Yoda (Chippenham River Festival)

The Chippenham River festival took place this weekend. Its main interest for me is the display of birds of prey put on by Abee Pest Control. They train a variety of falcons and owls to scare off pigeons and the like. I had gone along on Saturday afternoon but my visit coincided with a heavy thunderstorm and the stall had packed up and called it a day.

It was a different story this afternoon and I was able to study peregrine/sakers, a gyr/merlin, a harris hawk, a four-month old kestrel, a peregrine falcon of the same age and a saker called Bob that I'd blipped as a four-month old the previous year, and all under sunshine and blue skies.

The star of the show for me, however, was Yoda. A six-year old Eurasian eagle owl he was, to whom I was introduced and allowed to stroke - a remarkably placid and unperturbable bird.

L.
26.8.2012

Blip #778
Consecutive Blip #005
Day #886

Alternatives:
Molly (4 month old kestrel)
Liz (4 month old peregrine falcon)
Susie (6 year old peregrine/saker falcon)
Bob (1 year old saker/falcon)

Lenses: Sigma 70-300mm, Pentax 17-70mm

Chippenham River Festival series
Birds Of Prey series
Owls series

Chippenham River Festival, 26 August 2012 (Flickr set)
Chippenham River Festival, 27 August 2011 (Flickr set)
Chippenham River Festival, 28 August 2010 (Flickr set)

Lozarithm's Lottzarhythm Of The Day:
Lovin' Spoonful - Night Owl Blues (1966)
This instrumental was on the B- side of Daydream, and features the water-soaked note-bending blues harmonica of John Sebastian and the guitar of Zal Yanovsky.