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Alberta Birds of Prey
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Alberta Birds of Prey
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Alberta Birds of Prey
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Alberta Birds of Prey
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Alberta Birds of Prey
Alberta Birds of Prey
You look up, shading your eyes from the bright sun and glimpse a shadow, just a speck, soaring in the blue sky completely free to ride thermal air currents thousands of feet or hundreds of miles. Imagine that feeling, that kind of existence. Now imagine you’re injured, virtually helpless on the ground, broken, blinded, trapped.
The Alberta Birds of Prey centre is Canada’s largest birds of prey facility, situated on a 70-acre wetland area 2hours southeast of Calgary in the community of Coalsdale. Here, visitors from around the world are awed, standing in close proximity to Golden Eagles, hawks, falcons and owls. How close is close? Perched on your shoulder close, in the case of the specially trained Great Horned Owl or Burrowing Owl, ready to have their picture taken with you.
After entering through the 2,000 sq ft visitor centre where you’ll tempted to purchase trinkets and mementos of your visit, an interactive experience awaits you with the shadowy specters you’ve envied from the ground.
Exiting the visitor centre you start this experience on the hawk walk. Perched just a few feet away are birds of prey including the majestic bald eagle – yours to observe and photograph.
It was 1982 when founders Wendy Slater and Colin Weir started the first volunteer wildlife rescue facility. Twenty years later, thousands of injured birds have been rehabilitated and centre now includes a 28,000 sq ft flight aviary for eagles, natural history building, visitor centre, and a large network of landscaped trails and ponds.
Some of the most exciting and awe inspiring moments occur during the flying demonstrations when an eagle swoops from the air to land on the trainers arm or a falcon hurtles past just overhead at 100 kph!
While the goal of the centre is to rehabilitate and release injured birds back into the wild, sometimes their injuries are too severe. One such case is Spirit, who was found shot and blinded. Although unable to return to the wild, Spirit has a place at the centre inspiring young and old to take care of the wildlife around us.
For more information on the centre visit www.burrowingowl.com or call (403) 345-4262