Cheorwon Wildlife Preserve

Last weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to tag along with a friend of mine and a top falconer to Cheorwon Wildlife Preserve.

The cannibal hawk who ate his friend; here he's hanging out on the edge of the coffee table while Sang cleans his area on the patio.

Actually, first we hung out at said falconer's apartment with a hawk, who apparently EATEN his hawk-friend earlier that week. Not a super friendly bird, to say the least. After hanging out with this bird-cannibal in an apartment, I decided that a little more space for viewing *maybe even flying* would be pretty nice.

How ELSE do you transport a hawk?

Gorgeous mountains.

We left in the morning and drove out of Seoul, north to Cheorwon. They say it's the closest city to the North Korean border that people can visit--about 10 km away. There are mountains all around the city of Seoul, but once you get out a ways, they're just everywhere--and fully visible instead of peeking over buildings and bridges.

Smells of manure in the rice paddies and the sights of little strip malls enlivened the three-ish hour long drive. We got out there, and it looked like a strange zoo or something: big cylindrical cages, and the sounds of screeching birds.

The center basically focuses on birds of prey--BIG birds… like Snow Vultures who fly south from Mongolia and get stuck here with a variety of injuries. The Snow Vultures can't be re-released into the wild as far as I know--they won't make it once they've been in contact with humans.

Snow Vultures... approximately 3+ feet tall.

A Crane with an injured leg.

An intimidating walk to the vet's room with an eagle loose in the hallway. She was no tiny bird.

Piercing black eyes watched your EVERY move. She's a pretty clever bird.

Large and small owls were there, as well as an amazing crane and a big eagle. It was pretty amazing, but not nearly as cool as actually getting to take one of the owls out and feed him.

Reg and I getting ready to eat.

Feeding "Reginald", or "Reg" for short, entailed cutting up some dead chicks and putting them in a little hip-pack that you wear like a belt, taking him out in a big field, dropping him off, walking down a ways, and holding out the gloved hand while calling "illewah" to him. Then, he'd take off and swoop low to the ground, and gingerly land on your arm! A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. He was very gentle, and a bit heavy. He wasn't a small bird by any stretch. He would screech and snuggle against Rachael, who regularly trains him. He's a pretty cool guy. I might be a bit in love.

Off he hops to wait for us to walk down a ways and call him again.

SEXY.

Snuggles for his girlfriend :)

I got to see the vets working on a crow and the eagle… removing bandages, checking wounds, and redressing injuries. The owner took everyone out to lunch, and Sang (the falconer) spent it busting my balls, trying to convince me I should ask one of the volunteers when he escaped from North Korea. Then the owner suggested they all start a band, and I could design their posters. Good times. I'll definitely be going back, if for nothing else, to draw the birds--they're gorgeous, and many are nearly as big as me.

So, basically it was the best day of my life. Sunny and gorgeous, at about 70 degrees, surrounded by mountains in every direction, with a huge owl landing on my arm to eat a dead chick out of my hand. Yes please.

A bit more about the center:

Cheorwon Wildlife Rescue.. about 2 1/2-3 hours outside Seoul.. 10 km from North Korea. Run by the owner and a few vets, they mostly function on volunteers. They have birds of prey--and some other wild animals-- who come to them with a variety of injuries, are nursed to health and re-released into the wild if possible.