Tag Archives: eagles

Ecotarium

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It was a beautiful day for an adventure with the kids. My friend Nancy’s kids that is. I picked up Nancy and her daughter Dawn and son Alex at 11:15 for the drive to Worcester to the Ecotarium. We’d checked out the website but still weren’t sure what we would find.

When we reached Worcester we decided to stop for lunch before we went on to the Ecotarium. We had a nice (if slow) lunch at a Friendly’s Restaurant. They were doing a good business but were clearly under staffed. I have to give our harried waitress a pat on the back. In spite of being pulled in many directions she maintained her pleasant attitude.

Finally out of the restaurant we found we were just around the corner from the Ecotarium. Worcester streets are not easy to navigate but we finally found it.

You buy your tickets at the gate as you drive in. Then follow the signs to the parking area. There was ample parking while we were there. There were several trails out of the parking lot. The one we took led to the main visitor center. As we passed along the trail we stopped to look at the Bald Eagles and 2 Barred Owls. All of the animals here are rescues. They have some injury that has healed but was severe enough that it left them crippled. The Ecotarium tries to give their animals a good quality of life.

Eagles mate in the air but these two are unable to fly so it makes mating difficult. The female eagle is currently sitting on a nest and has laid eggs. This has happened before but the eggs have always been infertile. It is too early to tell about this year’s clutch.

The owls also have a handicap so will not be released and will live out their life here in their habitat.

At the courtyard in front of the Visitor Center there was a sundial and another sculpture made of different sized pipes. You can blow in the pipes or hit the tops of the pipes with an over-sized sandal to see how different sized pipes create different tones.

As we entered the Visitor Center we were assaulted by the noise. I think it would be safe to say we had found the other families! There were tons of exhibits ranging  from a terrarium where you can put you head in from he bottom to a hurricane wind chamber. There was a machine that made mini tornado and an interactive room for budding engineers.

There was a rock wall for climbing and at the top of the wall a mountain lion was waiting.

There were programs and presentations, a chess board, a live parrot, a huge taxidermy bear.

The Africa gallery was a beautifully done series of dioramas.

The kids were running from one exhibit to another. They were being exposed to science without even realizing it. Everything was interactive so they could try it and to them it was just fun.

Eventually we got outside to another walking path. The animals along this path were skunks, porcupines and a large ‘possum. Near the playground were two gorgeous red foxes. From the Red Fox enclosure we walked down to the “pond”. We could see loads of fish swimming in the tea colored water.

By now it was almost 4:15 and the last chance to grab a ride on the little steam engine so we hustled back to the station. That was a fun ride. It even went through a tunnel.

Ride over, we made a quick stop at the gift shop as they were getting ready to shut down. We took the long path back to the car so that we could go by the otter habitat. Unfortunately the otters were in hiding but as we crossed the wooden bridge over the marsh we could see loads of frogs. A lady was there with a net trying to catch tadpoles.

Our final stop before leaving was at the stegosaurus. What would a museum be without a dinosaur?

If you are looking for a Zoo you will be disappointed. There are only a limited number of “live animal” exhibits but if you are looking for a nice day with lots of “hands on” exhibits and some lovely walking trails I would give the Ecotarium a big thumbs up!

Lions and Tigers and Ligers????

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I wandered around the grounds At King Richard’s Faire to get familiar with the layout working my way back toward the Tournament Field. Right next to the field was the Tiger Stage. I love this show. They have had it every year that I’ve been to King Richard’s Faire and to me it is the highlight. I love the animals.

Since it was the first show of the day it wasn’t too crowded yet and I was able to get a seat fairly close to the stage. I’ve almost always been in the back before  so this was a treat.

The show is put on by a conservation group. They have been featured on all sorts of shows and provide animals for the movies like Dr. Doolittle and Ace Ventura to name just a couple of fairly well known movies. I’ve seen documentaries  about them on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic.

This year’s show really pushed the conservation angle more than it has in the past. Although I thought it bordered on being “preachy” I happen to agree with what they had to say.

The name of the organization is T.I.G.E.R.S (The Institute of Greatly Endangered  and Rare Species.). They have a web page www.tigerfriends.com and they offer opportunities to get up close and personal with their animals at their facility in Myrtle Beach. www.myrtlebeachsafari.com. I had never heard of this being allowed any place except Tiger Island in Australia so to have a place in the US is awesome!

