Since I can't sleep I might as well tell you about the time I almost fulfilled a dream of mine. I was so close and I'll tell you how close if you keep reading. This happened a month ago, so forgive me for falling, but I remember this day was so awesome I remember it like it was yesterday.



We took advantage of a Groupon two-for-one deal at Pacific Northwest Raptors up in Duncan. The original plan was to go up on our wedding anniversay but due to bad weather and laziness we decided to eat brunch and watch TV to celebrate. Real romantics, I know. This was before new-camera. Brian and I went through a very short-lived non-adventurous phase. I'm so glad that's over now. The groupon was going to expire so we picked a sunny day and booked it past the Malahat.



The Sanctuary is very close to Duncan, but you wouldn't guess that you were with all the tall trees and quiet surroundings. There was lots of shade where we were and as we walked out of the car the first thing we saw were eagles. I knew it was going to be an awesome day from then on.



This little falcon did some weird little dance on this post when the handle opened the cage door. Most of the birds at the sanctuary are releasable, ready to go back into the wild but they stick around for the access to easy food sources. Birds of prey aren't affectionate as I imagine them in my mind. They are trained to fly for food and food alone.




I can appreciate how derpy this falcon was. I was in crazy birdlady heaven. Everywhere you turn there were gorgeous birds everywhere! It was a quiet day so we didn't have to hurry ourselves at all.









There was an enclosure of unreleasable birds, tucked away from the other cages. These birds were too far gone to be let free but were left in good hands. This beautiful raven had been abused as you can see, the missing tail feathers. Poor thing.




We watched a lady handle a Great Horned Owl and I almost spilled all of my lenses reaching for my camera. Brian almost lost his mind.











The Sanctuary has daily flight demos with some of the birds. It was informative and entertaining, which is just how I like my entertainment to be. The eagle came out first and he (she?) was an impressive sight. I mean, how much can your arm take?








Next came the surprisingly revolting, yet beautiful turkey vulture. This bird shits on its feet. That's all I need to say about him.



This barn owl played shy and refused to come out of his box. He even started shaking his head NO NOOO NO while backing in the corner.



The Peregrine Falcon was impressive too, he took off for a while and enjoyed at about 5 minutes of freedom before coming down and doing his demo. I didn't get very many shots on account of how fast this bird moves. I think that these were the birds that would make an annual nest near our home in Belmont Park. I used to love watching them fly around the neighbourhood, bringing back pigeons and feeding their young.



We had opted for the ?Owl Prowl" experience but it didn't quite work out. Spock decided that he wanted to fly off into a tree and harass crows instead of hang out with us. I have to admit I was disappointed but you can't blame anyone for this, if a creature with sharp talons doesn't want to do tricks there's not much you can do about that.



The staff let us do the "Hawk Walk" instead and it was just as awesome. They showed us how to call them and put a little bit of meat on the glove so he'd Anakin was a troll, he would fly right past my head brushing his tail feathers in my eyes on the way by.



Poor Brian had to bear with my TAKE A PHOTO OF ME WITH BIRDS crazy. I'm pretty sure he knew what he signed up for when he brought us here.






He actually stayed hooked on my glove after I tried to get him to move. After the demo was done we thanked the staff and headed home while grabbing a burger and beer on our way back to Victoria. Not bad for a date day. I seriously can't wait to go back there.

And maybe, just maybe I can finishing living my dream and hold a giant ass owl.