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Rooster Cogburn Ostrich RanchFeb 2, 2008
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Picacho Peak
The boys... black feathers & red legs
Feeding the Fallow Deer
Today, we took an interesting trip as suggested by Myrna a couple of days ago. We visited the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch. It's about 36 miles southeast of Val Vista Winter Village near the town of Picacho. The ranch raised ostriches, about 600 of them, and has made quite a tourist attraction of the ostriches, emus, lorikeets and recently donkeys. It's quite the family business, with DC and wife Lucille and their daughter Danna and husband Craig all pitching in in various roles. The general idea is sort of like a petting zoo combined with a game farm, where your admission gets you food to feed the animals and a tour on a huge monster truck which includes lots of good information on the ranch and the desert in which it's located.
Ostriches don't really bite, but they do peck rather abruptly. Feeding includes both placing alfalfa food pellets into troughs, and actually feeding the birds by hand. They also have fallow deer which are cute and also eat the alfalfa. But the real treat comes when you enter the Rainbow Lorikeet Forest, an enclosed area with many of these beautiful little birds. They understand the little cups of nectar and immediately flock to you (or to the nectar). Elaine had half a dozen birds on her within the first 10 seconds, and she hadn't even opened the nectar yet. The birds would do that for her if left to themselves for a few seconds.
The trip through the ranch and into the desert was even more interesting, since it's a tour, guided by Danna and driven by DC. Lots of information is provided along the way about raising ostriches and living in the desert. Not only that, but there are some tremendous picture taking opportunities. See the saguarro cactus pictures above; they grow for 70 years before developing 'arms' and this area is protected and is one of the largest areas of these plants in the US. For further excitement, DC drives the monster truck over various ridges along the trail, much like a huge ATV ride.
As Danna says, we went fishing, using oranges for bait and 'caught' several 300 pounders that had feathers! Unfortunately, no one in our group was able to land one of these beauties. (Try telling that one to the guys at the local fishin' shop.)
This was a great way to spend a couple of hours and is highly recommended for 'kids of all ages'. Do not forget to pack your camera!
Check out Rooster Cogburn's website.
