Jack Foddrill's barn owl, Nellie, attracts curious youngsters.

PARIS LANDING - Satisfaction can be measured in many ways. Jack Foddrill doesn’t get paid a red cent, but as far as he’s concerned, being a full-time volunteer is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

Foddrill is the raptor rehabilitator at Paris Landing State Park and, for him, satisfaction can be found in the eyes of the owls and hawks he cares for every day. As he strokes the head of one of his permanent birds—Nellie, his show bird—the owl bends her head into his shoulder. He coos and the owl coos back.

Nellie is a barn owl that was hit by a car five years ago. She was brought to the state park office and has been under Foddrill’s care ever since. She broke her left wing and her toes. After Foddrill’s tender loving care, Nellie “can fly a little, but not well enough to survive. So, this is her home now,” he said.

And that’s just fine with Foddrill because you can see the affection he feels for Nellie and she feels for him. “She’s my star. She’s the one I always take with me when I put on shows,” he said. “She loves attention; she’s a real crowd pleaser.”

Foddrill’s life is much different now than it was before he retired 14 years ago as a quality control officer for a manufacturing company in South Bend, Ind. He and his wife retired to the Paris Landing area, where they had vacationed. “We used to come here fishing and this is where we wanted to settle: it’s just far enough South and far enough North for us.”

State Senator Roy Herron (left) provides a prop for a tiny owl as Foddrill points out the finer aspects of Nellie, a barn owl, to U.S. Congressman John Tanner.

Not wanting to be too idle in his retirement, Foddrill’s interest was piqued when he saw an advertisement seeking volunteers at the state park. “I’ve always been a nature lover, so that sounded good to me,” he said. “When I called, the park office first asked me if I played golf. I said no and they said, well, you’re probably not interested in working on the golf course, are you? I said “no.”

Former park manager Steve Wright “knew I was a bird watcher, so he asked if I’d be interested in working with the raptor program,” Foddrill said. “I thought, ‘Now, you’re talking.’”

Gary McIntyre formerly operated the bird program and took Foddrill under his wing. “I just learned how to care for the birds by watching him and I gradually progressed into doing the rehab myself,” he said.

The program has expanded greatly from its early days and Foddrill mans the operation himself. The aviary is constructed out of the horse barn that mounted rangers for the horses that patrolled the park 20 years ago.

The state park and Foddrill hold a dual permit which allows for the rehabilitation of the raptors and, if the birds cannot be turned back to the wild, allowing them to use them for educational purposes. “The goal is to fix them up so they can be turned loose,” he said, “but that’s not always possible. This way, with the dual permit, I can use them when I give lectures.”

Foddrill presents 60 educational programs each year with his “babies”, as he calls them. He puts on a show every Friday night in the lobby of the Paris Landing Inn from 6-8 p.m. “I take the birds to the lobby so people can see them and take photos of them,” he said. “We always get a good crowd that night. We get between 200-300 people for those because Friday is seafood night at the Inn.”

He also gives educational programs for school children during the year, he said.

The state park personnel “are talking about building me a little amphitheatre” near the aviary and a 2.5-mile walking trail—to be called “raptor ridge”--is being constructed to allow hikers to view the aviary as well as native flora and fauna. With the help of volunteers, it should be completed by December 2006. (There already is a smaller walking trail called “whitetail loop” on which whitetail deer can be viewed).

Foddrill currently is caring for nine birds, of which only one will be allowed to return to the wild. People bring in injured birds, he said, and “the sooner people bring the birds to us, the better chance I have of being able to turn them loose.”

Foddrill has names for all his birds, such as the hawk he calls “Kitty” (as in ‘kitty hawk’), the cooper hawk he calls “Cooper”, and the great horned owl he calls “Hooter”.

He talks to them and plays with them a little bit every day. “They get fed every day before I do,” he laughed. “That’s better than they get out in the wild—they can’t count on eating every day in the wild.”

With 10 years on the job, Foddrill can handle much of the bird’s ailments himself, but when he can’t handle the injuries on his own, he counts on Paris Veterinarian Dr. Buddy Gardner. “He’s a great guy for us,” he said. “He really cares about the birds and knows how to care for them.”

Foddrill is proud of the program’s rehabilitation rate. “We have a 74 percent rehab rate,” he said. “Rehabbers are doing good if they achieve 40 percent, so I feel really good about that.”

But just as his birds receive good care from Foddrill, it’s clear that Foddrill gets a lot from them. “This is the best job I’ve ever had,” he said.

“This is the best job I’ve ever had,” he said.