Wildlife Field Trip

Today we went to the Wildlife Center of Virginia where they care for sick and injured wild animals.  The intention is to always return the animals to their natural habitat, but if that is not possible, then they keep them as "teaching animals".  Today we met an opossum,  snake, turtle and many different birds.  We also walked on the nature trail to discuss habitats and the food chain.  It was a GREAT trip and the weather could not have been better!

A volunteer at the Wildlife Center explained about the veterinary hospital and what we would see on our visit.

Peg the opossum is a teaching animal because she is very used to humans and can't be released back  into the wild.

Peg has an eye problem, but she is still able to enjoy a banana!

We looked at the birds that they had and the volunteer even asked us for suggestions on names for a new bird!

This fuzzy bird named Edie is so used to humans that she greeted us at the front of the cage and knows how to call for food. 

Here we are looking at the hawks and eagles.  There was a red tailed hawk and a young bald eagle!

We looked at the owls and this is a great horned owl that only has one eye!

We enjoyed and saw a lot of birds that live at the Wildlife Center.

On the nature trail the volunteer told us about a lot of things that we might see and should look for.

On the nature trail we talked a lot about an animal's natural habitat and what they need to survive. 

Here we are looking for animal evidence of wildlife with tracks or scat. 

We looked under a log for natural homes for small animals or bugs.  We found a millipede and a centipede.  

We looked in a stream and our leader found an large crayfish that looked like a lobster.  We teased that this was just like "Mrs. Laubscher"!