, 2009: 

Roof Goes Up

The roof goes up and windows are in place.

Update November 11, 2009: 

Cage Almost Completed

View of Airlock

This area is required to make sure an education bird does not escape when their cage door is opened. (we’ve never had it happen, but need to be prepared)

Update August 9, 2010:

We have completed construction on our education bird cages.

Mews

Furniture is added to each cage (known as a mew), specific to the needs of each bird. This mew will house a Red-tailed Hawk and includes a swing which helps keep muscle tone and balance. 

Completed Cages!

The mews are completed! Final touches including a security system, electricity, water and septic are approved. Soon it will be time to move the education birds into their new homes.

Please come back to this page often to see how we are doing!!

Learn more about the complete project and ways you can help>