The show started with film clips on a big screen TV which was very interesting and enjoyable. It centered on a heartwarming story about a 6-year-old orangutan and an old hound dog named Roscoe.

Then out came the parade of cats. Bengal tigers, Royal White Tigers, Snowy White Tigers and a couple of very rare tigers that (shame on me) I forget what they are called.

 You can see the difference in their markings and coat color.

They had a lively little cat that I think was some kind of rare lynx.

It was easy to see why small children are banned from the first 3 rows.

This little cat was really alert and fascinated by any movement from the audience.

Finally the last big cat was introduced.

It was Hercules a world record size cat. He is a Liger. A liger is a hybrid between a Lion and a Tiger. The father is a Lion and the mother a Tiger. If it was the other way around he would have been much smaller and called a tigon. Ligers, unlike many hybrids, are not sterile so Hercules could father a bunch of little ligers.

He is really huge. 900 pounds and eleven feet tall. All the cats have their claws and teeth so must be treated with utmost respect. One swipe with a paw and those handlers would be toast. These are wild animals.

All of these cats  are raised with humans from birth (they are also are well fed) so they have no need to have a human snack, still they have the instincts of a predator so again, small children are not allowed in the front rows where a child’s  quick actions could trigger an attack. You will also see that they are being given a bottle when they are on stage. That is milk and the animals consider it a treat. It keeps their attention centered on the trainers.

The show was narrated by none other than my friend the Falconer.

To raise money for their organization, they had books, stuffed animals and DVD’s for sale after the show. As I was considering the DVD they told me about another option, one I couldn’t refuse. Around to the side of the stage they were bringing out the hawk I’d seen earlier and a European Eagle Owl.

For a fee you could have your picture taken with one of the birds.

It was a hard choice but I decided on the hawk. The Falconer told me it is a Harris’s Hawk. He said it is the only hawk that actually enjoys human company.

As I held out my forearm for the hawk to step on she let out a loud sound similar to a caw. Then hopped on my arm. It was almost like she was saying hello. This was definitely the high point of the day for me. After the picture I was allowed to pet her and she calmly accepted my gentle strokes before the falconer took her back to her post.

I missed most of the Challenge of the Champions that was going on at the Tournament Field but I really didn’t care. This opportunity was well worth it.

Tomorrow’s post will be a little break from King Richard’s Faire but I’ll have the rest of that experience for you next week.

Eagle Update

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UPDATE: Back in October of 2010 when this blog was still hosted by Blogger, I posted that an injured Bald Eagle had been spotted by the Verde Canyon Train Crew and rescued. The  Eagle was taken to a Wildlife Rehab Center in hopes of saving it and returning it to the wild. The train crew had noticed it’s mate keeping watch when they came to collect the injured bird. They hoped to be able to return it to the wild to reunite with its mate. Sadly the story did not end well. The rescued eagle was suffering from lead poisoning and did not recover. It is believed that the surviving eagle eventually found a new mate.

Eagles and condors both are subject to the risk of lead poisoning. Both birds tend to scavenge for food and sometimes the dead animals are ones that have been shot by lead bullets. As the birds eat the meat they ingest bits of lead from the bullets. If they eat enough of this tainted meat they develop lead poisoning and die.

There are bullets available that are not made of lead. Not being a hunter myself I can’t tell you what they are but I do know that there is a movement to encourage if not force the use of non lead  bullets when hunting near National Forests or other protected habitat.

Verde Canyon Railroad

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After 2 early mornings to get to the Grand Canyon we took it easy this morning and got a late start. We thought we could go to the Blazin’ M Ranch before we took the Verde Canyon Railroad so we would have time to visit their Old West display but when we arrived at the ranch there was a sign that it didn’t open until 4pm. No problem, we took a leisurely ride over to the Verde Canyon Railroad depot to collect our train tickets and visit the gift shop.

We arrived around 11:30 and were surprised to see other passengers arriving too. We thought we were early. The desert smelled like rain and the weather report was for “showers”. We were keeping a close eye on the sky. The wind that had plagued us all week was still with us and still had a cold edge to it.

When I made the reservations the operator said they had a special for people doing the combo with the Blazin’ M dinner show. The special upgraded us to First Class. I jumped at that even though I expected that we would spend a good part of the trip on the open air viewing car. Now with weather threatening I was glad I made that decision.

