Birds of Prey, in my NatGeo column and in real life, in Maitland

“How high can you fly with broken wings?”

Aerosmith asked that rhetorical question in one of their lyrics but in real-life the sad answer is “You can’t.” Especially not if you're an injured bird.

That’s why when two Swainson’s hawks came into a the Teton Raptor Center in Wyoming with flight feathers that had been forcefully removed by some lovely person, the rehab specialists at the TRC used an ancient technique called “imping” to give it new feathers. You can read all about it in my NatGeo Weird Animal Question of the Week column, How Injured Birds Get New Feathers - The Answer May Surprise You.

Sadly for me I don't always get to meet the animals I write about...well, "sadly" unless they're black widow spiders. This week, though i was lucky to get to the  Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, FL and meet some raptors.

It's a great day out: for a measly $5 suggested donation you get a beautiful afternoon of seeing these amazing birds up close. That can be eye-opening for Floridians who see eagles, hawks, ospreys and vultures frequently, but nesting on a power pole, picking at road kill or otherwise not where you can get a good look. 

At the Birds of Prey Center you can get closer than arm’s length with a red-tailed hawk, like I did with tSpike, (above). She is short one eye but has quite a menacing beak, especially when you’re as close as I am here, where it looks as if he's just said "I cannot believe you haven't seen Winged Migration!"

There's Spike again, right, with one of the center guides, Angela, looking a bit more chirpy.

Bald eagles, too, are enormous close up, and so handsome they were clearly the right choice for national symbol. Benjamin Franklin had suggested the turkey for that honor, which would have been a great choice if we wanted our image to be “Delicious,” but for regal presence the bald eagle was the best pick and you can see why when there is one a few feet away from you.

The center has a few tiny owls, including burrowing owls who, as their name suggests, live underground and not in trees like almost every other bird in the world (weirdos) but they also have a barred owl, one of my favorites. It's a haunted looking bird with a distinctive call you can hear in the video below.

Of course most of the owls were asleep since it was the middle of the day when we were there but hopefully they’ll all stay  on May the 9th when the center has its Baby Owl Shower, which promises a deluge of cuteness, not something you normally associate with birds of prey but if you've ever seen a tiny owl you won't be able to resist. 

I hope to get to see more of “my” animals in real life in upcoming stories, so keep your fingers crossed, check back in and click on the NatGeo piece and see how damaged birds get back up in the air with the help of rehab centers. 

Humans…they’re not all bad.