Ella, The Eagle Owl..........

...............Flew over my house and landed in the garden.........


.....Not really, I'm only joking, but it got your attention, didn't it?

 I decided to go to a Bird of Prey Centre that I've been hearing about. I have to say that I was in my element with magnificent birds all over the place. It was a very quiet day for them and it turned out that there were only four visitors this morning, so we were treated to a ringside seat for the flying display when lots of the birds get their exercise. The handlers saw I had a camera and was enjoying taking lots of photos so they kept standing right behind me for the birds to fly back to and I was able to get some 'head-on' in-flight shots, which I was really thrilled about but I think I need a bit more practice as only a few were in focus :-/ After the flying display we were invited to hold this gorgeous Eagle Owl and I was amazed at how light she was as she stood nearly two foot tall. It was such an amazing, if not a little daunting,  experience for me to be eye to eye with this fantastic creature....her sharp beak only an arms length from my nose but I walked away intact ;-)))
I didn't stay for the second flying display with different birds, as there was an hour and a half to wait and not much to do there to fill the time as it's only a small place and I had already been round it at least twice while I was waiting for the first flying display but I think I might return another day to watch the second display. Then I had the really hard choice of which shot to blip but I chose Ella in the end as I had made such a good connection with her, hope you like her too  :-))