Jeff Kollbrunner's Visit to Queen's Farm and the SCA

Jeff Kollbrunner of www.jknaturegallery.com/ , was at Queen's Farm during the raptor demonstrations last week and he sent some of his wonderful photographs of the day.
Here he has a caught a Gyrfalcon in mid-flight.

The gorgeous Harris Hawk
(I'm still searching for a photo of a family unit of stacked Harris Hawks in the wild if anyone comes across one.)


Remember Mama, the Eagle Owl? Here is Jeff's stunning portrait of her. He also managed to catch Mama when she bated off the glove. It's very surprising so check out the sequence in case it ever happens to you.


Here Mama and I are. I'd been holding her a good while and raptly listening to Lorrie Schumacher, www.talonsbirdsofprey.com/ , talk about her birds...


...when suddenly, Mama took off almost taking me with her as her tether jerked.
Lorrie immediately said far more calmly than I felt at that second, "Keep your arm up."

"That's it. Keep it up."


Let me just say, it's startling when a good sized bird suddenly kicks off pushing your arm down and then counteracts the downward plunge with the power of her wings while going over your shoulder.


No, I'm not gritting my teeth at Mama. I'm gritting my teeth with the effort.


Photo by Anna Kollbrunner
And then suddenly all is back to where it started. Wow.


Coming up next are Jeff's photos of the SCA members holding Mama and some of my SCA photographs of the day as well. Forgive the seeming departure but this way the SCA folks can not only see their photos all in one place, but we can also see how holding a raptor, or sometimes even being near one, makes the human animal respond as well.

Besides Mama gets a little water dumped over her head along the way and who can resist seeing how that might affect her behavior.

Mama checks out the hippocamp on the banner.

This photo and the next should be reversed. Notice Mama's head is damp?

It's late in the day, but Mama is still getting hot so Lorrie gives her a little head shower. She is cooled immediately and no longer pants. Lorrie doesn't allow her birds to be discomforted. She takes action. And I must say, Mama gets a very "Ahhhh", expression on her face.

Then a snuggle and it's back to humoring humans.

We'll try just about anything in order to get just the slightest of feelings that we can fly as the birds do.

How much trust does this take? Seemingly none, when it is this bird. No one gave holding a baby near Mama even a second thought.

And Vicereine Eularia, heads off into the wild with its primal ground cover of Poison Ivy to try and find the arrows that have embedded themselves beyond the archery field.

D.B.