Through the Seasons

Carolina Raptor Center

Yesterday afternoon Jonathan and I took some time to walk around the Carolina Raptor Center in Huntersville.  We had such a good time.  They take in hawks, falcons, owls, eagles, etc that have been injured and they take care of them because many can’t survive in the wild anymore.  It was awesome to see these birds up close and to learn more about them.

For instance, most falcons have a post-like bone in the middle of their nostrils which breaks up the air as it comes in.  That enables them to breathe while flying at such high speeds.  Some hawks have a small bone that protrudes just above the eyes which serves as something like a baseball cap shielding the eyes from the sun.

Interesting…

The owls were beautiful although a little spooky because they sat very still and stared at us.  The other raptors were more into ‘their own thing’ or if they were interested in us they still flew around a lot.  The red shouldered hawk is a very vocal bird and was the only one that squawked at us over and over and over. 

But the highlight were the eagles.  Wow.  Huge birds!  And beautiful!!  We happened to get there when a staff member fed the eagles.  She goes in with dead rats (g-a-ross!) and lays them down then she leaves.  As she was walking away she looked and said, “We have a chick!”  We looked closely and there on the ground was a newly hatched eagle baby – I mean – chick.  They checked on the eggs earlier that day so that egg had to have just hatched.  Then we watched as the mother fed the baby.  It was so sweet!  In fact the mom and dad both stood over it, the mother fed the baby, then she sheltered it with her body.

Any birds ‘born’ at the raptor center are released into the wild so they aren’t allowed to see people.  Later yesterday they tarped that area off to shield them from the public.  That means if we hadn’t gotten there when we did we wouldn’t have gotten to see them.  Those eagle ‘parents’ laid eggs (they lay 2-3 a year) 8 years in a row with none of them hatching.  Last year though 2 eggs hatched and now they are ‘out there somewhere’.  So this is only the second year in the last 10 that they’ve had any eagle babies. 

Here’s a picture of what we saw:

“For the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob his allotted inheritance.

In a desert land He found him, in a barren and howling waste.

He shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of His eye,

like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young,

that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions.”

                                              ~Deuteronomy 32:9-11