We are happy to have entered the semi-retired phase of our jewelry making career. One can drive from our home in Ft. Bragg, CA to Salem, Oregon in 9 or 10 hours but we took three days and made stops along the way. One of the most interesting stops was at a facility called the Cascades Raptor Center in the southern part of Eugene, Oregon where injured or abandoned birds of prey of a variety of species are taken care of. The top priority is to try to get the bird to a state where it can be released back into the wild with a hope of survival. They have a hospital facility where the focus is on healing and privacy for the birds and visitors are not allowed.
Many birds that they take in though, for a variety of reasons, physical and psychological, would have a very small chance of surviving in the wild. These are in aviaries and can be viewed by visitors to the center. At any given time there are 55 to 65 raptors that can be seen, owls, hawks, eagles, vultures, falcons, kites, ospreys and others. It was a special experience to be able to see these magnificent creatures up close and to be able to take pictures. There are staff and volunteers who act as handlers for some of the birds and bring them outside to exercise and to allow people to see them close up and tell visitors about their lives and stories. I really enjoyed seeing an osprey up close, they fly above our house sometimes here on the California coast and I sometimes see them flying in from the ocean with a fish in their claws on the way to their nests in river canyons. I learned a lot about them that I didn't know, that they actually dive into the water to catch fish for example and that they have some of the sharpest claws in the world of birds. I also learned that eagles often follow them and take the fish that they have caught. Eagles can't dive in the water, they can only catch fish on the surface (or steal them from the successful osprey).
The website for the center is CASCADE RAPTOR CENTER
It is well worth a visit. Easy to find and a small admission charge. Parking may sometimes be a little of a problem but not an insurmountable one.