Owl Sanctuary

In Cornwall, we went to Screech Owl Sanctuary. We got a little lost getting there. You can see it from the main road. Getting to it is another story! But once we found it, it was great.

They have a variety of owls, both rescued and born in captivity. If an owl is born in captivity they can not release it.
Three times a day, there are flying displays. The first owl we saw was huge! His name was Oscar and he was a grumpy old man.
Then the second owl came out, called Kaya. Kaya is a Boobook owl (also called a Morepork owl) and is found in New Zealand. There are different names for this owl, depending on where they live. Kaya is only 2 years old and was very sweet. When the guy flying the owls asked if anyone would like to hold her, I jumped at the chance.

Me and Kaya

After the display, we had a walk around the other animals. They have a small group of meerkats which were so cute. We timed it right and the animals were being feed. They have black skin on their stomachs, so once they have eaten they lie back with their legs in the air and try to get the sun on their stomachs. The black skin helps their digestion. The group had 3 meerkats, two older males and a younger female. Because she was the youngest she had to do the most look-out duty.

Lucy, keeping look out

having a snack

They also had some pigmy goats, which were cute. (Though there was a young boy who didn't like them so much as the goat thought his fingers were lunch. He was fine, the goats just nimbled.)

Hungry?

There were also 2 emus. The female lays the eggs (obviously) but it's the male who then sits on it. They feed them special emu pellets and asked if anyone wanted to feed them. I was a bit cautious; I have seen emus bite! But they just pecked the pellets off my hand. Fairly gently. But I wouldn't like that beak anywhere near my face!

They spotted dinner...

... but were surprisingly gentle.

We had a look around the owls. The snowy owls were very noisy. The male was displaying for the female. Male snowy owls hold a chick in their mouths while spreadying their wings and making a noise that sounds a lot like a train. Apparently this is very attractive.

Displaying male

 However the female was not looking very impressed!

Unimpressed female

There is a show area where a member of the staff shows off some owls and you can stroke them. It was brilliant! Owls don't have water proof wings like most other birds, which means they can fly silently, but avoid flying in the rain as it then takes them ages to dry off. This is one of the reasons they like barns. When it is raining there are usually mice etc in the barn so they can still eat.
The colours of an owls eyes tell you when it flies. Not all owls fly at night. If an owl has yellow eyes they fly and hunt during the day. Orange eyes means they hunt at dusk and dawn, while black eyed owls are the ones which flight at night.

One of my favourites was Digger, a burrowing owl which are from northern, central and south America. They are the cutest little things. They grow to about 30cm tall and live in little burrows.

Digger, the burrowing owl

 My other favourite is Baden-Powell (named by scouts!), a British barn owl. He parents were two rescue owls who got together in rehab. Because he was born in captivity, he couldn't be released into the wild, though he parents went back. He was my favourite because of the way he greeted people. When they said his name, he wiggled! It was so cute. He just gave a little body wiggle. They have no idea why he does it. None of the other owls do. Just him. Very sweet.

Baden-Powell, the wiggling barn owl!

Feeding Baden-Powel

The birds were beautiful and I got to hold Baden-Powell and another bird later. Here are a few photos of some of the others.

one of the breeding owls

Digger again

Darling, a Tawny owl

Lazy teen owl.

Sea Life Safari

In Cornwall, we went on a sea life safari. The Cornwall coast is beautiful and as we were heading out, the guide told us about the estuary, pointing out things like the World War II bunkers, Smugglers coves and sand bars. 
The boat was a small power boat and the sea was a little rough. Luckily Dad wasn't ill (though he did say his legs were wobbly afterwards). At top speed, the boat only rose about 2m. I loved it.

Looking back at the estuary.

 As soon as we got out into open sea, we headed to Puffin Island. In May, puffins flock to the little island to to lay their eggs. The Puffins were so cute and boy could they move. They have such stocky bodies and little wings I didn't expect them to fly that quickly. I tried to get some photos of them in the air but just ended up with a lot of sky shots. But I did manage to get a few when some stopped for a swim and kindly stayed put for the crazy people in the boat.
There are also Cormorants and razor beaks. The cormorants like to spread their wings when they stand on the rocks so dry off their wings. They looked like like dragons (blame reading Game of Thrones for that thought).