We had time to spare so decided to have lunch before we got on the train. Neither of us realized that the First Class upgrade included lunch! Anyway, while we were eating it started to rain so we finished off our lunch quickly and headed to the little museum on the property along with about 30 of our closest friends. If they weren’t friends when we went in they certainly must have been when we got out. It was crowded with everyone looking for someplace dry to wait out the storm.

The museum was small but interesting with artifacts, photos and history of the Verde Canyon railroad spread out in front of us in cabinets and in displays. It only takes a short time to go through the museum depending on how long it takes you to read the captions.

Since the rain wasn’t showing any sign of letting up the railroad was considerate enough of their customers to start boarding us early. It meant a longer wait in the cars before we pulled out of the station but at least we were dry. Once again we heard how unusual the weather was for May, normally a dry month for this area.

It wasn’t too long before we heard the “All Aboard” and we began to slowly roll out of the station.

We passed the huge black slag mountain left over from the days of copper mining and heard the story of the former boom town of Jerome that became a ghost town and is now a thriving artist colony. Many buildings in the town have been rescued and restored to maintain its historic appearance. Even now, on my 2nd trip to the area, I still haven’t visited the town. They say 3’s the charm so maybe on my next trip!

The Verde Canyon Railroad trip is a 4 hour rail journey celebrating the glory days of the Iron Horse.  Travel is in vintage cars that have been painstakingly restored to invite today’s traveler to “step back in time”.

 There are 3  types of cars: Pullman  Standard, Budd Stainless Steel  and a refurbished  AC&F caboose. The AC&F identifies the builder of the caboose. It’s like saying a Pullman Car.

When you ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad you are really getting 2 seats for the price of one. Each seat purchased gives access to a 2nd seat in one of the open air viewing cars. In nice weather more people are outside than in so they can enjoy the beautiful canyon and watch for wildlife. Prefer indoor seating, don’t worry about the view; all of the enclosed cars have panoramic windows.

Everyone watches for wildlife starting with the engineer all the way back to the last attendant on the last car plus all the passengers! When something is spotted word flys through the cars as each attendant is connected by ear piece to the next. On this trip we were lucky enough to get good views of not one but 2 bald eagles. One was perched on a craggy bluff, the other in a tree right next to the track! Unfortunately the only picture I was able to get was of their empty nest. I’ve seen the Bald Eagles on both of my trips and failed to get a photo either time. Like I said 3’s the charm…maybe next time.

The Verde Canyon has been occupied for a long time starting with the cliff-dwelling Sinagua. The train passes some of these ancient cliff dwellings but you have to keep your eyes open to catch them.. After the Sinagua came the nomadic Yavapai and the Tonto Apache followed by the farmers and cattlemen. And speaking of cattle, see that cow laying down over there? Out here that’s called Ground Beef! ( yes you can groan)

Many of the acncient cultures left thier mark throughout the canyon by petroglyph and pictograph.

According to local Native American lore, the Verde River is female. She provides an oasis in stark contrast to the surrounding arid countryside. The Verde River is fed from 5 creeks which flow down from the Colorado Plateau: Sycamore, Oak, Beaver, Clear and Fossil Creek. When it rains on the plateau the Verde gets fed the runoff.

The ride reaches its half way turnaround point at Perkinsville station at milepost 18.5. At its peak Perkinsville had  10-12 families living in the vicinity. It even had a small school, a general store and a post office but when the smelter closed in the 1950’s and the railroad switched from steam to diesel the  town became a ghost town.

In the 1960’s a few movie companies came to visit filming scenes for some of the classic westerns of the day like How the West was Won. The story is that during that filming the water tower that had stood by the tracks was blown up for one of the scenes but for some reason did not make the cut. The footage ended up on the editing room floor.

To turn the train around the engine is uncoupled and switched to a side track to pass by the train to the other end and be re-coupled. It’s a pretty amazing sight to see that engine passing by the window.

The return trip was as lovely as the outbound. We even saw a small rainbow as we passed in and out of the rain showers.  Back in Clarkdale we said goodbye to the railroad and headed to our car for the short drive to the Blazin’ M ranch.

