Eagles

I took the kids this morning to the Soar with the Eagles festival at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha. We had a good time (well, except for when Natalie threw a fit) and learned a lot about eagles and birds of prey. There were a ton of people there and we want to go back sometime when there aren't hoards of people. There were several other learning opportunities that we didn't get to do because of time and the amount of people. They had a very large tent (sort of heated--we still froze) outside that housed several different shows (not at the same time). We went to one about birds of prey. The man and woman that put on the show were from Georgia (they must have been freezing here) and we were able to see some owls, a redtail hawk, a vulture, a bald eagle and a few other flying creatures.

We learned that vultures are very important since they help keep the earth clean by eating the roadkill, etc. Their heads have very few feathers since they put their heads in the dead animal. After they eat, they like to bathe and then lie in the sun (in order to kill the germs). We also learned that the owl cannot move his eyes which is why he was designed to rotate his head 300 degrees. They also fly silently since their feathers are notched. An eagle's vision is so good that he can read a newspaper from 1/2 to 1 mile away.

Here are a few pics from our outing today.