Sunday, January 27, 2013

Arbor Day 2013

We celebrated Arbor Day yesterday at the Houston Arboretum. As always, we had a fantastic time hiking around outside and learning about nature.

One of the highlights was getting to meet Johnny Appleseed. Henry's class learned all about Johnny Appleseed in the fall and he has been slightly obsessed every since. It was a huge treat to meet him in person! He even gave us acorns to plant.


We met some local woodworkers and came home with a block puzzle, and then we made pinecone bird feeders!


So simple. Just coat the pinecone in peanut butter or shortening and then roll in bird seed.


Voila!  


Will and Daddy left after making the bird feeders to head to a birthday party, but Henry and I stayed and played at the playground.


The rope bridge is always a fun challenge.


The absolute best part of the day was getting to see the birds of prey flight demonstrations by Sky Kings Falconry. They brought four birds. This is Jake, the Harris hawk. The birds weren't tethered, so they flew freely around three perches set up on the Arboretum's front lawn. Amazing!


The barn owl, Widget, was beautiful but definitely had a mind of her own and didn't always follow instructions.  


This vulture, Igor, was very smart. He was walking all around us around looking for food!


This little bird, Cricket, is a falcon. The handler had her flying in a simulated hunt. She literally flew just inches from our faces. It was an amazing experience!


We learned so much about birds of prey, and Henry got his picture taken with Widget at the end of the show.


We love the Arboretum and really enjoyed Arbor Day 2013!

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