Eagles on the Connecticut River

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After going up to the Shepaug Dam to see eagles on the Housatonic I thought it might be nice to try the Connecticut River. This area has been known for having a high concentration of Bald Eagles for a number of years. The Connecticut Audubon Society used to host a festival celebrating the eagles but in the last few years have not been able to get corporate sponsorship thanks to the poor economy.
But eagles don‘t care about the economy. They come to the lower Connecticut River to fish, build nests and mate. The bald eagles of Connecticut are really 2 groups. One is a resident population and the other just passing through on their migration.

Since I had tried the ground based “blind” method of looking for these birds, this time I would try the river. I booked an Eagle Cruise with River Quest. River Quest has been cruising the Connecticut River for 10+ years, 7 of which have included these eagle cruises in conjunction with the CT Audubon.

Other than being thoroughly chilled, it was a great trip.

RiverQuest
can be found at http://ctriverquest.com/

 

 

The launch location varies depending on the ice on the river. The coast guard normally sends an ice breaker up the river but their ice breaker broke this year! That delayed the start of the Eagle cruises until now. The ice finally “went out” yesterday so the boat will be leaving from Haddam instead of Essex.

It was about a 2 hour drive and I made good time. Even though I was heading from Massachusetts through Rhode Island and into Connecticut during rush hour, there were no traffic delays. Since I arrived early I had a chance to look around a little.

Right away I spotted some mergansers and a mute swan. The ever present Canadian geese were also wandering along the shoreline.

A really amazing building sits right on the water making a picturesque appearance. This is the Goodspeed Opera House, a historic building. I will tell you all about that in another post.

Pretty soon the boat pulled in from their morning cruise. Riverquest has a fully enclosed , heated cabin to take the chill off but the real action is outside so I came prepared. All week we’d had great, warm weather but overnight the temps had dropped to single numbers and on the river was a stiff breeze…closer to a cold wind, truth be told.

I thought I came prepared. I was wearing a turtle neck cotton pull over with a fleece vest over that. Then I pulled on my hooded sweatshirt and over that my heavy winter jacket. I have my baseball cap on with ear muffs over that. Then I pulled the hood up as well and tied it tight to hold all the layers in place. I have a pair of really heavy warm gloves but those would be off and on as needed with the camera.

We got the OK to board and I staked out a corner of the bow. It was windy and cold there but the captain said once he turned to boat to head downstream the wind would be at our back and the sun would be shining on the bow. The return trip would be a different story.

As I was standing in the bow of the River Quest, before we were fully loaded or cast off, someone yelled “eagle” and a fully mature bald eagle came winging right over our heads. That seemed to be a good sign for the cruise.

We were held up leaving because a van of school children had gone to the wrong boat launch so they were waiting for them. They had just decided they had waited long enough when we saw the van come whipping down the driveway so we pulled back into the dock to load about 20 more people. Then we were on our way.

We had a very knowledgeable crew including a representative from the CT. Audubon. In addition to pointing out and identifying the various birds, they told us about the river, the geology and the buildings and homes along the way. A lot of the land in this area is preserved land by way of Nature reserves and State Parks.

The cruise itself was about 2 hours. I stayed in the bow for most of the downstream leg. There were bald eagles, cormorants, Swans, Geese, Mergansers, and Turkey Vultures!

We looked for a Harbor Seal that has been spotted on other trips but we didn’t see it. Of course there were “gulls’. We were told that there is no such thing as a “sea gull”. The flocks we see are made up of a long list of specific types of gulls…none of them “Sea Gulls”!

The Naturalist pointed out an Osprey nest that was on a platform. The osprey haven’t returned yet, it’s still too early in the season.

Someone pointed out a bird they said was a Northern Harrier and another spotted a Red Tailed hawk. There was plenty to see.

　The cruise was very pleasant in spite of the cold and I may well do it again…when it’s warmer. I am still in pursuit of the Perfect Picture as my lens was just too small. At 200 MM I could see the shadows and silhouettes but even after “zooming” in with the computer there was more blue sky than bird. Even though the results are very poor, I am including a few pictures for illustrations. The River is beautiful.



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In the Summer they offer a Sunset cruise…I bet that would be really something!The ride back upriver was , as the captain had predicted, much colder than the ride downstream. I gave up and finished the return trip in the cabin. The cabin has large viewing windows so those inside can see too.