The World Bird Sanctuary

Hello fellow bloggers~

Tonight I thought I would write about a truly amazing place here in St. Louis that I don't think many people are aware of.

One really nice day, I think last October or November, Marc and I took a drive out to Lone Elk Park, (located in Valley Park - close to our Six Flags) which for those of you who don't know, is a drive-thru park where you can get up close and personal with buffalo, elk, deer etc... I haven't been there in several years, and Marc had never been before, so I was really hoping he would actually get to see a buffalo, since sometimes you can drive through and not see any.

I got lucky the last time I had gone and actually got to see a small herd (I checked... groups of American bison are called "herd", but just FYI, old world buffalo are called a "gang" or "obstinacy", http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/about/faqs/animals/names.htm tee hee. An interesting page to read about what different groups of animals are called) Anyhoo, in the small herd that I saw, I even got to witness a mother bison weaning her baby. He kept trying to nurse and she kept kicking him away as the herd roamed the field. Poor guy. It was cute, and rare to see, but I did feel bad for him.

On my trip with Marc we saw a buck, but unfortunately not one buffalo. So needless to say I was very disappointed on the drive out of the park. As we were exiting, I noticed something new since my last visit. There was a sign on a little turn off that read "World Bird Sanctuary, Birds of Prey". Our curiosity made us turn down the little tree-covered gravel road and I am so glad we did. This place doesn't look like much from the main road but it is definitely something to see.

I absolutely LOVE owls. I have always been fascinated with them since I was a very little child. (That would be back in the '70's, which if you can remember, owls were commonly used in home decor and in jewelry then. Once a lady visited our home when I was probably three or four and I remember she had the big beehive hairdo, a brown turtleneck shirt and this GIANT owl necklace made of brown wooden beads with orange jewels making up the eyes. I remember being absolutely mesmerized by that necklace for hours while she was in our home) :-)

The World Bird Sanctuary has the largest collection of uncaged owls I have ever seen. I had no idea there were so many different kinds of owls, and you can literally stand just a foot or two away from them. They also have Eagles, Hawks, Falcons, Buzzards, Vultures, Condors, also some rare types of Crows, Ravens, Pelicans, Storks, Parrots, Chickens, and others. They have a few reptiles, snakes and turtles, but really it's an "all bird zoo".

What I liked about this place is that the cages for the birds were large and the birds got to be out of their cages every day. The place was kept clean and the people working there were very knowledgeable about the birds they worked with. What really captured me was how close I could get to the birds. I could have spent the whole day there just looking at the owls.

Below I have included a link to my photosite where you can look at some pictures I took when we visited. I have included the website link to the World Bird Sanctuary. Please check it out. They have pictures of many of their birds along with personality descriptions of each. It's kind of fun to read about each one's different little attitude. They are non-for-profit and save a lot of injured birds from the wild each year in their on-site hospital. And to top it off it's free (although they do appreciate donations) I can't wait to go back and take Daniel (he was in school the time I went) I also included the link to Lone Elk Park.

What is your favorite bird? Do you have any funny or interesting bird stories to tell? Is this a place you might like to see?


My photo site http://dwilson898.photosite.com/ (I have several albums there, you have to click on the Bird Sanctuary album)

World Bird Sactuary website http://www.worldbirdsanctuary.org/

Also, here is the site for Lone Elk Park where you can see bison. They link to the World Bird Sanctuary at the bottom of the page. http://www.stlouisco.com/parks/LoneElk.html