More Raptor Center

Saturday, there was a break in the weather, resulting in actual bright sunlight.   So, I took an impromptu trip to the Cascades Raptor Center.  Mostly, I wanted to get a photograph of Bango's breast feathers, because the sketches I'd made the week previously didn't seem to match up with some of the other earlier photos I'd taken.

I took some photos and practiced using extreme zoom, small aperture, and manual focus to blur out the bars as best as I could.   The best example of this was the picture of Ra, the Burrowing Owl.  During past visits, Ra has been hiding in its "burrow," but this time it was on a shelf.

I'm not sure if it's the tripod, or my camera, or if I look like some kind of Real Photographer, but I had more conversations about photography with other patrons than I've had previously.  I didn't mind chatting, and I think I made about six new friends this visit.

The best photos of birds were the ones that I managed to take when the trainers brought them out.   This time I managed to be there when Pip the Peregrine Falcon and (later) Ravi the Wester Screech Owl came out (alas, I just missed Dmitri the Eurasian Eagle-Owl).  Although it's not the world's most stunning picture, I did get an interesting photo of Deva, the Northern Harrier, as he held his wings out (I think he was excited because he thought he was going to get fed).

Pip was eating "a lucky rabbit's foot" on the wrist of one of the trainers.  I managed to get a few photos of him that had great resolution on his wings, but were blurry around his head.  I had turned the ISO up to 400, and I didn't want to go higher and risk false positive pixels.  This one is the best overall photo.

Next to Pip's enclosure is one for Eowyn, the Ferruginous Hawk.  Another patron wondered what kind of name Eowyn was, and then next thing I knew, I was saying, "Eowyn was a shield-maiden of  the Rohirrim."  I almost added, "Who won renown when she slew the Witch-King of Angmar."  I'm not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that that I wasn't wearing my grey-green wool cloak with a leaf clasp.

I learned that Pip doesn't slobber as much as Dante does.  I also found out that Lethe the Vulture wasn't greeting folks with his outspread wings, he was sunning himself in order to drive any parasites in his plumage out of his feathers, where they could be preened and eaten.  Apparently, between their dark color and insulative properties, the feathers can get hot (?110 F?), which the parasites that might be on the dead things the vultures are eating don't like.

Later, on the other side of the Center,  Ravi was eating chopped up mice.  A new trainer was learning how to handle Ravi, and it was interesting to listen to how the leather thongs are threaded through the jesses on Ravi's feet.  There were also techniques for holding one's fist away from or close to one's body to block the raptor's view of the food pouch on one's opposite hip so that the raptor doesn't see it.  Alas, the majority of photos I took were focused on a spot about eight inches beyond where she actually was.

A different trainer was feeding Celilo, a bald eagle, inside Celilo's mew.  It was kind of scary watching her gulp down a strip of rabbit flesh (?and bones?) about as long as my hand.  Without chewing (no teeth); just a flip of the head back, and down her wide-open beak the meat slid.  Celilo really wanted the trainer's hand, the one that was giving out rabbit's legs.  I suppose if she'd really wanted to, she would have gone for the bag of haunches on the trainer's hip.  Afterward, Celilo hopped into her eagle-sized bird bath and cleaned off her beak.

More clouds and overcast rolled in as the day progressed, which translated into photographs featuring the bars of the mews -- better photos work out when I can find the raptors in sunlight and their enclosure's meshes shaded.  I was getting hungry, so it was time to leave.