The World Center for Birds of Prey was disappointing. I was looking forward to their hourly live bird show/presentation thinking that, well, I'd actually see a bird of prey. They brought out a Turkey Vulture...
...no, not a bird of prey in case you were wondering.
And then they brought out Dakka, the panhandler crow...
...again, not a bird of prey. Dakka was funny, I'll give you that, but I really haven't made the connection between a Bird of Prey Center's live bird presentation using the same turkey vultures and crows that sit in our trees in Linganore. C'mon people! That's like going to see a Siegfried and Roy show and having them use barn cats. Whatever.
We did get to see a handful of ACTUAL birds of prey, but they were in big outdoor cages that were not camera friendly (I had to use the zoom and shove my camera lens between the two layers of fencing in order to get any shots - thus all the head shots instead of full body shots).
A Peregrine Falcon...
Bald Eagle...
Bateleur...
And an Ornate Hawk-Eagle
Not sure why they didn't use this guy - a Harpy Eagle who was supposedly an Ambassador bird used for one of their educational programs in South America. These guys are bad mamba jambas.
We liked him a lot. We talked to one of the employees and learned that Harpy Eagles are one of the largest and most powerful eagles in the world. They used this guy as an ambassador to the native people in South America who greatly fear these birds. The Harpy is extremely protective of its young, so to defend its territory, it will do a flyby and "buzz" any intruders. Getting buzzed by a 3 1/2 foot tall eagle with hind talons that are 4" long (as long as a grizzlies') is a problem. Even though the bird will ball up its feet as it buzzes someone, its hind talon is so long and sharp that it will slice a person's scalp wide open - which makes the villagers think that the bird is trying to kill them and eat their children. ;P
Anywho...This pic doesn't show the hind talon, but you might get a feel for how big this bird really is.
BTW - a 6 foot wingspan is pretty stinking big!
And that's just the Bald and Golden eagles. Shoulda had Bill stand in front of the Condor's outline - a 9 foot wingspan. Ugly birds, but impressive to see fly. Didn't get a good photo of them here, but we've seen them flying around at the Grand Canyon (where this Center releases them as part of their breed and release program).
Anyway, as I mentioned, the Center was disappointing but at least now I know that, yes, in fact, Boise does suck. :P HA!
We hightailed it out of Boise by noon and took the scenic route (21) to Stanley and then 75 towards Redfish Lake. It was a really beautiful drive. I commented to Bill that it reminded me of areas of Yellowstone.
In case you forgot...
John 3:16
I've been looking forward to seeing the Sawtooth area for months now. A few years back, we saw a Discovery special on the Sawtooth Wolf Pack and have been wanting to go ever since. I don't think east-coasters think of Idaho as anything but a potato state, but having spent a lot of time mapping and researching, I knew it to be pure green - far better to me than pure gold. I think Boise may be one of the few areas that's not green - thus my keen dislike for it I suppose.
We arrived in Stanley around 5:30 and checked out some of the campgrounds in the area. In addition to the developed campgrounds, there are A LOT of free primitive sites that can be had on a first come, first served basis. We stopped for a bit to let the Boys have a break from the long drive, and you guessed it, play a little stick.
Not a shabby place to take a break...
We drove to the campgrounds around both Stanley and Redfish Lakes. All were full, but we were fortunate enough to find Sunny Gulch - about a mile up the road from the Redfish Lake campgrounds. $16 bucks a night - no hookups, but wow, what a kickin' view.
Here are a couple of shots depicting the various views from inside the trailer. Not a shabby thing to wake up to each morning.
After a quick set-up (we have it down to about 10 minutes now), we took the dogs for a long walk around the campground to check things out. We're right along the Salmon River and there are trails leading from the campground to the water's edge.
We didn't explore them since dusk was upon us, but we made a mental note to check them out the next day. We made rice and Jyoti's Matar Paneer for dinner on our old-school Coleman propane stove. We cooked outside because we didn't want to make the trailer hot by cooking rice for 20 minutes on the stove. The weather was phenomenal and the evening cooled quickly. We sat outside awhile (in my sweatpants - brrr) and enjoyed the evening. I knew it would get cold overnight, so we pulled out the down comforter and put away our light summer blanket. Good call. It got cold. 33 degrees at 6am the next morning kind of cold. :)
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