English vacation (Day 10): Eagle Heights

This morning was a morning in which we were lucky enough to have cream tea for breakfast, which actually isn't tea with cream in it, it's a scone with jam and clotted cream and you can have tea with it if you want. Scones here are more like biscuits in appearance, but sweeter. They put jam and clotted cream on top, and it's so delicious! I've noticed while out here that cream tea is served all over the place.


After breakfast, we went to the Eagle Heights wildlife sanctuary here in Eynsford, but since Tabitha was home sick from school, Daisha stayed behind with her. We could see the village of Eynsford in the background as we watched the shows.


We thought we'd only be there for a couple of hours, but being the animal loving family we are, we ended up staying most of the day there and missed out on our planned apple-picking outing. Before the bird show started, we wandered about looking at the animals. Talea set down a pamphlet and the wind blew it over to these stinky vulture/crane birds and they got a hold of it and fought each other for the rights to it.


There was a birds of prey show first, so we watched the grumpy bald eagle, Chili, try to take out it's handler.



Then they brought out the falcons and showed us how they hunt in mid air and kill pigeons and such by flying up to 200+ mph at their prey and smacking it in the back of the head with the back of its foot to knock it out so it can grab it and eat it. Hyrum wants a falcon now.


Next were the caracaras that will rummage through your belongings for food because they have no fear of humans. They used to give away the soldiers' positions because they would follow soldier camps around looking for food and would fly above them in hopes of scraps, and they'd steal from the tents too. They'd even go in holes to eat baby animals. They had a lot of humor to them, so we liked them a lot.


Last was the barn owl, which was Talea's favorite. It's heart shaped face is irresistible.


Even though Kiersa's not very old, she really loved watching the birds.


After the birds of prey show was over, we took the kids to the pseudo-petting zoo. It had pygmy goats, pigs, chickens, and...otters? It wasn't that fun because you couldn't really pet any of them since the pigs were stand offish and concerned only about eating...


The pygmy goats only wanted to butt their heads on the posts...


And the cute little banty chicken bit Talea's finger when she tried to touch it.


The otters were MIA.

After the attempts at petting the animals, we moved on to the playground, which the kids found far more entertaining.


Next was the reptile and mammal show. Talea was thrilled with being able to pet the baby boa (but sad she couldn't hold it).


She was elated when they let her hold the bull snake. They eat rattlesnakes by the way.


They brought in a couple of cuddly looking animals, but we LOVED the meerkats, Pumba and Timone. We're fond of meerkats ever since Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet.


After that show was over, we wandered through the bird and reptile habitats. It was fun, but pretty stinky. We decided to take a family picture with a bird, and we picked the bald eagle (the non-grouchy one, Alaska) since it's our nation's bird. I can't scan the photo in until I get home, but you can see how big it is when I'm holding it.


We stopped off at the gift shop and had a few treats. Bounty is such a great candy bar. It's almost identical to Mounds.


We headed outside for the final show, African animals, and killed time by getting photos with them. The camels were uncooperative, but the tortoise and the cheetahs were fun to watch.


The martial bird was neat because its actually quite gentle, and after it has its pray, it gets so obsessed with watching to make sure no one steals it, that it forgets to eat it. It ducks down and hides it's prey any time someone comes close to it.



Here's the hideous vulture/crane bird that looks like death. It purposely, and inexplicably, poops down its legs.


There was also an African Fish Eagle that was really interesting because it has made its own hit list. It really hates the guy that changes the leather straps on its legs, so when that guy unexpectedly came to a village festival where that eagle was on display, the eagle flew up in the air, spotted the guy in the crowd, and came down and attacked him and left him requiring 10 stitches in his head. Then another time, the guy that helped change the straps one time was riding his bike away from Eagle Heights, and when the bird flew up in the air during a show, it spotted the guy on his bike, flew down to him, balled up his feet and punched the man in the back of his head, making him fall off his bike. This is one cool bird!


They brought a cheetah out and had it chase a dead rabbit on a zip line thing and then the trainer let people pet it. Of course Talea was super anxious to pet it, but the shocking thing was that Hyatt wanted to pet it also! He's finally getting some guts! They pet it until it got too frisky and wanted to bite and grab their hands in play, which was too dangerous to allow, so the trainer didn't let the kids pet him anymore. Hyrum and I did get a chance to pet it also.


In the grass everywhere here are these little muddy piles. I don't know what they are...maybe worm poop? But they're everywhere and impossible to avoid as you walk, so your shoes get really muddy even though the ground isn't actually muddy. It's really weird.


After we had our fill of Eagle heights, Daisha picked us up and we headed back home to hang out and have dinner. We were too late for apple-picking by that time, so we just finished the day in the house. Daisha made the most delicious pasta carbonara! I've got to get the recipe.