Unique activity — Lisa's (& Steve's) Travels

I need to start this post with a cute little guy that we saw a few days ago. He was so young that he still had his drying umbilical cord attached!

Now back to the topic at hand. Friends of ours who had been to Ireland before recommended that we visit Ashford Castle…

… because of their offerings:

Frodo was my buddy for an hour -

He is a Harris hawk, and they are used at the school because they are social birds, and easily acclimate to humans.

His talons look quite fierce, but I didn’t feel anything through the thick leather glove. He only weighs about a pound…

… and it would barely register when he came back and landed on my hand. I expected a much more forceful thump. :)

They come to associate an outstretched arm as a perch, and know that there will be bits of mice in the glove as a reward for returning.

In the picture above, you can see the bells that the handlers use to find them in the woods, but if they can’t hear or see them, there is also a GPS tracker, if one decides to roam a bit further afield. You can also see the jesses, or leather straps attached to his legs, that we held onto when we were walking to and from the barn/cage area.

For the next videos, be sure to have opened this post in a browser window -

Then Steve had a chance -

As you’ll see, it took a little longer to bring Frodo in, as the hour went by, because he was getting full.

After we headed back to the cages, we were treated to a meeting with Dingle, a Eurasian Eagle Owl…

… which had been taught to display his wings for a reward -

Hooo you lookin’ at?

I didn’t get a picture of it, but he can swivel his head 270 degrees!

We reluctantly left our feathered friends and drove along Lough Comb…

… which is the largest lake in Ireland, and reputed to have 365 islands. By the way “lough” is pronounced “lock”, similar to Scotland’s name for their lakes.

We kept on driving west through County Galway, through some gorgeous hills…