Another fun activity!!

On Saturday we went to Duncan to the Bird of Prey Centre. We had a 5 hour day arranged for us by my mum and dad for my birthday. I was a little worried, to say the least, when they gave us a waiver form to fill out and we had to give our Care Card # in case of an emergency!! What were we in for?? We knew we were going to learn to fly and handle our own Hawk, but this was getting a little scary.

We were first taken around the centre to look at all the birds they have. This centre is not a rescue centre for birds. They actually raise these birds of prey for educational purposes. The lifespan of their birds is considerably longer than wild birds - in some cases three times as long. They also have contracts with landfills and they take one of their hawks to scare the seagulls away. Amazingly, it works, as they used have 10,000 seagulls at a landfill near Winnipeg, and with the hawk there they only have around 500 seagulls. Some of their birds also are flown at Vancouver Aquarium for flight demonstrations.

Once we had met all the birds it was now time to learn how to tie a slip knot with one hand! Shall I say it took us several times to achieve this! Once this was done we were then taken to get our bird. I was given a Harris Hawk and Peter had Elton the Spectacled Owl. Once the hawk was on my gloved hand I felt very calm and was amazed at how patient this bird was. She was beautiful and it was very cool to see these birds up close. We then traded birds and Elton the owl was so laid back and had quite a personality!! He just loved to hang out with us and bask in the sun and started to fall asleep.

It was now time time to fly two Kookaburras whom were very noisy when they laughed! We flew our Kookaburras with success and we enjoyed watching these birds show off their laugh

Next we both flew Hawks and we did not get bitten!! Very impressive to see these birds in flight. Our trainer Bryony also demonstrated several bird flights for us and other people at the centre.

We learnt all about weighing the birds each morning and how to trim a bird's beak and tallons. We had a great educational day and enjoyed handling the birds. We recommend this place to parents who have older children as it is very educational and all the staff are very knowledgeable and very patient!! Enjoy some of the pictures from our lovely day.