Residents at Cambridge Grove had plenty to learn when they were introduced to three amazing creatures from The Raptor Foundation.
The Raptor Foundation is a registered charity which helps injured and captive birds of prey. The charity rescues them and returns the injured birds back to their natural habitats when possible.
Cambridge Grove residents met one-year-old Vanessa, who is a Caribbean barn owl, Topaz, the 13-year-old male tawny owl and Spike, the Harris hawk.
Resident Barbara Cannon said:
“Oh, how lovely to be able to stroke a bird of prey. I have never been so close to such big birds.”
Wellbeing Coach Amy Milburn said:
“We learnt that Vanessa would live in coconut trees in the Caribbean, and she got her name because a lady called Vanessa kindly donated a large sum of money to the charity during COVID to enable the sanctuary to continue to run whilst they had no income.
“Topaz has his name because all of their orphaned birds are named after precious gemstones.”
The Raptor Foundation promotes education and conservation and is happy to have the chance to introduce the incredible birds of prey across schools, care homes and other venues.
Experts talk to people, telling them about welfare issues, the natural behaviour of birds, and issues around wildlife conservation.
Amy added:
“The foundation does such valuable work. We learned so much during the visit, including how to distinguish hawks, buzzards, and eagles.
“We discovered that Hawks have no trousers, which means they have no feathers on their legs, Buzzards wear shorts, which means they have feathers at the tops of their legs and Eagles wear trousers with features all down their legs!
“What a great visit!”
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