Yesterday, I went to the annual Medieval Festival at Fort Tryon Park. It’s held every year and I’ve been going to it since I was six. I missed it last year due to my dad’s passing, so I was even more determined to attend this year. My sixteen-year streak was slightly interrupted and I remember being so disappointed I had missed it last year that I needed to keep the tradition. And though the Medieval Festival has been getting worse and worse as the years go by (what I mean by this is you see less and less vendors and such), I have hope for it to get better! The economy really has had an impact on this festival. I was so disappointed that the guy who sells rings every year was not there this year! But it’s been like this for awhile. I’ve seen so many vendors who always attended disappearing over the years and it makes me sad.
But despite all of this, I had a good time with good friends. It was a lovely day outside, so it was nice to be out. I also was able to try out my new camera! It took some lovely pictures, but the best ones were of the birds that we got to see. A couple of falcons and an owl! My camera took some crazy beautiful pictures of these birds. I was so surprised because I didn’t think I made a good buy, but apparently I was using my camera all wrong! The zoom was incredible and I managed to take all of these pictures on Manual! So proud of myself!
Anyway, take a look at these beauties! These birds are so pretty! My friend was slightly obsessed with the owl, which she had to prod the trainer politely to take out again for the rest of us to see, since it was napping due to it being nocturnal. We even caught a bit of the falcon show, where one of the trainers demonstrated something with the falcon flying freely about the jousting area. We didn’t get to see all of it, so I’m not sure what else happened.
We did, however, get to see the trainers feed the birds. Here’s a lovely video of one of the falcon’s eating his lunch. And yes, that is a small bird he’s eating. I think it was a parakeet, maybe?
But it’s amazing our nature. I think I’ve said this before that we as humans tend to take things–especially the simple things–for granted, and it’s a shame. Look how beautiful nature is! My friends and I really appreciated getting the chance to see these beauties up close. They are beautiful smart birds that we don’t get to see very often, so it was very nice to get that chance to see them.