Trip Report: Ostrich Land!

Time for something a little bit different this week.  I visited UC Santa Barbara this weekend, and while I could go on at length about my experiences there, I am only going to talk about... Ostrich Land!

 

Woo Hoo!  Ostrich Land!

Ostrich Land was a spur-of-the-moment detour away from our planned wine-tasting trip through the hills north of of Santa Barbara.  I had never seen an ostrich or an emu in person before, that I could remember, and let me tell you: Ostrich Land was 10 minutes of concentrated awesome. 

Here is an emu, which is kind of small compared to an ostrich:

And here are the beautiful, fluffy, terrifying ostriches I got to feed:

Ostriches have amazingly powerful legs (apparently they can kick you as hard as a horse, and can trample you if they try, though this information is second-hand).  They also have strong beaks that can take away the food bowl if you don't hold on with both hands.

 

Yes, they like to bite.  

Fun ostrich facts that I learned:

• Ostriches have long eyelashes 
• Ostriches give birth standing up, so their eggs have extremely hard shells that you need to break open with a little chisel if you want to eat the contents
• You can eat ostrich eggs!  If you scramble an ostrich egg, it can feed multiple people.
• Ostrich is a red meat.  People eat it.
• Despite discussion of ostriches as food, Ostrich Land does not kill its birds.  There is a big open area that the ostriches and emus can run through!  You can see the free-range area in the background of the above pictures.

Ostrich Land was awesome.  The four of us who visited spent our 10 minutes there having as much fun as children at an amusement park, feeding the ostriches and emus, and trying not to become food.  We give it 8 thumbs up!

I'll leave you with a picture of me as an ostrich-riding Native American woman: