I went to visit B. this weekend and his wife D. graciously took Cricket and me to see where she works (Tenafly Nature Center in NJ). We hiked around and that was nice, but even better… There was an owl! And two hawks! And two snakes and a toad (which I got to hold, wheeee!) Here’s a picture of me holding the corn snake. It was shy and disoriented because it’s about to shed. You can see that because its eye is blue and opalescent and its colors are muted.
I also held a hognose snake named Henrietta who was just the sweetest. She likes holes and caverns, so she slithered into my sleeve and hung out there for a while. I think that was my favorite part. Cuddling with snakey-snake!
They also had an owl, a barred owl named Mitzi. Mitzi was found with a broken wing and it healed, but it’s weak and so he/she is unreleasable. I say he/she because nobody knows what sex Mitzi is. Female owls are larger in size, males are smaller and Mitzi is… in between. They’d have to knock Mitzi out to be able to rummage around in he/she’s tender regions, and birds don’t do well under anesthesia, so everyone is content to leave Mitzi alone. In the other aviary are two red-tailed hawks. The male had his right wing amputated at the elbow and the female’s left eye is damaged. The first pictures I took of my new raptor friends I took through a chain-link fence and my stupid camera insisted on focusing on the fence. The pics look kind of cool, actually.
But then D. let me get closer and I could place my camera on the chain-link fence and get far better photos. Here’s a picture of the female hawk. You can appreciate her wonky eye. She looks like a pirate. Arrrr.
And here’s Mitzi. I was tempted to sneak into the enclosure and give Mitzi a big hug ‘n’ snuggle, but I think that would be frowned upon and most likely it would end badly and I would be bleeding, so I stayed outside the fence.
I was thrilled at the opportunity to see the beasties, and the Tenafly Nature Center is lovely and I recommend you go visit it.
