// Index
I like the birds, me…
Whilst at Center Parcs this week, after arising at a frankly ungodly hour on Tuesday (about 8:00), Chris, Christina and I hauled ourselves off into the village to meet up with the Birds of Prey Experience.
Quite what the experience was to be wasn’t entirely clear, but we were fairly certain it wouldn’t be so much running for cover while they swooped at you, but more of a sort of hold and stroke affair, and so it turned out to be.
It was a fascinating experience, I must say. We were treated to holding three different birds, an owl, kestrel and falcon, and had the latter swoop down to our arms from a tree when tempted down by some raw meat.
I’ve always had slight fascination with these animals, but never seen one up close before, and by God they’re beautiful. Such keen expressions on their faces too – every now and then one would suddenly track some poor sparrow or something across the sky and you’d wonder if it was about to try to go snacking.
They’re oddly light, too. Even the owl, which was about half my height, only weighed in at seven pounds – most of the bulk was feather. This ttill caused my arm to ache a bit after five minutes though, and even at that weight it transpired that most of their prey wouldn’t know much about the impact if the talons hit at 70mph.
I found myself kind of wanting one. If nothing else, the mice would have to think twice about continuing to hang around our flat.
Posted on March 7, 2009 | Filed Under Holiday Excess
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