Ember is beautiful, with fiery bronze feathers that mirror her name. The red-shouldered hawk sits before a rapt audience of John Allen Elementary School kindergartners in Soddy-Daisy.
"What do you think Ember likes to eat?" asks Tish Gailmard, the wildlife coordinator at Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center at the base of Lookout Mountain, where Ember lives.
"Squirrels!" "Mice!" "Bunnies!" "A bear!"
"She eats all those animals except not a bear - Ember only weighs a pound," Gailmard tells the kids as they gasp in wonder.
The John Allen class and also a class of fifth-graders from Rhea Central Elementary School in Dayton, Tenn., got a visit from Ember last week for winning first and second place in the Chattanooga Times Free Press' contest to name Reflection Riding's female bald eagle, who came to the wildlife haven after a car hit her in Florida and broke her wing. Elementary school students all over the Chattanooga area sent in suggestions for names.
The winner was created by the Kristy Plumlee's kindergarten class at John Allen: Flora Nooga, a combination of Florida and her the bald eagle's new home in Chattanooga. The class also will be honored with a plaque on the wire fence surrounding the eagle habitat.
The Rhea Central Elementary class came in second with the name Lady Liberty.
Prize for winning was a visit from Ember, who rode comfortably to both schools in a wooden box with a screen window. While the students may have wanted to see the bird they helped name, Flora Nooga has a six-foot wingspan, and Reflection Riding doesn't have a box big enough for her to ride in.
At John Allen, Ember, a consummate performer, knows how to deliver a punchline - she poops. The kids guffaw merrily. Several are curious why her poop is white and foamy when everything she eats is furry. Well, while birds' kidneys extract waste from the blood just like mammals, birds don't pee and poop separately; instead, they do it together. When the two mix, the uric acid in the pee mixes with the poop and dissolves everything into a white goop.
"I really wish we could see her fly - but it was funny seeing her poop," John Allen student Jonas Epple says earnestly.
The kids politely bombard Gailmard with questions and listen intently when she tells them that the hawk's eyesight is so keen, she can fly over a the 50-yard line on a football field and spot a fat mouse near the goalpost. She also describes how the hawk's wing bones are hollow and as intricate as a spider web. Gailmard says she first met Ember after the hawk collided with the front of a car and could not free herself because her many wing bones - thinner than a knitting needle - were tangled in the car's grill.
She also explains how the soft fabric glove the bird rests upon has thin but sturdy straps to hold Ember's claws so she won't fly and accidentally hurt herself or someone else.
Teacher Kristy Plumlee says her class brainstormed several names then voted on which ones to submit. She singles out student Reid Close as the hero who helped make the hawk visit happen.
"He's the one who brought the newspaper to class that told us about the eagle naming contest," Plumlee says.
Gailmard also tells the class that three red wolf pups - members of an endangered species - were born in Reflection Riding on April 15. Children immediately pepper her with possible pup names.
"Rosie for one of the girls because she is a red wolf," Dakota Barnes suggests.
After leaving John Allen, Gailmard drives up the highway to Dayton, where Charlotte Johnston's fifth-grade class at Rhea Central Elementary meet Ember thanks to Anthony Thompson, 11, who suggested Lady Liberty.
And Ember, now a confident comedienne, poops again to a new crowd's amusement.
Anthony makes excellent grades and is very smart, his teacher says. He is also somewhat shy so when Johnston asked him in class what name he wanted to suggest, he felt uncomfortable saying it aloud in front of the entire class.
"So we played a 'Hangman' to guess it," Johnston says with a smile.
Anthony's great-grandmother is raising him, and she's delighted with his win and hoped to meet Ember, "but she works really hard taking on jobs cleaning houses so that she can provide well for Anthony, so she wasn't able to attend today," Johnston explains.
Instead, Johnston laminated the newspaper story that announced Anthony's win so he could take it home. And she took lots of photos for him to share with his great-grandmother.
"I got the idea for the name when I was thinking of what Liberty means, and the Statue of Liberty came to my mind," Anthony says.
"My favorite thing to do is take care of my animals. I have two cats, Fluffy and Lucky, who I feel sad for because he has one eye. And I have two Chihuahua dogs. One day I would like to study nature and maybe be a scientist."
Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.