Year in Nature Photography – Day 20

For our last day in Charlotte we decided to head to the Carolina Raptor Center. Should you be in the Charlotte, NC area this is definitely worth checking out.

The center’s mission is as follows: “Carolina Raptor Center is dedicated to environmental stewardship and the conservation of birds of prey, through education, research, and the rehabilitation of injured and orphan raptors.”

While it’s sad to see birds of prey in aviaries this is for their own protection. Several of these birds have suffered injuries from which they could not survive in the wild and so they are protected and cared for in an effort to better educate the public about these beautiful birds that are important to our environment. According to their fact sheet 75% of birds that come in are able to be rehabilitated and released back into the wild.

I felt the center does an excellent job with education and each aviary includes signage presenting information about the different raptor species but also includes a sign telling the stories of most of the raptors and how they came to be there. They also offer days where they take the birds out of the aviaries for photographers, though this day was not one of those days.

For more information go to http://www.carolinaraptorcenter.org/home

Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis L.) with bee (sp?)

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo)

Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis)

Mississippi Kite (Ictinia mississippiensis)

Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug)

Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo)

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus Greek hali = salt, aeetus = eagle, leuco = white, cephalis = head)

Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)

Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis)

Ferruginous Hawk (ferruginous = from Latin ferrum – iron, ferrgin-, iron rust, iron-rust color – reddish-brown), (Buteo regalis)

Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)

Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis)

Merlin (Falco columbarius)

Merlin (Falco columbarius) named Han Solo 🙂