[Photos] 2017 - Eagle's Heritage I

[moonvoice]

Eagle's Heritage is Australia's largest raptor rehabilitation centre.
About an eighth of it is accessible to the public.
The rest is private.
Where possible birds are rehabilitated into the wild.
This section focuses on Ivy the Barn Owl
and the Black Kite (which is not black, but brown).





















Black kite in flight. This is part of the live display they do twice a day.









The weather was pretty intense actually. We were heading into one of the windiest weather events in Margaret River for the year. The kites weren't being very cooperative (they were being free flown, and there was an eagle in the area, so they'd often disappear to harry the eagle), additionally the high winds made them more playful than usual, and so they were less interested in food / performance, and it's probably the least 'cooperative' I've seen them be lol. They were happy enough though, and very well fed.





Part of the live display is food being flung into the air, to show them catching it mid-flight as they would if they weren't part of the raptor park. These black kites are trained as per old-school falconry. They're free-flown three times a day. (Ivy, the barn owl, is the same, and she is free-flown every evening).

Comments

[cmcmck]

I love raptors and we have red kites and buzzards hereabouts.

[moonvoice]

I wish we had buzzards. We don't have any birds like buzzards or vultures here.

[silverjackal]

These are all gorgeous, and but I appreciate seeing the kites in action perhaps less than other people having been harried by them in a couple of places. Kites worldwide are *excellent* at snatching food from tourists. ;D Still, the photos of them in flight are striking. That I loved the Barn Owl photos perhaps goes without saying. I am quite irrationally fond of Barn Owls -- I find them beautiful, and very comfortable creatures, from their constant presence near people. Sadly, we do not get them here except for the occasional straggler.

It's wonderful that the birds are exercised free. Being able to take to the air properly greatly enhances their quality of life.

[moonvoice]

Aha, they talked about that a great deal actually - if you live in the northern states, these guys will whisk food from a barbecue, and certainly from a plate of meat on the table.

Here in the south it's kookaburras (and sometimes Australian magpies). Picnics in the bushland are never much fun if there's thieving birds about. :D

Barn owls are lovely. Ivy's been part of their education program for a while, and she's well looked after. I got photos of her three years ago too. Very calm, and not at all flighty, even when she stood on varying people's arms for photos etc.

[silverjackal]

My heart belongs to the Short-eared Owl of course, but Barn Owls are a close second in affection (not just admiration, which is every owl really, each for their own merits).

[bunny_m]

<3

I've only been down there the once, and really should go back sometime.

[moonvoice]

It's still just as awesome as it always was. I remember the first time I went was for highschool. It's still pretty much the same. :)