Bird Fever

Happy Canada Day every one!
So glad to have a Canada Day that is hot as it should be.

But I wanted to talk about my June: bird watching galore... namely raptors galore. My children and I have been reading the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, and studying about Birds in the Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. As its conclusion, I planned a field trip to Pacific Northwest Raptors up in Northern Cowichan. We are SO blessed to have such awesome facility where you can go and see birds of prey so close up.

So, to make a long story short, what was intended to be one trip had turned into 2, and on top of that the icing on the cake was being able to spot an owl as I prowled in the neighbourhood park yesterday! YAY!! I'm still excited! Here's some pictures from all our bird encounters in June:

A male bald eagle at PNR called Manwe. He was antsy this day, and wound up spending 4 hours up on the tree instead of obliging us with his magnificent flying on the demo. We were invited back to see a proper flying demo again later in the month.

Baby bald eagle (the bigger one) and Harris Hawk about the same age preening their down feathers.

Baby Kookaburra. We learned on our second trip that we can get it to laugh its famous laugh if we roll our tongue in a high pitch! What fun! Also we didn't know they were considered birds of prey.

Athena the falcon did an amazing catch with the falconer. What a beautiful bird! They stunt their prey and catch it on the ground to finish them off. Birds use so much energy flying, they have to eat their weight in food every day!

We spotted a wild bald eagle on our walk to the beach. What joy! Boys could tell that this was an adult because of its beautiful fully white neck and tail feathers. Good job guys.

This is the red tailed hawk covering its catch at our second visit to the PNR. It isn't a great picture to look at, but it shows how they protect their food from others once they make the catch.

The turkey vulture, and also a movie star, Judge Dredd showing off its beautiful plumage... and killing the vermints that live in his feathers. The kids loved that vultures pee on their legs to kill parasites.

The great horned owl, Gandalf, at flight at our second visit to PNR. He was so obliging making all sorts of vocalization except his most famous hooting that I got used to that baby talk enabling me to find owls that night! He is five years old and was bred in captivity so he likes to still talk like a dependent.

Another falcon, this time Saker Falcon named Arrow, catches the bait in mid air. Good shot!

The Barn Owls, Honey & Cinnamon. Just as I was telling the kids how they look tremendously bigger once they stretch their wings even though they small when they are perched, Honey obliged us by flying to Cinnamon from the other end of the cage. What a nice owl (grin)

My favorite of our second visit to PNR was this Pygmy Owl, Titch! I keep hearing these owls in my neighbourhood with their cute sound (or so I think) and not seeing. I finally got to see this creature, though in captivity, it is pretty exciting.

This is the juvenile Barred Owls (two of them) at East Sooke Park! We spotted them on the way in and again on our way out. Oh, what joy.