Wonders of Nature with Matt Edmonds

Today we went to Clearwater Main Library to see a show called Wonders of Nature. This may have been the best and most interactive show I have ever seen with animals! I got a seat in the front row with a group of my friends. We were all glued to the show.

The show started out with “Jedi the Augur Buzzard”. He is basically a hawk! Matt Edmonds’, the teacher, held him on his glove so he didn’t get cut from his talons!

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In mid sentence the hawk took off and flew around the room and back to Mr. Matt!

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I was so amazed!

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A goofy picture while about 100 camp kids piled into the room from the local YMCA.

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Mr. Matt had the bird do a few more flights across the room. Truly beautiful. I kept telling MOmmy it was the most beautiful thing I had even seen!

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Up next was “Stitches the Grey Squirrel”. Stitches is the kid of squirrel we have in our yard but Stitches is trained!

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He likes to hunt for peanuts in the dirt.

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He climbed all over Mr. Matt while I giggled with delight!

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This is “Scooby the Burmese Python”. Scooby is 24 years old and had belonged to Mr. Matt since he hatched from his egg and fit in Mr. Matt’s hand!! WOW!

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One girl got to go up and pet the snake. I guess normally all the kids get to do so but there were well over 200 kids plus adults in the room.

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There were a few other animals: a rat named Sagan, an Amazon Parrot named Moby and Sun Conures(didn’t get their names). They all did tricks and preformed on command. Mr. Matt is a professional animal trainer! When the parrot was preforming he told us that it took him EIGHT years to teach him the tricks he knows! Wow, and he is a professional trainer.

The next animal out was quite hilarious! it was called a Red-legged Seriama. His name was Bambam.

In the wild they catch lizards and bash them against rocks until they die.

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Mr. Matt gave the bird a plastic alligator to do it with. Over and over the bird smashed it into the rock. Neat way to kill your prey.

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Next to last was a flying squirrel. I think this was my favorite because he was very cute, tame and could FLY! He ran all over Mr. Matt.

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Then he sent him up a pole and the squirrel jumped and FLEW to Mr. Matt. I was so amazed!

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The show wrapped up with a “Nova the Eurasian Eagle Owl”.

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Really watching intently and learning.

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The owl flew from Mr. Matt to a perch on the other side of the room. It was so QUIET! The only way you could tell(besides seeing it) that it was flying across the room was the wind from the wings when it first took off!

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Then it would glide into its house.

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It would perch and fly back out again!

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This was such a wonderful show and I want to see it again some day! WOW! I talked about it all day!

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