Flight time

 
Recently, my sister and I took my Dad to see a Birds of Prey show as a surprise for Mother's Day (he gets both Mother's and Father's days because he did both roles after our parents split up)

A kestral in flight, just above our heads

It was at Whiteman Park (for those of you in WA) and was run by the WA Birds of Prey Centre which was started in 2005 by Yvonne Sitko.  Yvonne is a great presenter, even in the middle of a downpour (which happened halfway through the show) and it is well worth a visit to one of the shows.  The birds that she has in the shows are unable to be released into the wild due to things like blindness and imprinting on humans.  The centre mainly focuses on rehabilitating injured birds and getting them back into the wild. 

A kite in flight just before the other two came in.

The birds we saw were allowed to roam free around the area, flying around wherever they liked.  At one point, while a male kite was flying around, a wild female kite flew into the area followed closely by another wild male.  The kite from the show flew off to join them but came back after a few minutes. 

Lots of rain! Poor Oska the Barking Owl is hiding under the umbrella

The show was fairly interactive as well, with the kids (and any adults who wanted to) getting to go up and throw some food for one of the birds to catch in their talons and then transfer to their mouths to eat whilst flying.  We also got to hold a kestral or a kite (I can't remember which one now) and a wedge tail eagle. 

If you look closely you can see this owl is blind in one eye

It wasn't cheap, but we had vouchers that brought it down to about half price.  We just kept in mind that the $45 per person we spent was going back to the Birds of Prey Centre to help them in rehabilitating more birds.  Definitely a good cause!

My dad and sister teased me a bit because in all the photos I am leaning away from the birds. 
This one is Micro the Wedge Tail Eagle, Micro because he is a small specimum at only 2kg.