Cascades Raptor Center

This cheerful pair is Anu and Dakini, a pair of White-tailed Kites. Their story is not a pretty one, but it does have a happy ending. After a harrowing ordeal as youngsters, they were rescued and have been living and thriving at the Center for more than eight years.

http://www.eraptors.org/rr_whiteTailedKites.htm

This is Celilo. She is a female ... um ... I can never remember the name of this species. And, you know, it's right on the tip of my tongue. At any rate, Celilo was first thought to be a male, and it required blood tests to determine her actual gender. She is a huge bird, probably the largest on the grounds. And she is magnificent.

She has been separated from others of her species because she apparently has some rather significant attitude problems. I know I wouldn't want to mess with her when she's looking like that.

A note to photographers: all the birds on the grounds are kept in cages. The size of the cage varies, but the bars do not. To get decent photographs at the Center, you'll need to ditch your auto-focus, pick up a GOOD lens that can be manipulated manually and ranges from 35mm to 200mm, and shoot with manual focus.

The best shots are to be had when the animal is well lit and the bars are not (as in this photo). I'll be posting some other photos from the center, and all of them were taken through the bars of a cage -- some with more success than others. But as you can see from this photo, the bars do not have to be an impediment to a good photograph (or at least one that doesn't look as if it has been taken through the bars of a cage). Go ahead and give it a try. You might be surprised at the results.

If you had ever told me that there was a place somewhere on earth where you could walk up to a raptor and practically shake its hand, you know what I would have said to you?

"Where?!"

As luck would have it, that "where" is only a couple of short hours from Vancouver, a little south of Eugene, Oregon, at the Cascades Raptor Center.

Check it out: http://www.eraptors.org

The raptor you're looking at in this photo is a female Peregrine Falcon, and her name is Freyja. She is part of the resident population of raptors who live year round at the center.

Not all the raptors get to walk around the grounds on the arm of a handler, though many are brought out from time to time for the daily handler presentations (Tues-Fri). I was lucky enough to be there when Kaida got to take in a little air.

The CRC was started twenty five years ago as a rehabilitation center for raptors who had physical or mental ailments, or whom had spent the majority of their lives in a domestic setting, as a pet or under the training of a falconer.

These animals are either too "damaged" to be able to survive in the wild, or too dependent upon humans to be able to develop the skills necessary to do so.

Apart from the visiting area, the Center manages a more open-air rehabilitation facility and a hospital, neither of which is open to the public. The veterenarians who work at the hospital do so strictly on a voluntary basis, and never accept a fee for their services.

In fact, the spirit of volunteerism is the driving force behind the survival of the center. People seem to want to line up to help care for some of the most beautiful animals on the planet, though I suppose when you put it that way, it's hardly any kind of surprise.

I spent four hours there and never closed my eyes. It is just that kind of place.

There are three resident Barn Owls at the center. I believe this is Padawan, a male.

http://www.eraptors.org/rr_barnOwl.htm

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