Who's the pretty boy, then?

Disclaimer - this is a captive bird.  Let's get that out of the way immediately.  And, as most of you know, I don't normally photograph birds in captivity (no judgement, just a personal preference).  However, today I made an exception.  I went to a new (to me) park in Largo where there is a small raptor center, home to a couple handfuls of  permanently injured owls and hawks.  The park has lovely walking trails with quite a nice assortment of wildlife and as I was walking along a wooded trail, I came across a man with this gorgeous male red-shouldered hawk on his arm.  Turns out he was taking him out for his daily walk, something they do with all the resident raptors.  

This male red-shoulder is about two years old and came to the center with a serious eye injury.  The eye couldn't be saved and was later removed, rendering him blind on the right side and unable to hunt.  He get's out for a walk for an hour or so each day, and he appeared to be healthy and content.  When I snapped this photo, his handler had just given him a spritz of water from a spray bottle.  He flashed his wings and flared the feathers on his head, apparently not in the mood for a spritz.

Places like this (McGough Nature Preserve) survive solely on contributions and volunteers - what a worthwhile endeavor!  In addition to the resident raptors, they also are home to a bunch of freshwater (wild) turtles, a small family of endangered gopher tortoise, and a handful of various snakes and reptiles.  I'll be going back.

Still working through re-bonding process with the D90, but in general I was happier with results today.  Oh, and thanks to Wade, I learned that my D600 had just shy of 150,000 clicks on the shutter - explaining why it crapped out, I guess.  I went and checked the exif data on my D90 and found that it has over 110,000 clicks - yikes.  It's going to be in need of a new shutter soon, too.  

I posted 7 other shots starting HERE on Flickr, including three more from the raptor center and a few from John's Pass this morning.  My favorite...the one of the nictitating membrane on the pelican (yep, I was dying to work THAT word into a sentence!)

Thanks for all the lovely comments and bling on my heron yesterday!  

Happy Saturday...
Debbi