Zadar, Croatia and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom

Our second day in Croatia, we docked this morning in Zadar, the former capital of independent Dalmatia that held great sway with Rome, Venice, and other empires.  Today, though, we didn't go to the old city but, instead, went about 75 miles away on a trip to the Dubrava Falconry Center and the Krka National Park.  The falconry center was particularly impressive.  Who remembers Marlon Perkins' Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom?   We saw it firsthand.

The Dubrava Falconry Center was the home to injured birds of prey, including from as far away as the United States.  The first bird of prey we were shown was a great horned owl, and she ("Scar") was magnificent.  Some fun facts about her were that she can turn her head a full 270 degrees while humans can go only 180 degrees.  Females tend to be larger than males, and are adept hunters; she can see 20x better at night than during the day, and moves largely silently through the air.  Her vision is binocular - excellent frontally and weaker peripherally.  Her "ears" are two holes, one in the top of the head and one in the cheek for diagonal hearing.  They can detect the sound of a mouse stepping on a twig from 75 feet away!  Their prey is eaten whole and they later regurgitate undigestible material, like feathers, in pellets. She was an amazing beautiful and attentive bird, raising her "horns" when she felt like we, the audience, were too engaged.

The second bird we were shown was a Harris hawk (the
"wolves of the sky") from the United States.  They can live to be 15 - 20 years old, with female hawks larger than males. Interestingly, they hunt in packs with one or a few acting to flush out the prey and push it toward the others.  Like the owl, they only eat when they are hungry and otherwise ignore food unless procuring it for their babies.  If they've killed prey for their offspring, they don't return to the killed prey but leave it to lure in other animals for a meal the following day.  It, too, was a spectacular creature to see in person.  Here, in the middle of nowhere Croatia, is a wonderful animal sanctuary taking care of injured creatures, and it was an affirming experience for Cheryl and I.

From here, we journeyed to the Krka National Park which is famous for a set of beautiful waterfalls.  The natural beauty of the place was a bit offset by our first experience with rain, and hard it did come down while we were there.  Turns out that apparently a lot of people on the cruise saw the weather report and simply "stayed home" on the ship, but we ventured out and we were glad to do so after the magnificent experience at the Falconry Center.

Tomorrow we're on our last full day of the cruise in Koper, Slovenia, once a capital city of the mighty Venetian Republic.  Its Italian influence is strong and the forerunner of the following day when we disembark in Venice.  Cheryl and I are staying a couple extra days in Venice and are pretty excited about that, so more tomorrow after our day in Koper.