Raaaap-tors here! Gitcher Birds of Preeeeeey here! (pic-heavy)

[bertha katzenengel]

from raptor day at the Wild Bird Center in Waldorf, MD. A man from a MD state education program brought four birds to present. There were probably a hundred people crammed into this wild bird food/supplies center, half of them kids. We were no less than ten feet from these amazing creatures. (I'll post photos of the red-tailed hawk later.)

Athena, a Barred Owl. (Was hit by a car)








Bitsy, a Screech Owl. Not sure how she was injured. She is blind in one eye.





BALD EAGLE





I didn't get very many good photos of the bald eagle. I'd been standing for 2 1/2 hours and needed to walk around and find a place to sit.

I was thrilled, but Mrs. V. was just stunned. It was amazing.

[DS1]

1. great mailbox

[BarenakedLady]

8. I noticed that too.

:thumbsup:

[wildhorses]

10. i saw that first thing --

wonder if it would show up as an avatar? prolly not, prolly too small :shrug:

[CatWoman]

2. those pics are fantastic

those birds look so majestic!!

a wonderful, full, long life to Bitsy and Athena :hi:

[Inchworm]

3. Very cool pics!

I love em all!

Thanks for sharing them.

:hi:

[janx]

4. Screech owls are great!

It's wonderful that the people who are taking care of disabled/injured animals are showing people what can happen to them and thereby educating folks about the animals themselves (even though I cringe sometimes because the injured guys are often freaked out at crowds).

Here in Albuquerque, we recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of our Nature Center, which is located on some state land along the Rio Grande, and we had a similar event. There must have been six or eight different raptor species present, all with some kind of disability. There was a ptarmigan who they think misjudged a dive and crashed, a burrowing owl with one eye, etc. There were two great horned owls, one in worse shape than the other, and two red tails who looked remarkably different--I didn't know that there was so much genetic variability in red tails before!

The most impressive part of the whole even here was the reaction from children. The adults were impressed, but the children were absolutely blown away, and their questions were very thoughtfully answered by volunteers. The kids had some very pertinent and intelligent questions.

Thanks for posting--looking forward to red tail photos!

[driver8]

5. I love, love, love birds of prey.

They are so amazing to watch and so beautiful. These pictures are great -- thanks for sharing them.

I used to live on Adak, Alaska in the middle of the Aleutian Islands. We had a cliff behind our house that was full of bald eagles. We used to watch them snatch fish out of the rivers and lakes. Absolutely incredible to watch. Check out these photos that were taken on Adak (not by me).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amnwr/21252463/

[CatWoman]

6. KICK

:kick:

these are wonderful pics, guys.

[bigwillq]

7. Great pics!

Thanks for posting. :)

[BarenakedLady]

9. Awesome!

Great pics. They are truly stunning birds.

[wildhorses]

11. excellent photos!! aren't they stunning?

beautiful, thanks for sharing :hi: