Butterfly Sisters trip to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary

Last Saturday the Butterfly Sisters toured the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary. This place has been open for many years in Palm Beach County; but I'd never seen it until the kids were in town recently, and it seemed like a fun place for the Butterflies to spend an afternoon.

My Butterflies could be called wild life themselves: Back to front: Liz, Lynn, Sandi, Natasha and Pam. Now where did Cathy wander off to?

Busch rehabs as many creatures as it can and returns them to the wild if possible. Some, like these eagles, are unable to return to nature. Three eagles call Busch home now. One was shot, one electrocuted and the third hit by a car. Beautiful to see up close. Pam was greatly amused that the feathers covering part of their legs look like pants, and kept going back to their cage just to see them walk.

Brown Pelicans and a beautiful Roseate Spoonbill (which I've only rarely seen in the wild) live in this enclosure, along with various herons, egrets, ibis, a wood stork and a few ducks.

Apparently I have the wingspan of a turkey vulture. The eagle has the largest spread on this display.

Besides a whole menagerie of birds, we saw deer, raccoons, black bears, bobcats, skunks, gators, crocs and snakes. We also stayed for the animal encounter, where volunteers presented various critters and walked them around to touch and see close up. My very favorite was this adorable screech owl. Actually, there was a whole cage of 5 or 6 of them; but this little guy is accustomed to encounters with people in the show. He had been captured as an owlet and raised as a pet along with the family parakeet, and was quite malnourished by the time he came into the care of Busch. I've seen a few of these in the wild, but I never get tired of them:

Now I've got to sort through and edit my pictures and share them with my Butterflies. Hopefully some of them got better shots than I did!