little e sitting with eagle owl encounter with owls center parcs

An Encounter with Owls at Center Parcs

Little E loves animals so I knew she would want to visit the Woburn Forest Falconry at Center Parcs. There were quite a few activities to choose from at the Falconry. I thought Encounter with Owls would be the best introduction for her. Apart from feeding Rainbow Lorikeets, this would be the only other up-close experience Little E has had with live birds.

An Encounter with Owls at Center Parcs

An Encounter with Owls at Woburn Forest Center Parcs

This Center Parcs activity is for anyone over the age of three. It is also parent accompanied which means you must pay for an adult place as well as the child. Although this activity takes place in the Center Parcs grounds an outside company bring in the owls. The owls visiting us came from Herrings Green Activity Farm & Bird of Prey Centre. This means not only do you get to meet some amazing birds of prey you also gain lots of information about them from the handler.

Which Owls Did We Meet at Woburn Forest Center Parcs?

During the Encounter with Owls activity, we got to meet three owls. The first one was a Southern White Faced Owl. This owl is one of the smaller owls that are native to the southern half of Africa. We were invited to hold this owl whilst the handler told us all of the information about it. As this activity was booked for Little E I let her hold all of the birds. I was just there for the photos.

little e holding southern white faced owl

The next owl we could meet was a Tawny Owl. They are native across much of Europe and North Africa. This owl was the medium-sized owl we were going to meet during this session. Not only did Little E get the chance to hold the Tawny Owl this owl was able to fly to her arm.

tawny owl encounter with owls center parcs
tawny owl flying towards little e encounter with owls center parcs
tawny owl landing little es arm encounter with owls center parcs
little e holding tawny owl encounter with owls center parcs

Our final owl introduction was an Eagle Owl. Due to the size of this owl, this was more of a photo opportunity. Looking at the size of his feet I was quite happy with this. They were about the same size as Little E’s hands.

little e sitting with eagle owl

I took this chance to take an owl selfie with a little help from the handler as I couldn’t get us both in the frame at first.

jane eagle owl selfie

I think we both found the Encounter with Owls experience really enjoyable. It was a 45-minute experience and you could take part in as little or as much as you like. The handler was amazing, full of facts and very funny. She taught us how owls really sound and how we shouldn’t say tu-whit tu-whoo as it isn’t a real owl cry. If we get the chance to return to one of the Center Parcs with a Falconry I think I would book an experience for Ethan too. He can find animals very unpredictable which makes him nervous. As we know he does like to surprise us. Our alpaca trek in Chelmsford was able to prove that.

I was able to film some of the owl encounters. You can watch them in our video below.

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