February Catch-Up: Celebrating Urban Birds

Last month the Austin Nature and Science Center had a special event focused on urban birds. There were all kinds of activities like making bird feeders...

 Exploring how different beaks are designed to pick up different things...

 Drawing a bird... in this case, an Angry Bird!

There was also a neat scavenger hunt and we went to a talk about some other birds, where we saw a tiny little blind screech owl, a Bobwhite Quail and a fancy pigeon (my term). But the highlight was seeing a Eurasian Eagle-Owl. It's the largest owl species in the world. Just to give it some context, the handler said a Great Horned Owl usually weighs 3-4 pounds, and this guy was 9-10 pounds. And boy, did the have a sharp beak and claws! I actually got to pet him because he was raised by this woman pretty much from birth. Later in another activity, the instructor told us that petting an owl is a VERY rare experience!