Wasatch Wildlife Conservation Center, formerly Park City Hummingbird Hospital, has been slowly expanding their abilities to rescue local wildlife of all kinds.Hence the name change and the recent partnership with Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter to fundraise for a new raptor enclosure, said Founder and Executive Director Jody Giddings.“There’s a space that they have approved for us to put a large raptor enclosure in, so that will allow us to do larger birds of prey,” she said. That space is the back side of Wallin Barn. “It will give us a lot more area to do flight testing, which is an important part of what we do with the raptors.”It’s often fallen or orphaned young and injured who are admitted into the Wasatch Wildlife Conservation Center, Giddings said, and before they can be released, the staff need to ensure they’re healthy and able to fly in order to survive in the wild. Giddings and her staff have rescued and rehabilitated raptors, or birds of prey, brought to them in a variety of crises. Over the summer, they treated a great horned owl hit by a car, a falcon that flew into a window, a barn owl caught in barbed wire and a pelican caught in a net at Rockport Reservoir.With a designated raptor team, the center is able to respond to calls and assess a situation quickly. During this time of year, it’s common to get calls about birds of prey seemingly lost or stuck on the ground, Giddings said.“The raptors that are born in the spring sometimes start to have problems hunting right about now, or when the snow comes, just because they separate from their parents in the fall, and so they’ll be out on their own trying to hunt,” she said. “We can help assess whether it does require a rescue (or) whether or not it’s normal behavior.”Giddings said with the enclosure project, they’re excited to give the historic barn a purpose. “There are basically five almost-garage spaces. Five little arches that were probably used for wagons or whatever back in the day. We’re going to be enclosing those with a PVC-coated wire,” she said. “We will be adding big natural perches made out of tree limbs so they’ll be able to fly around and see what height they can get.”Swaner Preserve & EcoCenter is providing the back of the Wallin Barn for the Wasatch Wildlife Conservation Center to build a raptor enclosure. Credit: Courtesy of Wasatch Wildlife Conservation CenterThey’ll also need to build a double door to act as added security as staff enter and exit, Giddings said.The project is estimated to cost around $12,500, and they’ve received five donations as of Monday. The direct link to donate is donorbox.org/raptor-flight-enclosure-at-swaner-preserve. “Once we raise the funds, we’ll be doing a work day to kind of clean out the space, and then a second construction day,” Giddings said, likely sometime in mid-December.The new enclosure is just one element of the center’s plans to grow, and they’re always looking for new partnerships and locations that can help them expand.“We (help) many other animals besides raptors, everything from baby flying squirrels to bats and pelicans. With our expansion, we hope to be able to rehabilitate larger mammals such as bobcats and hopefully one day even orphaned moose,” said Giddings.The Wasatch Wildlife Conservation Center will be taking donations during Live PC Give PC under the name Park City Hummingbird Hospital this year, which was their name when they registered, but proceeds from the day of giving will go toward this raptor enclosure, needs for their rescue clinic and other conservation efforts. Anyone with an unused barn space, or something similar, who is interested in helping the center can visit wasatchwildlife.org or call 801-228-0831. Sign up to receive their newsletter for updates on their progress and information on how to get involved.The post Wildlife rescue seeks funds for new raptor enclosure appeared first on Park Record.