Raptor Trust ....

... Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

So ... today we went to New Jersey because there is a Casper Mattress store at the Short Hills Mall.  It was an hour drive but worth the trip as we were able to try out this mattress before we potentially order one online.  We have been looking at different mattresses and Casper in on the short list. 

Close by (relatively speaking) to the mall is a wildlife refuge (Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge) and Raptor Trust that Richard had recently read about.  Going to the mall to try out the mattresses was motivation for also checking out this wildlife refuge and The Raptor Trust. 

We went to the wildlife refuge first and stopped at the visitor's center before stopping at one of their pull off spots to eat our lunch. We then went to the Raptor Trust to see all their resident birds.  Most, if not all, the birds there had been found injured and brought to the facility for rehab ..... and most stay there for the rest of their lives as they are unable to fend for themselves in the wild. 

There were so many beautiful birds there but it was sad to think they will never live in the wild again. Unfortunately for us, all the birds (mostly raptors) were in heavy mesh cages surrounded by fencing!  A double whammy for photography purposes!  I took this picture of a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk through the mesh caging so I was thrilled with how it came out!  Working with RAW files in Photoshop helps a lot!  

Sorry for the bits of his lunch on the beak!