We had a birthday party the day after Jonah's birthday. I was a little nervous about how it would all work out, but it ended up being a pretty unique experience.
When we lived in Iowa, one of Jonah's favorite things to do was visit the Lake McBride Raptor Center. The Raptor Center takes in and rehabilitates injured birds of prey. They also have several birds that are not able to be released (due to permanent injury or exposure to humans) that you can go see at your leisure during daylight hours - a falcon, a couple eagles, several owls, a hawk, etc. When we moved to Kansas, I did some googling to see if there was anything like that around here. The closest thing I found was Eagle Valley Raptor Center. Unfortunately, it is 30 miles away and only open for pre-arranged group tours. But Jonah's birthday was a perfect excuse to schedule a tour and check the place out.
We ended up with perfect weather for the day of the party - low 70's, sunny, and no wind :) We invited families from a playgroup we attend with other residency families, as well as some families we know from house church and few fellow interns. Here are some of the kids in front of an eagle's nest:
The tour was really interactive. You can tell the guy who owns EVRC (which is literally in his backyard) is really passionate about his work. He said this was the youngest group he has ever had (we had many two- and three-year olds), and I think we made him a little nervous with all the noise and movement around the birds. Jonah got to get up close with lots of different birds.
Brandon got in on some of the fun, too. He got to "fly" a hawk - meaning he held out a dead mouse, called the hawk, and she flew to him and ate the mouse from his hand. This has been a dream of Brandon's for years - only in the dream I think it was always a falcon instead of a hawk.
The grand finale of the tour was the bald eagles. There were two eagles in the enclosure. One has a permanently damaged wing and cannot be released. The other was a wild eagle that was just about ready to be released. The tour guide had us all go into the enclosure....with the birds!
The eagle on the bottom right is the injured one (see his damaged wing that can't fold in all the way?), the one on the top left is a WILD ANIMAL. He was at the far end of the very large cage, and the tour guide assured us he would leave us alone. He had Brandon and Jonah walk down the cage and stand next to the injured eagle to pose for some pictures, and I followed along to take the pictures. While I was standing alone in the middle of this big enclosure, the wild eagle got spooked and started flying around and dove at me several times. His wing hit my head at least once. Everyone else was at the other end of the enclosure, holding onto their small children for dear life!
But at least we got these great pictures to show for it :)
After the tour, we had lunch - and of course, cake! Jonah was too quick with the candles, but at least I caught a shot before he started eating :)
When we lived in Iowa, one of Jonah's favorite things to do was visit the Lake McBride Raptor Center. The Raptor Center takes in and rehabilitates injured birds of prey. They also have several birds that are not able to be released (due to permanent injury or exposure to humans) that you can go see at your leisure during daylight hours - a falcon, a couple eagles, several owls, a hawk, etc. When we moved to Kansas, I did some googling to see if there was anything like that around here. The closest thing I found was Eagle Valley Raptor Center. Unfortunately, it is 30 miles away and only open for pre-arranged group tours. But Jonah's birthday was a perfect excuse to schedule a tour and check the place out.
We ended up with perfect weather for the day of the party - low 70's, sunny, and no wind :) We invited families from a playgroup we attend with other residency families, as well as some families we know from house church and few fellow interns. Here are some of the kids in front of an eagle's nest:
Most of the group for the tour:
The tour was really interactive. You can tell the guy who owns EVRC (which is literally in his backyard) is really passionate about his work. He said this was the youngest group he has ever had (we had many two- and three-year olds), and I think we made him a little nervous with all the noise and movement around the birds. Jonah got to get up close with lots of different birds.
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| Feeling the owls feathers |
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| Feeding a dead mouse to a turkey vulture! |
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| Checking out the golden eagle |
Brandon got in on some of the fun, too. He got to "fly" a hawk - meaning he held out a dead mouse, called the hawk, and she flew to him and ate the mouse from his hand. This has been a dream of Brandon's for years - only in the dream I think it was always a falcon instead of a hawk.
The grand finale of the tour was the bald eagles. There were two eagles in the enclosure. One has a permanently damaged wing and cannot be released. The other was a wild eagle that was just about ready to be released. The tour guide had us all go into the enclosure....with the birds!
The eagle on the bottom right is the injured one (see his damaged wing that can't fold in all the way?), the one on the top left is a WILD ANIMAL. He was at the far end of the very large cage, and the tour guide assured us he would leave us alone. He had Brandon and Jonah walk down the cage and stand next to the injured eagle to pose for some pictures, and I followed along to take the pictures. While I was standing alone in the middle of this big enclosure, the wild eagle got spooked and started flying around and dove at me several times. His wing hit my head at least once. Everyone else was at the other end of the enclosure, holding onto their small children for dear life!
But at least we got these great pictures to show for it :)
After the tour, we had lunch - and of course, cake! Jonah was too quick with the candles, but at least I caught a shot before he started eating :)
Happy Birthday to our big THREE year old!!
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