International Raptor & Falconry Center

Last Saturday, we did the Stem Celebration for Flagstaff. It was extremely windy and cold, making it very difficult to do our usual outreach. However, I did manage to find a corner in the building to hold Moira out for a couple of hours. There were about 1000 people present.
She did awesome. I actually think she enjoyed it a bit from her usual routine.
🤎🦅 Very early on, a native man offered to do a prayer for her. For the next full five minutes, he chanted in his native language and became so moved by her mere presence that he began to sob. Being from Northern Arizona, this isn’t uncommon. Most of my birds have been blessed by the natives. However, I will say this is the first time one of my birds brought someone to sobbing tears. I just absolutely loved that for her; I love that her mere presence and doing nothing else, just present as herself would bring a person to sobbing tears. It was awesome.

These are the only four photos that documented that day because I am terrible about getting photos. So I am very grateful that Greg Vaughan, an astrogeologist from the USGS, who I also served on the board of Flagstaff Festival of Science, was there to take these photos. He was doing an activity using an infrared camera, and this is what Moira looks like in an infrared camera.
It just goes to show how effective feathers are at buffering/insulating heat. The only hotspots in these photos are where her skin is exposed; her feet and her face.

I was shocked at the number of people that asked to pet her. I usually get a few, but this was a lot of people asking to pet a Bald Eagle. My response was I don’t even pet her. That beak is made for shredding up fish and I need my finger.

Until next 2027!