I love birds, so the Eagle Encounters centre at Spier really appeals to me. My best decision in ages was taking last Friday off work and going on a really enjoyable bird-visiting-family-outing with my mom and brother.

Eagle Encounters is the largest bird of prey rehabilitation and education centre in SA and receives birds from all over the country. A row of sleepy owls on perches greeted us as we arrived and we were informed that they’d been seized from people who’d tried to keep them as pets. I think it’s really horrible that people would steal baby birds from nests, but would be lying if  I said I’d never wished I had a pet raptor…but it’s definitely better to visit them where they’re being properly cared for.

While the centre does rehabilitate and release injured birds, most of their wards are permanent residents. Entry into the venue includes encounters with the spotted eagle owls which was really cool, and for a bit extra you can watch the raptor show at various times during the day. Encounters with Wally the Wahlberg’s Eagle and Mick the Black Eagle are also available – we didn’t do it this time around, but did get to meet Wally back in 2007.

The centre is definitely worth a visit if you haven’t been before – meeting all the beautiful birds should totally brighten up anyone’s day.

Next door to the birds is the Cheetah Outreach facility (though I think they’re moving to Somerset West some time later this year) which we briefly visited. It was really hot so unfortunately all the cats were sleeping in the shade; the Anatolian Shepherd Dogs were a bit more awake, but there generally wasn’t much going on…

After we watched some people nervously pet a dozy cheetah (while a rather awkward guy took photos), the heat got the better of us and we made our way back home.

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Eagle Encounters at Spier  |  Cheetah Outreach