Sunday, September 30, 2007

Wild Wings at Mendon Ponds Park
Sunday, September 30, 2007

Wild Wings site

After packing up my gear and grabbing some food, Ann and I headed out of the park in search of a better meal (there really wasn't much left, by the time I got to the post-race picnic.) I decided to take her along the bike course, which surprised her - since she hadn't seen it before, she was a bit impressed at the distance and the hills. As we looped back around to the southernmost entrance to the park, I turned back into the park to visit the Nature Center.

We walked a very short trail, enjoying the trees and flowers, and then went into a gift shop which turned out to be part of the headquarters for Wild Wings, an organization which provides a home for raptors and other birds and animals which wouldn't survive if they were released back into the wild. While we were in the gift shop, one of the Wild Wings guides came through with a kestrel on her wrist, and answered some questions about the little guy.

Then we headed out into the viewing area, where we saw two hawks and a barn owl. I tried to get photos of them, but unfortunately I haven't yet read up on how to manually focus my camera and it kept focusing on the link fencing at the front of their habitats.

After that we went back through the gift shop, and made a couple of small purchases to help support the work they do. As we were heading back out into the park, I realized there was another section of habitats that we hadn't seen, and we walked back through to see a bobcat (actually, a bobcat's ear, sticking up over the edge of the hammock he was relaxing in), a great horned owl, another hawk, a bald eagle, a turkey vulture, and two golden eagles. All I can say is - what magnificent creatures! I can only hope that we manage to get our collective act together to provide even more protection for birds and animals in the wild, so that places like Wild Wings aren't the only spots where we can see them.

In any case, I strongly encourage anyone interested in birds and wildlife to visit Wild Wings at Mendon Ponds Park, and perhaps even donate some money to the cause... they're doing good work!

JMH
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