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November 30, 2006
Salton Sea
After reading this article, I remembered that I had a desire to see the Salton Sea, a desire that suddenly intensified as I discovered that it's a great birding location. When I found a Southern CA birding guide online, I was excited at the possibility of getting to go to the Salton Sea when we go to L.A. over the holidays but then I found out the amount of time that it takes to get there (3 and a half hours) and how much it would cost so I've opted to take a local birding trip instead. I'm still sad that I'm not going to the Salton Sea though, especially after seeing these photos.
Posted by Jennifer at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2006
A day of raptors
Went on a trip to The Raptor Trust today, a rehabilitation center for wild birds which focuses on raptors. First we attended a presentation on owls and I was disappointed that only one live owl was shown but it was still neat seeing the one owl, a barn owl. It's a pretty odd looking bird--it kind of reminds me of the ghosts in one of Miyazaki's film. We then toured the aviary. The coolest part though was we got to see two red-tailed hawks being released. I actually sat right next to the founder of The Raptor Trust as he banded each of the two birds and got to touch one of their wings. And they actually let two of the trip attendees release the birds which was pretty neat. Anyhow, photos from the trip below:
I was actually pretty excited to see wild turkeys--I've never seen them so close before.
Cool owl (unfortunately, I forgot to jot down the species type)
Red-tailed hawk awaiting its release
Unfortunately, I didn't see one on the trip but here's a video of my new favorite bird.
Posted by Jennifer at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)