Nice weather prompted us to get outside. We went to the Iowa Raptor Project site for Family Day. Several birds are there that were injured, recovered, but cannot be released back to the wild. There is a large Bald Eagle, owls, hawks, gyrfalcons, and small kestrels. Not all the residents are native to Iowa. Kids and parents enjoyed activities designed to teach awareness and conservation about the world of nature around them. Melanie couldn’t resist spreading her wings.
Note the crooked injured wing.
On the drive to and from the Raptor Center, we watched some Bald Eagles resting on the ice.
Our View From Iowa 
Melanie-glad you posed with the wingspan board- captured a real sense of FUN!. I’ve never stopped @ the Iowa Raptor project site. Jim, I’m not a ‘birder’ – found your American Kestrel photos particularly charming.
Those small raptors are so cute. About the size of a Robin. Thanks for stopping by.
I love raptors! When I lived in Central Oregon our local museum had a similar exhibit! I now live in an area of Colorado where I can see Red tail Hawks out my window and everywhere when walking around (little rodents are in danger here!)
We see them dive into the grass by the roadsides when we drive.
Great shots, Jim!
Thank you. The enclosures let us get close without scaring the birds.
The kestrels are my favorites. I didn’t see any this winter, but I wasn’t out and about quite as much, either. There’s one that showed up in the same tree at the Brazoria refuge three years in a row. It’s interesting to see birds come back to the same perches; there’s a hawk that’s been on the same section of wire across from a store I frequent for five years. Everyone watches for him to come back, and feels a little bad when he leaves again after a few months. “His” line is right above a wide utility easement, so I suspect the hunting is pretty good.
Friends live on a 10 acre place which they’ve restored to native plants. A Kestrel house they put up has been used each year. I wonder if it is the same pair. I bet it is. A prescribed burn didn’t seem to bother them a couple of years ago.
I regularly see bald eagles which, thanks to Rachel Carson and a host of others, might have been impossible. Of interest, Carson wrote “Silent Spring” about a quarter mile south of our house. Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D WA) created Earth Day a block north.
You live in a fine location. Nice bookends.