Katherine Heerbrandt/The Gazette Naturalist John Zuke shows off a red-tailed hawk at the aviary at Cunningham Falls State Park near Thurmont.

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Bats are not blind, owls are not wise and possums are not really pretending when they play dead.

Those are just a few of the myths put to rest by Cunningham Falls State Park naturalist John Zuke at the park’s first Campfire program of the summer on Saturday. From Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, the park offers programs that are designed for campers, but open to anyone who wants to pay the $3 to $4 campground fee.

Zuke, a retired Frederick County elementary school teacher, quizzed campers at the William Houck amphitheater Saturday night, sharing some surprising truths: Bats “nature’s bug zapper” hunt more by sound, but are not blind.

Owls, he said, have very small brains because their eye sockets take up so much room in their tiny skulls. “They are not very smart, even for birds,” Zuke said.

While possums may deter enemies by “playing dead,” it is not a deliberate ploy. Faced with a threat they cannot ward off, possums go into a catatonic state.

Zuke’s teaching background aids the presentations, but it is his own curiosity about the creatures, trees and plants in the 5,000-acre park and beyond that make his presentation compelling enough to make tired, grubby campers perk up and listen. Especially when he talked about vulture vomit. Vultures vomit when they have ingested too much food and are too heavy to take off. They also use it to ward off predators. Because they generally feast on dead creatures, the content of their stomachs are “very unpleasant,” Zuke said.

“What sort of range?” asked one worried-looking camper.

He looked relieved when Zuke told him, “Not that far, and they have to be really angry.”

Birds and animals are the biggest draw to the Campfire programs, and will be featured throughout the summer. In the aviary, located in the Manor Area off of U.S. Route 15 near Thurmont, visitors can see some of the creatures close up and personal. The aviary houses several types of owls, including the Great Horned Owl whose favorite food is skunk but who has also been known to nosh on cats and small dogs. The Barn Owl has a shrill scream that some say sounds eerily like a person being murdered, while the tiny Screech Owl does not live up to its name, making a soft almost soothing sound.

A tiny, colorful American Kestral falcon and a pair of red-tailed hawks also make their home here. But Zuke’s favorite and the smartest of all those in the aviary, he said, is the black vulture.

“He took to me for some reason,” Zuke said as he popped a finger in the fence for the bird to peck at.

Park Ranger Jen Miller is not so lucky. “He [the vulture] is only nice to me on Christmas Eve,” she said, joking about the aggressive bird’s lack of affection for her.

The black vulture, according to Zuke, has amazing adaptive qualities including the ability to kill the bacteria it eats. To cool down, it often poops on its own legs. The black vulture in the aviary came via a firehouse. Firefighters had rescued him as a baby and thought he would make a cool mascot.

“That didn’t work out so well,” Zuke said.

Zuke is quick to point out that the park has a permit to keep the wild birds, and only those who have been injured and cannot survive on their own are kept in the aviary. The birds are the walking wounded, victims of accidents. Most of them have been hit by cars. One ran into a fence and lost an eye. The kestral, a feisty bird with an attitude, Zuke said, is missing an integral part of a wing and cannnot fly straight.

The visitor center also houses the park’s resident snakes and turtles, and is open to visitors all summer.

Upcoming Campfire programs

Park Ranger Jen Miller has Campfire topics planned through the July 4 weekend. Zuke returns Saturday with a program on owls, bringing residents of the park’s aviary. Nationally-known snake expert Marty Martin, who brings his own pet timber rattlesnake, talks about local snakes on June 11. Guests can explore the heavens with astronomer Skip Bird on the south beach of the park’s lake on June 18. The program is funded by a grant from NASA. Ranger Miller takes the lead on June 25 with a campfire chef program, and the popular Scales and Tails program, featuring a menagerie of animals and birds, returns on July 2. Programs start at 8 p.m. and are followed by a campfire.

For more information, visit http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/western/cunningham.asp or call 301-271-7574.

kheerbrandt@gazette.net