DAY 16 - October 17, 2023

 We decided to stay another day at Paris Landing State Park Marina. The lady working in the marina office told us we should visit the park aviary while we're here. The birds in the aviary are all raptors, meaning they are birds with beaks and sharp talons. They include hawks, eagles, falcons, owls and vultures.

The first bird we saw was a Great Horned Owl named Oscar. Oscar was brought to the park in 2016 after falling out of a nest. Because he was so young, he imprinted on humans for food, water and safety, meaning he cannot be released into the wild. The talons of a great horned owl can squeeze it's prey with 28 pounds of force.

We next saw a Barred Owl named Precious. Precious is on the left in this photo and is recognizable because she is blind in her left eye. Because of this she can no longer hunt due to the loss of her stereoscopic vision. The call of the barred owl sounds like, "Who cooks for you".

Cleopatra the Red-Tailed Hawk was next. She flew into a power line in 2019 and broke her left wing at the elbow. Red-tailed hawks are the most abundant and widespread hawk throughout North America. They mate for life.

Finally we saw a Kestrel named Hazel. Like Oscar, she fell out of her nest as a chick. A kestrel is a type of falcon. They are built for speed and can dive at 175 miles an hour.

In the afternoon I located a dollar store on Google Maps and noticed a review. It said the aisles are so crowded with "stuff" that it was difficult to get around. However, we needed some food items, so I hopped on my electric bike and headed the 3 1/2 miles down the road to get there. They had everything we needed, but sure enough, you could practically trip over things hanging off the shelves or sitting on the floor. The review I read was from 2018, so apparently things haven't improved in the past five years. The following three photos are from inside the store.

Later in the day Denise and I rode our bikes around and took a couple of photos.

This is the part of the Kentucky Lake we traveled to get to where we are now.

While we were riding we met this fellow on a one wheel electric unicycle called an Inmotion. He is a local and asked/answered a lot of questions about our adventure.