Owls

We had a trip out today to an Owl and Bird Sanctuary quite close to home and we never knew it existed! Bit of a magical mystery tour to get to the place as the entrance is through a garden centre and then out of the back gate, but well worth the £10 family ticket! We had a look around all the owls and other birds of prey before the display and here are some of the pics I took of Samuel flying two of the owls and something a lot bigger!

Samuel had to keep his arm outstretched otherwise the owl will hop up his arm to his shoulder as they don't like hanging at an angle! This one's reward for landing is day old chicken legs that are raised especially for the birds so that they are the best meat and have not been processed in any way. Chicken meat that we buy from the supermarkets has so many additives to extend the shelf life that when given to birds of prey the toxins kill them.

This is a beautiful owl and it has been filmed in slow motion flying in to land - the link is HERE if you want to click and look - totally amazing!

I also had a go!! See how cool and calm I am - hand in pocket eh?!!

The bloke behind Samuel is a zoo keeper and hand reared a few of the birds.

And this one was a lot bigger so Samuel needed a bit of assistance! The wing span is huge and it actually whacked Samuel in the face by accident - he was fine just a little surprised! Jacob point blank refused to do any flying but when we go again, he may join in!

A fantastic afternoon out and the displays lasted around an hour and a half and we could get really close to the birds too! The website link to go and see more is HERE - Turbary Woods!