Swimming puffins

Cormorant drying off.

 After that we headed to look for dolphins, but unfortunately we didn't see any. We went through their usual feeding grounds but they must have been sleeping. (Who can blame them? It wasn't a great day.) So we went to see some seals. They were really hard to spot; I didn't expect them to be so well camouflaged and surprisingly high on the rocks. They get there in high tide and just stay up. 

Just climbing out after a swim

Not so sure about us

Sun Bathing (minus the sun)

Playing peep-a-boo with a seal.

We had another look for dolphins but didn't see any. On the way back to the estuary, we pasted the new lifeboat house at Hawker's Cove. It was only opened in 1967, and the slipway was extended in 2006 so the new larger lifeboats can now launched tide level.

Padstow lifeboat house

 By the end of the trip I was a little windswept! But had a great time!

Cyder Farm!

On Wednesday, we went to Healey's Cyder Farm near Newquay. We took the tour which shows us around the brewery part and the museum which showed the history of making cider. The apples used to be put in a stone basin and a donkey would walk around, pulling a stone wheel to mash the apples. Some would spill out and the cider makers would just shovel it up and pput it back in. (Remember the donkey is walking around etc.) Nice. Apparentely the droppings made the cider brew quicker so they even went to the point of nailing pieces of meat around the area to acttract mice and rate etc. Lovely! However, in that time, the cider was still safer to drink than the water. Which is where the saying "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" comes from. Now why did no one tell me the apple was in the cider form? :-)

Their motto!

Some of the ciders are stored in old whiskey or rum barrels in the cellors to create the reserve ciders. They are brewed whiskey there a few years ago, the first time in 300 yrs that whiskey has been brewed in Cornwall. They auctions the bottles of. The first bottle sold for over £2000! The rest went for £150 a bottle.
We also got a tractor tour around the orchards. The orchards were lovely and the blue bells are out along the road. And they have my apples!

Ready for Katy apple cider

After that, we went back to the shop and got a free cyder tasting. We tried about 10 different ciders, from scrumpy and the normal oak barrel matured cider, to the Rattler cider (the latest production from Healey's and very nice), the the reserves which were amazing, especially the ones form the whiskey barrels. They also make some fruit wines which were nice but not the best wine I have tasted. I wanted to try the apple brandy but they were way too expensive. (Maybe next time.) We got some of the reserve ciders, some apple juice and some of the jams they also make there. I didn't take any photos as I was too busy sampling! :-)

On the site there were also some farm animals. Storm the horse is a shire horse and was born on a stormy morning. (His brother Sunny was born on, you guessed it, a sunny morning!) And Storm was definitely a male horse. The phrase "hung like a horse" took on a whole new meaning!!! :-) (Mom wouldn't let me take a photo.)

After the cider farm, we went into Truro and I had all my hair cut off! It wasn't the cider talking, just time. And it was annoying me. :-)

May Day

On May Day (1st of May, not the Monday Bank holiday), we went into Padstow for the celebrations. In Cornwall they still celebrate May day as a pagan festival, celebrating the start of summer. It is very much a holiday for them, and not a tourist thing, though tourists (like us) do go to watch the celebrations. There are two groups. Both wear white with either something blue or red depending on which team they are from. Throughout the day, there are processions around the town. There  are flowers everywhere!
Each team also has a 'Obby 'Oss, which means Hobby Horse. They apparently chase and try to catch "young maidens". Each 'Oss has a stable, commonly known as a pub base. So you can imagine as the day goes on (the first parade is a 6am) the dancers become less stable!

Main part of the parade for the red team

One of the accordion players

The 'Obby 'Oss

At the end of the day, the two teams meet up at the May Pole and dance around it. The May Pole was really colourful.

The May Pole

We had crab sandwiches for lunch from a little stand. (The usual place we go to was shut and it looks like it has been taken over by Rick Stein.) Still the view was much better than my view most days for my lunch!

The Camel Estuary in Padstow

On the evening we went to the local pub. It was packed. They really like to celebrate down here. People just start singing. Everyone else quiets down and listens and joins in. Some songs were sweet but most were risqué and really funny! The atmosphere was brilliant.