Raptor show a popular attraction at winter wildlife expo

Jonathan Woods and his birds were a hit on the Island this weekend.

By noon Saturday the parking lots at the South Padre Island Convention Centre were filled with hundreds of cars from all over the United States and Mexico.

The attraction was the 16th annual Winter Outdoor and Wildlife Expo, sponsored by St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church of Port Isabel.

Of all the exhibitors, Woods and his live raptor show drew the largest crowds.

During the morning his birds sat patiently on their perches watching interested people come and go. During the demonstrations, the birds flew from his hand and returned on command.

"I got involved when I was 12 years old," Woods said. "I was walking on the beach when I discovered a baby falcon that had fallen from its nest in a nearby lighthouse."

He took the bird home with him and has been working with raptors ever since.

There weren’t many books about training raptors, he continued, so it was a learning process for both himself and the bird.

"I didn’t know what I was doing then," he said. "But now, 40 years later, I’m good at it."

He gets birds from various sources. "People all over the country find injured birds and give them to me," he said.

He also breeds and hand-raises some of his 100 or so birds, he added.

Woods takes his lectures and his bird demonstrations on road trips all over the country. He just completed a tour that began in Dallas, moved to Oklahoma, then Missouri, Florida and back home to New York.

This is his second trip to South Padre Island in the past few years. He estimates he does about 500 appearances annually.

"I’m scheduled to appear in Harlingen at the World Birding Center in November," he said.

During Saturday’s expo, people crowded around 16 vendor booths and 18 exhibitors to learn more about the area’s ecology, attend a seminar, enjoy lunch and free coffee and participate in a silent auction and raffle for various items donated by local businesses and individuals.

Visitors donated $2 each at the door, and greeted old friends and met new ones as they made the rounds of the exhibitors and vendors or attended seminars of interest.

The seminars included Butterflies, Fly Fishing, Native Plants, Sea Beans, Bay Fishing, Weather, Kayak Fishing, Dragon Flies, Ask a Game Warden, Texas Reef Program, Nature Art, Sea Shells of the Gulf, Sea Turtles, Surf Fishing, Urban Wildlife in the Man Made Jungle, Raptor Project and Ocelots.

Classrooms were filled with people eager to learn more about their individual interests. Each presentation was handled by experts in their particular field.

Ralph Ayers, one of the founders of the expo, said the program began when some Winter Texans asked about area fishing one morning during hospitality hour after the worship service at the church. Those questions, he said, led to a few seminars in the beginning, and the event grew into an attraction for thousands of people today.

The whole idea, he added, was not about making money, but about teaching people "who want to learn about the ecology and preservation of the area."