I had a wonderful visitor arrive last Friday. I've known Jonathan Wood for 20 years but had never met him. That long ago he got an elderly Golden Eagle from me for use in his educational programs. He renamed her CODY and they were together for 16 years before she died. He then got another eagle, MORIAH to complete his collection of awesome birds.
Jon has a program called The Raptor Project and is based in NY and TX. He is permitted to give programs in all 50 states but usually ends up in about 44 of them. This time he was headed for Seattle for a few months and will do 400 programs in that time. He was traveling in a 60' motor home with special accomodations for the 42 birds he had along with him. That included 10 babies ranging in age from four days to six weeks. And in size from Kestrel to Crested Caracara and Gyr Falcon.
Here we are sitting in the shade feeding the 10 babies. I'm holding a Kestrel and Prairie Falcon with a Eagle Owl and Gyr next to me.
The photos show just a few of the adult birds he's using on this trip. They include a Bald Eagle, three Eurasian Eagle Owls, Snowy Owl, Peregrine Falcon, Lanner Falcon, Gyr Falcon, Crested Caracara, South American Lesser Yellow-faced Vulture, Black Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, and many more. The Snowy Owl is one of those used in the Harry Potter movies. His Lanner Falcon was in the scene with Ben Stiller in his Walter Mitty movie where he lands on his arm.
The bird in this photo is an adult Crested Caracara and he seems to be giving me a very intense look-over.
I hope that if any of you get a chance to see one of his shows you take advantage of doing so. He calls the show Extreme Raptors and is an amazing combination of flying birds, information on the species and a chance to get up close and personal to birds you may never see other than in photos or on a video. Jon was only here for two days but it was a very fun visit and I hope he, his wife Susan and daughter Rachael can all make it the next time.
Photos were taken by Sara Sprung and Melissa Hill.
It must have been a fun day to have this visit. It is nice that they could overnight at your place. Love the photos, I didn't know that he had so many immature birds along!
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