This so appeals to my sense of humour.
I had Barry take some photos with my old Nikon
just in case mine went wrong and I've just looked at them.
This one appeals because the eagle is the emblem of USA
and if you look at the young boy behind the bird,
he looks like he's singing the USA national anthem.
It's the British sense of humour.
Jackie writes:
I've spent the whole day at the raptor centre with Tom,
where we sponsor a bald eagle born with a twisted spine.
Tom got to hold it today; he was really pleased.
The eagle's name is Dollar;
we sponsored him after our New York trip which can be seen HERE].
We'd seen him at the raptor centre and nobody sponsored him,
so Tom decided we would.
The story is that Dollar was bought as a young homebred bird for a display team,
but as he got older, they realized he had a spine deformity and would never fly.
The buyer tried to get his money back from the breeder
and while the court case is ongoing,
the rescue centre has custody of him.
He has only just gotten his white head feathers
and does not have his mature plumage yet.
They have also found out that the claws on his left foot
are growing out twisted, which means he can't
stand on a perch for a long time.
He had a carpeted stand.
He weighed in at seven pounds, 10 ounces,
which is a bit heavy for a bald eagle,
but it 's because he can't be worked.
They are teaching Dollar to fly,
but it will only be low-level and on wind-free days.
They had him flying in five-foot hops in the training barn;
they have to make him do some work to keep his weight down
because of his dodgy foot.
Other than the handlers, Tom is the only person who has been allowed to do this.
I'd been snapping away taking lots of pics;
they had a Perisakin - a peregrine/sakin x -
a big black hawk called Shadow, who was very reluctant to fly.
It was warm and no wind; apparently raptors don't like to fly in these conditions.
At last it took off and I pressed the shutter button - click click click - a burst of three pics.
I viewed them while the handler took the bird back to its perch.
I let out an exclamation of delight: "Wow, you should see my picture!"
I showed it to Tom, Barr & the three girls in front of me who had heard my exclamation.
It was the bird flying toward me, wings outstretched, feet forward, coming in to land;
this was a prize-winning pic.
I switched back from view mode to shoot mode;
a message flashed on the camera screen: sd card memory error.
It deleted the three pics I'd taken of the bird in flight - gone -
nowhere to be found - and the bird refused to fly again.
This is the only pic I got . . . .
|