Printer Friendly Version - Todd Secki: Enjoying a Bird’s Eye View

A Place Called Hope co-founder Todd Secki says it’s important to be “100 percent into what you’re doing,” and his commitment to the wildlife rescue center he co-founded with his wife Christine shows he’s living up to that standard. Photo by Susan Talpey/The Source

For most people, the thought of scaling 60 feet up a dead tree tied to a single rope makes the heart race and the palms sweaty. Surprisingly, A Place Called Hope (APCH) co-founder Todd Secki is one of those people—he hates heights, but he’ll be there on the end of that rope if there’s a bird in danger.

In the case of this rescue mission, it was August 2016 and Todd was hanging from the tree to retrieve a bald eagle with fishing line wrapped tightly around its foot and tangled on the branch. He and his team of volunteers were able to cut the bird free, but sadly, it didn’t survive the ordeal.

It’s preventable tragedies like these that motivate the team at APCH, a raptor rescue, rehabilitation, and education center in Killingworth. APCH offers education programs with live birds of prey at local schools, libraries, and community centers. On Saturday, Feb. 3, the APCH program kicks off the Friends of Hammonasset’s 2018 Bauer Series at Meigs Point Nature Center in Madison.

“For kids, there’s nothing like a live experience. They can read about these birds in a book, but it’s not the same as coming face-to-face with an owl or a hawk and seeing how beautiful they are. The gratification from sharing these birds with children is great. When people get up close with wildlife they have a greater respect for the animals and birds and they’re motivated to protect them,” Todd says.

“One year, we were doing a meet and greet at Guilford Fair and a six-year-old girl pushed her way straight up to the barn owl. Her jaw dropped and she stood there staring at it for 10 or 15 minutes. That experience will stay with her for life—she’ll never forget that.”

APCH is a nonprofit organization run by volunteers and entirely funded by grants and programming, Todd says. He is quick to acknowledge the hard work of his wife and APCH co-founder and President Christine Cummings, Vice President Grace Krick, and the organization’s Board of Directors, and the dedicated local team of trained volunteers. Supporters include local businesses, foundations, and even testing laboratories that donate the 150 mice needed every day to feed the hungry birds at APCH.

“We rescue more than 500 birds every year. Most of our calls are from the State Police and 85 percent of injured birds have been struck by cars. It’s frustrating and that’s part of the reason we run education programs—to teach people how to avoid conflict with wildlife,” Todd says.

The injured birds are transported to APCH, where the recovery and rehabilitation process begins.

“Many of the birds have broken wings, which Christine resets. Bird bones are hollow and they start to mend in 24 hours and calcify in 48 hours, so there’s a small window of time to make sure they can heal and be flighted again,” Todd says.

“We have a room in our house for critical care and then they are transferred to the aviary to build up flight muscle and stamina before they are released. We’ve lost a lot of birds over the years and it’s tough when you’ve invested a lot of time and care into them.”

APCH receives many calls to rescue baby birds, most of whom have fallen out of their nest. Todd says it’s critical to treat the birds and reunite them with their parents in a new nest so they have a reliable food source while they teach themselves to hunt. In the past 12 years, Todd and the APCH team have re-nested more than 250 baby birds of prey.

“Two years ago, I went out to collect a baby horned owl that had fallen from its nest and I found its sibling barely hanging on up a large pine tree. I climbed 150 feet up and I’d almost reached it when I was hit from behind and knocked into the tree, losing my safety equipment. I turned around to see the mother owl coming at me with her talons aimed straight at me,” he says.

“The mother owl hit me four times, but I held on, grabbed the baby owl, and stuffed it into the bag, and got down that tree the fastest I ever had. I went back the next day with both chicks in a new nest and reunited them with their mother. When she came at me, I was terrified and really thought I was not going to survive, but I was so close to the chick, I couldn’t leave it behind.”

Well-meaning people often bring to wildlife rescuers young birds that weren’t in need of rescue, the Audubon Society notes. Depending on the age of a baby bird, it may have fallen from its nest prematurely and just need to be placed back in to allow its parents to care for it (contrary to myth, birds will not reject a baby touched by humans), or it may just be making its first forays out of the nest—find an Audubon guide at www.audubon.org.

In addition to rescuing and releasing hundreds of birds every year, APCH is home to 65 permanent residents living in 16 aviaries, including bald eagles, red tailed hawks, black vultures, crows, and ravens, as well as barred, barn, saw whet, and great horned owls. Todd and Christine established the facility at their Killingworth home in 2005. When they outgrew the space five years ago, they moved to their current 10-acre location.

All the birds here would not survive in the wild, Todd says. Many have injuries such as blindness and permanent wing damage, while others were raised by humans when they were babies and do not have the hunting skills to make it in their natural environment.

“I love owls; they’re my favorite things in life,” he says. “Birds of prey are not domesticated like cats and dogs; they are wild birds. They will tolerate humans, but they have no special relationship and don’t bond with us.

“However, corvids such as ravens and crows, and vultures, are very social. We have a raven here that will pull my shoelaces untied and pick my pockets—once it took my wallet and flew to the top of the cage.”

On the property, Secki grows milkweed to support the local monarch butterfly population and has constructed platforms and box nests in the large pine trees for local birds.

“Two years ago, we had a great horned owl that was nesting so we set up a camera and live streamed it on our website. We had 25,000 people watching and over four weeks we were able to get some critical information about the nesting habits of that species of owl.”

While the operation at APCH is an impressive achievement, Todd says there’s still more work to do.

“We’re constructing a new aviary now and we’d like to build a new ICU. The current ICU has electricity, but we’d like to have a heated building with running water,” he says. “The goal is to have an education facility on the property. We do some Native American and guided meditation programs here now, but we’d like to host wildlife groups from around that state and run workshops, and a day camp for kids.”

Todd grew up in Guilford and in between their extensive commitments to APCH, he is a stonemason and builder and Christine owns Guilford Groomer. For 30 years, Todd has been photographing wildlife, specializing in birds in flight, with a large following on his Spirit Hawk Photography Facebook page.

“You’ve got to find your passion in your life. When I started working with birds of prey, I was immediately hooked. It’s important that you’re 100 percent into what you’re doing. It really doesn’t matter what you do, it’s how you do it.”

Todd and Christine met while recording music—she sang vocals and he played guitar—and he still enjoys making and playing Native American flutes and drums. They have been married for 20 years, and enjoy trips to their cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

“We planned to retire and spend our summers in New Hampshire and winters out west in the Four Corners area of the U.S. Now, well, I think we may have too much happening here to do that,” Todd smiles.

APCH presents its live raptor show as part of the Friends of Hammonasset Bauer Series at Meigs Point Nature Center, 1288 Boston Post Road, Madison on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 10 a.m. The event is free; registration required. For more information, call 203-245-7514.

There is also a live raptor presentation with APCH at Essex Meadows, 30 Bokum Road, on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 2 p.m., sponsored by Essex Land Trust. For more information, call 860-876-0306.

Of all the wild birds A Place Called Hope rescues, Todd Secki says owls are his favorite. Here’ he’s rescuing a snowy owl. Photo courtesy of Todd Secki