Birds of Prey

After a huge breakfast of biscuits and gravy, sausage and an egg (Eric added a donut to his plate) we headed out for a two hour hike.  thought since it was a beautiful day we would look for some wild life.  Well, the alligators are still in hibernation.

Yes this is ice and snow in the water way...

we seen a few birds, bikers, hunters, hikers and a group of scouts putting in benches.   except for the birds, no wildlife was seen...  maybe we just need to go sit queitly on one of the benches for a while.  Not sure how long we could sit or be quiet...

So we went to The Center for Birds of Prey.  they have about 60 different kinds of birds of prey (eagles, owls, hawks, kestrels and kites) on display.  most of them are pairs, they also have a clinic where they mend birds that are brought to the center. About half of the birds are from outside the US, from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.

this bird did not have a name plate.. anyone know what it is?

There was an hour long guided tour that discussed 4 different types of birds then a demo with 3 birds in the field.

A Harris Hawk..

Brown Owl..

and a Falcon..

The grounds were beautiful, well worth the time and money to visit this place.

Of course dinner was on our mind as we hiked 2 hours, then walked around the bird center for two more hours..  we went to the Charleston Crab House (not Shack) in Mt Pleasant..  great drinks...  great hush puppies, and crab cake,  Eric got the LowCountry boil: Shrimp (wonderful), potatos, corn and sausage (great) with collard Greens (actually pretty good!) and the red rice (good), I had the oysters (OK) and Shrimp (Good) along with cole slaw (very good) and Grits (good).  So far except for Smokin Joes the smaller restaurants have better food than the "chain" type restaurants. 

we ended the day with a fire, then watched the Pack and listened to WOJB..  great day, great evening.