Birds of prey

In November of 2010 the Adventure Club and I traveled to the mountains for the trip we called, Birds of Prey / Birds Eye View. The plan was to visit the Wildlife Center of Virginia, where we would take a tour of the facilities and get to know some of the birds of prey that they were helping at the time.

The Wildlife Center is located near Waynesboro, Virginia and right off of interstate 64. It was very easy to find. I had called ahead to schedule our tour, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a stray visitor from time to time. There was a fee involved for the tour, however, most of the fee went directly to the treatment and care of our native Virginia wildlife so we did not mind at all. First we watched a short video about the Center and the animals they cared for, and afterwards our guide held a general Q&A session. The kids took full advantage of asking some very unique, and down right weird, questions and I think I even saw our poor tour guide blush once or twice. Once we were all educated in the Center’s daily operations we ventured out back to where the birds of prey were housed. The enclosures were kept very tidy and the birds looked very well taken care of, despite their injuries. We learned even more about the Owls, Hawks, Eagles, etc., then it was time to say good-bye. The tour was about two hours in length.

I would recommend visiting The Wildlife Center of Virginia to anyone who may be interested in a career of helping native wildlife, the staff was very helpful and very eager to educate us.

The second part of our day we would spend hiking a nearby trail at Humpback Rocks.