OWLS! and the Carisbrooke Castle

This morning we had our Owl Encounter with Haven Falconry on the Isle of Wight which was by one of the old steam train railway stations.  First we got to meet Anna the Barn Owl. She was very eager to get flying because she knew there would be treats!

                         

Second up was a Little Owl, who had unfortunately been fed slightly too much the night before and at 140 g was a bit too reluctant to fly for us! But we got to hold him anyway :)

Third up was Chico the Chaco Owl from Peru.  

On one of his flights back to James there was a bit of a gust of wind and the poor owl missed his arm and landed on the grass next to him looking a bit surprised! Luckily with some encouragement the owl jumped back on his arm!

The next owl we got to fly was a beautiful youngster who was only 17 weeks old. From memory I think she said he was some sort of Woodland Owl. He still had all his downy feathers on the top of his head and was still learning to fly so we had to do shorter distances, and even then he was quite reluctant but he did do it for us with a lot of encouragement! I really loved his ridiculously long girly eyelashes!

Last up was the enormous Eurasian Eagle Owl, Apollo. He was about 3kg and very heavy on the end of my arm! I had to give him back after a few minutes! These owls are capable of killing a lamb or a deer by breaking their spines with their claws by jumping out of a tree, which is pretty awesome.

In the afternoon we headed off to Carisbrooke Castle. It was an awful lot smaller than anywhere we had been in London but still pretty awesome, at least while the weather was good. 

                      

We went through the museum and walked up to the main defence point (the motte).

 

A model of what the castle may have originally looked like

We then walked through Princess Beatrice's (the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) garden, and through the medieval tents set up on the main lawn.

The castle outer wall from Princess Beatrice's gardens

An open fire being used to cook in the medieval manner

The wall remains at the motte

After seeing the magnificent views from up on the walls at the motte, we briefly considered doing the 30-40 minute walk along all the castle walls, but just as we considered it the weather packed in for another shower and this one didn't look like it was going to pass very quickly so we decided to leave. A good little trip though.

In the end it turned out the weather was fine on the other side of the island and Fiona had the idea of walking from Shanklin to Ventnor for dinner at the pub, which we went along with as it was supposedly an hour and a bit coastal walk...we were a bit put out to realise that it was more than 2 hours and up the second highest point on the island!!!! However in the end it was a beautiful walk and I'm really glad I went - it was probably for the best that I didn't know what was going to happen as I probably wouldn't have gone! We arrived at the pub just as the sun was starting to set (about 8 pm) and ate our dinner outside overlooking the water (there was some coastal parts of the walk at the end!). I have however decided that hills should be predominantly climbed prior to 5 pm in the evening....

Map of the Isle of Wight showing Shanklin and Ventnor

The spectacular view from the top

All of us at the top (minus Fiona who took the photo!)

Some pictures of the coast once we reached it :)

              

                                    

The view of the beach from the pub - very pink sand!

Two very spectacular days in the Isle of Wight :)