After breakfast, Cheryl drove me to the Ski Lodge as we were going to watch the Birds of Prey. It took us some time to find the way in as some doors were locked and there were no signs directing us to any other entrance!
We finally arrived and Jennifer, the person running the show, was just chatting to some of the audience. She owns Raptor Hill where she has a number of Birds of Prey.
At the present time she does not have visits there but is an educator. None of the birds are rescues or unable to fly, they are all capable of hunting and in fact, apart from one female, are encouraged to and will hunt.
Birds of Prey in captivity will often live up to twice the age they might expect to live in the wild!
The first bird we saw was a Barn Owl called Odi, who is five years old. She has taken him over from a friend who had him from a youngster and he was imprinted to humans.
He is very light and small but his feathers make him look much bigger, she showed us a skull and it is very tiny.
He was a wee bit unsettled as his hearing is how he hunts and all the noises in the building were affecting him. He wanted to take off at times but was quite happy to return to his car cage. These cages are solid and have no windows, this is the best way to keep the birds calm.
Barn Owls are the very best rodent hunters around. Their young need ten mice a day to grow and they will also stock pile mice when the eggs are close to hatching. Some falconers who have them will provide a clean up service if someone has a rodent infestation.
The next bird was a Harris Hawk and I recognised her as I flew one in Blair Drummond. Her name is Sweetie and she is 30 years old.
She is retired from Falconry now and enjoying her senior years. She weighs in at two pounds. The heaviest bird in the world is the Condor. She has an opening to her area at home and she can fly out when she wants to.The third and final bird was Buddy an American Kestrel, a member of the Falcon family and the smallest. He had beautiful markings and sat on her hand with no glove, for a long time. He made quite a few trilling sounds when he came out and when he sat on the perch. He views Jennifer as his mother and talks to her a lot, lol!!
Kestrels are the only bird that will hunt as a pack and Falconers have been known to get together with their Kestrels and hunt them. They will take a short period to socialise them together and then they will hunt. The males will search for prey and spook them out then the female will catch and kill the prey.
Kestrels will take on larger prey as they will stun them from behind, even birds as large as Canada Geese! just above their beaks they have tiny round nostrils and these have a special nodule that will let oxygen go to their lungs when they are diving at high speeds. The jet engine was developed around this concept.
All birds of prey as well as all but three species of other birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty. For those species, such as Canadian Geese, where the numbers are on the increase, there are hunting seasons. The three species that are not protected were all introduced, namely Sparrows, Starlings and Pigeons.
Even though I have been to Birds of Prey shows I learned some interesting facts and her presentation was both humorous and excellent.
We then went down to the Water Park, which was closed, but the others were playing arcade games. There was a cafe that sold coffee but it was closed, unbelievable!! I know iy is off season but there are a number of people here and the people in the arcade area had no access to snacks. Of course, they did have the gift shop open!!! I am not impressed with the level of customer service here!!!
After that, we drove to the Food Lion and I purchased a roll of the Pork Loin and baking potatoes for tea, this was my contribution to the meals. Cheryl would put the pork on for me and I would cope with the spuds, lol!! We then found Grammy's Ice Cream place and bought some for dessert, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry swirl. I also purchased a black cherry waffle cone, yum, so much fruit!!
Back at base and Cheryl put the pork on while I prepared the potatoes and placed them in the oven ready to switch on later. I then worked on my blog as it was not up-to-date.
Everything was cooked nicely on time and it was a lovely dinner with cole slaw added for our vegetables and orange cream pie with the ice cream for dessert!!
After dinner I finished my blog. Tomorrow I am booked in for Falconry and was planning to go up on the chair lift but the forecast is appalling so may end up with nothing!!
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