This Place is for the Birds!

Ostrich "fishin"

Off I-10, at the exit for Picacho Peak State Park is a fun family park called Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Ranch. They raise ostriches here, offer monster truck rides, ostrich "fishing" tours, and feed cups to feed the animals--deer, donkeys, and the hole-in-the-wall gang (a bunch of hungry goats jammin' their heads through holes so you can feed them. Then they have the lorikeets! Beautiful birds in an area where you go in with nectar cups and thrill (?)  to having a bunch of lorikeets all over your body, flying around you and landing on you, pecking at your hair, your ears, your beard, sunglasses, whatever, depending on how hungry they are. This is a great place for families, and it's a great place for seniors to act a little silly, too!

Greg and Jan feeding the birds

THE Mr. Rooster Cogburn

I met up with our friends, Jan and Greg White, and Nick and Terry Russell "down at the farm"....Eldy wanted to see his Notre Dame basketball team play, so he stayed home to watch them win. One time is really all you need to go to see the animals and feed them, but I wanted to see the lorikeets again, so off I went. We met Rooster Cogburn, he's for real...he was great to watch as he interacted with his ostriches. He held out his fingers to show they don't bite, they just peck. He said that most people make the mistake of jerking their hand away and that's when it hurts as the birds are trying to grab the feed. They don't have teeth, but they DO peck HARD!  Then he grabs one of the ostrich's head, holds the beak closed while he gives the ostrich a "noogie" (that's when you get somebody in a headlock and rub your knuckles back and forth on their head!) and then he asked us if we wanted to KISS one! No, thank you. No, siree!  But he did!  Ew-w-w-w-w!

bathing bird beauties

There were quite a few people here so the birds were well fed and didn't land all over us like they did the last time we were here.....but we had fun feeding all the animals...5.00 to get into the ranch and you get one cup of feed and one nectar cup for the birds...I continue to be amazed at the size of an ostrich egg. One ostrich egg is equal to TWO DOZEN regular eggs. Terry said the ostrich eggs are delicious and "sweeter" than regular eggs, AND they make delicious omelets. Yummy!

Just have to leave a few lorikeet photos with some conversation it looks like they are having. They were in the water fountain having LOTS of fun today, it was so hot. It was fun to watch them bathe themselves so here goes....

"I'M having a bad hair day? Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

"You forgot to wash behind your "ears", honey!"

"They didn't tell me I'd have to wear ankle jewelry 24/7. How do you get this damn thing off?"

"What do I gotta do to make you keep your big mouth shut?"  "BITE me!"  (Lorikeets are VERY noisy birds!)

And that's it for today, folks........see you at the car show tomorrow in Palm Creek......