North Carolina Raptor Center...

The day after Thanksgiving Danny, Marci, Jen and myself all went to visit the North Carolina Raptor Center. I really enjoyed this place because i LOVE birds of prey. The center is dedicated to rescuing injured raptors and nursing them to health so that they can be released into the wild. They also take time to educate people about these amazing birds, about their habits, the areas that they inhabit, and what they can do to save them. The birds that are at the center are all birds that for one reason or another had injuries that they could not fully recover from and therefor cannot be released into the wild. While it was somewhat heartbreaking seeing these incredible creatures injured and caged it was fascinating to see them up close. We also got a real great treat while we were there. They had a raptor show in their little auditorium, the show consisted of all owls but while they were preparing there was one of the volunteers there with a hawk. She was answering questions from the audience and before she left she asked if we wanted her to feed the hawk. It was unanimous that we all wanted to see the hawk eat something, it was pretty gruesome to see this hawk literally tear its food apart but i could watch it all day long.........jen on the other hand didnt enjoy it all that much. The owl show was awesome because these guys were so much fun to watch, they have such fun personalities and do the funniest things sometimes, it was really entertaining. Most of the birds i had to photograph through a fence which was a little difficult but i still managed to get some stuff i was happy with. After that we went to a place called the Whitewater Center, its an olympic training facility and they have a TON of activities there which include whitewater rafting , kayaking, mountain biking, zip lines, rock climbing and others that i cant remember. We walk some of the trails and went down to the river to catch the sunset, i only shot a few photos there, some of which i am still working on but i will post more when i get them done. Like i said before one of my favorite things from this excursion was watching that hawk being fed, so we will start with that.........ENJOY!!