Stuff We've Been Doing

General overview before I get back to working on the picture pipeline.

Today: Went to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum, took a walk around the Thalersee, had hot chocolate and cake, went shopping for gifts to bring back since I won't be able to go to the store before my flight.

Yesterday: Hung out with a bunch of folks at the Crazy Austrian Birthday Party, where the person having the birthday had to work but everyone hit the Prosecco anyway.  Danced the Time Warp.

Last Thursday: Holiday, Christi Himmelfahrt.  Swam in the pool and generally chilled out.

Last Wednesday: Our visit to the Kunstgarten was canceled due to rain, we went to the Zeughaus to visit the polearms instead.  Yay, polearms!

Tomorrow: Heading to Salzburg for three days.

Greifvogelschau, pt. 2

And now for the actual flying part of the falconry show.  Some pictures turned out a little blurry, but I'm posting them anyways because birds of prey are cool.

This was our host, who told us about the different kinds of birds.  All the birds in the show have been raised in captivity.  One of the uses of falconry in modern times is to scare birds away from airports.  Taking a goose to the engine can crash a plane, so military and some commercial airports bring in birds of prey for this purpose.

View from the seats.

The first bird they released decided she wanted to fly around for awhile.  At the beginning of the show the host explained that the birds do as they please to a certain extent and each show is different depending on what the birds feel like doing that day.

So while the eagle was flying around enjoying the weather, they brought out a Northern Caracara, a type of falcon from Mexico.

Two handlers stood at either side of the audience and flew the bird back and forth between them by offering treats.

Meanwhile, some of the birds in the aviary were noticing it was show time and wanted their turn to fly around.

The next demonstration involved showing how falcons are trained using a leather thing on the end of a cord, which is swung around in the air to attract the falcon.

Getting any image of the bird was difficult because they dive at ridiculous velocities.

 Once they've caught they're prey, they'll quickly try to hide it.  Young birds of prey often lose a few meals before they learn they need to take their kill and hide before they eat so the scavengers don't get it.

After the kestrel flew around a bit, the eagle decided it was time for a snack and came down.

 The bald eagle decided it was going to fly around and ignore us for awhile.  If I heard correctly, they don't get a meal before the shows to encourage them to cooperate, but that doesn't always work.  They're definitely not underfed, though.  The host explained that in order to keep the birds from hunting wild game and getting complaints from local farmers, their diet is carefully controlled so that they're all slightly overweight.  They don't fly away from the Riegersburg because each bird considers the aviary to be its territory and birds of prey don't leave established territories.  If for some reason all the birds got out at once and no one was around to take care of them, they'd eventually hunt each other down.

While the bald eagle was having fun, they brought out a Griffon Vulture.

She was huge.

The griffon vulture is an Old Word Vulture that belongs to the same group as hawks and eagles.

Next we were warned to not eat or drink anything during the next part of the show, because the raven would try to steal anything it saw humans eating.

Next, a Harris's Hawk.

And the eagle was still enjoying the nice thermals.

Sometimes you had to duck.

Next, a turkey vulture.  The host explained that turkey vultures are one of the few birds of prey that have strong senses of smell.  Apparently they've been used by law enforcement for body recovery.  At one point they were used in industry to detect gas leaks of some sort because the gas had a rotting smell to it.

The turkey vulture decided the glove the host was holding was more interesting than the gloves the handlers were wearing, so the host had to rush to get it on his hand.

"Okay, I'm done now."

Der Uhu.

Then we got to see a short flight by a Snowy Owl.  They don't look quite as derpy when flying.

The Snowy Owl only flew one lap around the amphitheater before going back inside.  I suspect it was a little too hot out for an arctic bird to be very active.

Once they had all the other birds back in their cages they let a golden eagle out.  The host was attempting to get it to display its attack posture.

But it would rather fly around.

"Nope.  Not gonna.  You can't make me."

"I totally know where you're hiding the treats."

Afterwards we walked back up the path and took the lift down to the parking lot to wait for taxis to take us to the chocolate factory.

Moat pigs.

Hillside cows that look suspiciously like sheep.

A shot of the castle from the taxi.

Next stop: the Zotter chocolate factory.