Spooky Creatures Walk

Tonight Franchi and I took the girls for a little Halloween outing.  A friend had told us about the Spooky Creatures Walk at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.  It's an event hosted by the West Sound Wildlife Shelter to promote wildlife education through a walking tour with live animals at various stations.  We signed up for an early tour since the girls wouldn't be able to stay late and we didn't want to be walking in the dark with toddlers.

The other fun part about the event is that kids are encouraged to dress in their Halloween costumes, so it was a perfect "test run" for them.  Here I am with the two girls before the walk - Ruby is a gorilla (this is part of our family costume theme for Halloween) and Valentina is a Navy cheerleader.

Valentina spent most of the evening riding on Franchi's back.  Ruby was in the Ergo carrier for approximately 2 minutes before she wanted out. 

Our tour included about 14 people - kids and adults.  We walked through trails with tour guides who took us from station to station.  There were probably 8 or so stations in all.  Each station had a volunteer with a wild animal from the wildlife shelter.  Although the presenters did a great job at telling us about the animal, Ruby and Valentina weren't really that interested and I often had to pull Ruby aside to keep her from shouting or running around.  This often involved picking up leaves or mulch.

Anyway, the animals were pretty amazing.  Most were birds, but there was also an opossum and a some reptiles.  Oh, and we saw a family of deer grazing nearby.  Anyway, here are a few of the animals:

This is a type of kestrel (a small, female falcon), who cannot fly due to a busted wing.

This is a horrible photo, but was one of my favorites on the tour.  I think it's a northern saw-whet owl (I can't completely remember since I was pretty much chasing after Ruby at this point).  The owl is very, very small (but is full grown) and was found in a local barn with a broken wing.  

This is a barred owl, who was stunning.  I learned that this one only weighs 1.5 pounds, although is looks so much bigger!  Gorgeous!