Trees and Birds

In a vague effort to get our recommended sunshine hours this winter I had a plan of days out and about. The first out and about day was to Batsford Arboretum and Falconry Centre in the Cotswold's.

First stop was the falconry centre and just as we walked in there was a bird handler asking if anyone wanted to hold the Bald Eagle, I had a very definite yes moment so next thing I know I'm holding a large heavy bird of prey and hoping that Peter can take the photo soon as my arm was starting to hurt (must go to the gym more!) After that we had a look round the caged birds, a little sad but as we have learnt, if they let birds of prey 'free' they tend to just go after the other birds, even so the cages did seem a little small especially for the vultures.
There was a flying display scheduled so we thought we have a look at that. It was very interesting as the person taking it knew a lot about the birds and they also had the philosophy that the birds could do what they liked. The vultures didn't really fly much so they spent a lot of their time picking at his shoelaces (worms in their eyes!) The owl was very longsighted and practically blind short sighted, however it had amazing hearing and when he remembered to let go of his perch was a beautiful flier. I could go on but those were the highlights.

Following that we had a quick walk through the arboretum to have a look at all the autumn colours. It was pretty magnificent, but we were pretty hungry and so it was quite short.

On the way home there was a lovely sunset, this was taken in a moving car in the rear view mirror, thought it was pretty cool!