Girls Weekend 2023 Charleston, South Carolina

Friday, October 13, 2023 

 Our first full day in Charleston. We woke up at 7:30 and showered and dressed for our outing to the Aviation Conservation Center and the Center for Birds of Prey. No leisure time this morning for coffee and computer time. The Center opens at 10am and they have a morning flight demonstration at 10:30. So we were out the door at 9:00 am, stopped for some Starbucks coffee on the way and arrived 5 minutes before the demonstration began.This was an amazing experience. This facility houses and cares for injured birds of prey and shorebirds. They also provide education regarding these interesting birds in an effort to protect the birds and the environments that they live in. Prior to the flight demonstration there were 4 handlers with one bird each perched on gloved hands. These birds are ambassadors for the center. They are taken to various schools and functions to provide an opportunity to educate folks about these birds and their place in our world and ecosystem and to dispel some of the misinformation that surrounds them. The four ambassador birds were a Peregrine falcon, a Savigney's Eagle Owl, a Barn Owl and a Harris' hawk.  The staff at the place are obviously very passionate about these birds as well as quite knowledgeable.  These birds were taken away and the flight demonstration began. The first bird to fly was a Red-tailed hawk.  Red-tailed hawks are in abundance throughout North America and I would guess that most people have seen them on fence posts, signs and light and utility poles at the side of the road where they perch looking below for a meal.  There are perches all around the demonstration field and seating area and the bird handlers have the birds flying right over the heads of the spectators.  They fly from perch to perch as signaled by the handler in order to receive a morsel of food as a reward. Most of the birds living in the center have suffered some sort of injury or have imprinted on humans and would not be able to survive in the wild.  Many of the injuries these birds have are the result of being struck by cars.  The center provides medical care for the injured birds, then provides shelter and housing for them if they are unable to return to the wild.

We were also treated to flight demonstrations by a turkey vulture, a burrowing owl and a Yellow Billed Kite. 

 After the demo, we went to the gift shop and both came out with bird earrings. Kathi with burrowing owls and me with Great Horned owls. We then walked around the Avian buildings where the permanent residents of the facility are housed. There were hawks and falcons and eagles, kites and vultures. They also have a designated area they call the “Vulture restaurant” which is a open field where they place roadkill making it fair game for vultures to come and feed on and provide an opportunity for visitors to the center to observe them. Today there was a dead deer that had died on some nearby farmers farm. It had not yet been discovered by the local vultures because there were none there taking advantage of the feast offered. After checking out all the birds in the shelters, we sat down at a table and ate the lunch that we had packed earlier today. Sandwiches, chips, cookies and water. Then it was time to gather for a guided tour with one of the center’s educators followed by the Owls in Flight demo. They have owls here from around the world and they are all beautiful and it was a treat to see them flying since they seem to be relatively elusive in the wild.

Spectacled owl

Asian Brown Wood Owl

Savigney's Eagle Owl

After the flight demonstration we walked around the Owl Court where the center's owls are housed and saw many more owls.  As we were getting ready to leave, we ran into another of the center's educators who was carrying a Lanner falcon around on a gloved hand while it was eating so we stopped and chatted with him for a bit and took some pics.

Lanner falcon

We truly enjoyed our day here, but it was time to go back to the condo and spend the evening doing what we do.  Editing photos for Lori and journaling about our experiences for both of us.  We watched one episode of "The Morning Show", then Kathi journaled while I made dinner, Sweet Heat Cauliflower something or other from Hello Fresh that was quite tasty! I worked on this journal a bit, washed up the dinner dishes, then we enjoyed one more episode of "The Morning Show" before calling it a night and heading off to bed.

Oh, I almost forgot, we did toss the states and it is now down to Alaska, Hawaii, Georgia and North Dakota!!

Good night, all.  Off to the Charleston Tea Garden tomorrow!