Educating Risa

Last week the boys and I headed to Lethbridge (about 2.5 hours south) for a few days, in part to escape some home reno work being done. (With Gareth’s asthma, avoiding as much ‘kicked up dust’ as possible is a good idea). While there we made the 10 minute journey east to the small town of Coaldale, to visit the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre (a wildlife rescue and education facility). It was excellent, and I highly recommend it if you are in the area. Allow a good 2 hours to do all of what we did, as follows:

You arrive at the admission and gift shop building, where they also happened to be nursing an orphaned baby owl back to health behind the front desk:

 

You follow the red shale paths to see the birds—and the facility is much, much bigger than what I was expecting in a town of about 7000 people.

We were there just after they opened and got to see the eagles getting their water. The mature bald eagle (they also had a juvenile) was none to pleased as the worker approached, but he LOVED the water. He hopped right into the dish and took a bath, and he frolicked in the spray when she sprinkled him directly from the hose. I’ve never seen anything like it!

One of the best features of this centre is that you get to be up close and personal with (some of) the birds, like this barn owl, which both boys got a chance to hold. Daegan was sooooo in his element:

We also got to see a falconry demonstration. Here’s a Harris Hawk (not native to Alberta, but very easy to train) gulping down a dead chick as a reward for returning after his first flight:

After the falconry, we read about how power companies try to avoid conflict with osprey—a bird the boys were quite keen on after we had seen one for the first time on my birthday a few days earlier. In the same area, they had a mock power line and various baffles and deterrents to prevent birds of prey from injuring themselves on them:

We then visited the Natural History Centre on site:

Where Daegan and I both loved the owl wall (Whooooo Am I?). The answer key was found across the room, in a small picture frame:

They also had some hands-on materials by a microscope that the boys examined closely. I quite liked the leaf with all the chlorophyll removed. The boys liked the bones:

We then walked around outside checking out various aviaries:

My favourite was the Ferruginous Hawk, which I had never seen in real life before:

Quite an impressive facility given its humble beginnings, and the fact it receives no government funding. I feel it justified my splurging in the gift shop. The boys picked out a small toy each, and I found them some very cool T-shirts as well. I also found a lovely tea mug with birds painted on, and showed the boys. “Who do you think this is for?” I asked. “Hmmm…it’s got tea, and birds….YOU!” they both giggled.

On our way out the boys got to hold a burrowing owl. Gareth in particular enjoyed holding a bird scaled to his size:

We’ll be back!