Our trip to the International Centre for Birds of Prey in Newent... (PICTURE HEAVY)

Living where we do, there are a lot of cool things on our doorstep and the International Centre for Birds of Prey is one such thing. Mark and I had been planning to go since my birthday last year but I was so overexcited about my birthday that I cried when he mentioned it and he thought it was best to postpone (yes I like my birthday!) We finally got round to visiting this year and it was such a great day out, even if you are not as crazy about owls as me. We arrived as a flying demonstration started and wowee, can those birds fly! They swoop down really low above the benches and apparently have been known to catch people's hair as they swoop around. Luckily my hairdo remained intact but it was breathtaking to see these beautiful birds up close...




It was pretty difficult to get any photos of the flying displays as they moved so fast but these came out quite well so I was pretty pleased with them!


The feathers are just so beautiful, just look at the pretty pattern they make!


This guy was super speedy, it was amazing!


The site is mainly made up of aviaries but there were also gardens and pockets of foliage like these trees, aren't the colours gorgeous?!


I'm a fan of all owls but barn owls are my favourites and this one was just so cute!


I think this was a white-rumped vulture (it's a vulture of some kind) but we stupidly forgot to tak a picture of the accompanying sign (doh!) so apologies if it is wrong and PLEASE do correct me if you know the truth! 


I'm pretty sure that this is a king vulture (again I can't be 100% sure) and it was huge- just look at that wingspan!


Helpfully this guy comes labelled! ;) I love kestrels and this one was ace as it had such personality, just look at how sassy (s)he is!


This eagle was humongous and genuinely scary, I got a real chill when he made eye contact!


These Ural owls were absolutely gorgeous, I love the pattern on their feathers...


Snowy owls are pretty cool, I didn't realise that they are diurnal, meaning that they hunt and are active during both the day and night which is pretty rare. 


This teeny tiny burrowing owl was beyond sweet and had such a cheeky personality too!


The best part of the day though was the five super cute Labradors who roamed around the site. There were dog-free zones but as the owner said 'I have to put up with your children, so you can put up with mine!' They were super friendly, especially when we had food that they wanted to get their paws on! Honestly, this was such a lovely day out and I would recommend it to anyone!

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