THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 11, 1995 TAG: 9504110060
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Mom, I'm Bored
SOURCE: Sherrie Boyer
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
IT WAS A beautiful afternoon, blue skies, beds of periwinkle and piles of excited children. By the time we unbuckled the littlest ones in our gang of six, the 5-year-olds were leaping with anticipation.
We were at Bluebird Gap Farm in Hampton, where more than 350 native Virginia animals cavort on a working farm run by the city's Parks and Recreation Department.
First we followed a peacock, then we giggled at a rook of roosters. The gray wolf refused to awake to our pleas, even though Ellen, 5, insisted he was the big, bad wolf - reason enough for any animal to rise in denial or agreement.
Many of the animals on this farm had been injured and were rehabilitated in wildlife programs but couldn't be released in the wild. Others were gifts, such as the all-time favorite, 28-year-old Charlie, a white horse that was born blind but still loves the attention, strokes and coos from visiting children.
Beyond the wolf, we spotted Bambi; cooed to a chorus of turtle doves, which Maddie, 4, mistook for penguins; and missed the newborn lambs somehow. At the rabbit pens, we marveled at the soft fur and different faces in cage after cage after cage of proof of bunny love.
We nodded at the red and gray foxes, the raccoon and the Eastern gray squirrel, but the hawks and the owls hypnotized us as though we were prey, separated from their gaze only by the bare cobweb of chain link.
These were the most amazing critters to us. We marveled at the strength of their claws and the differences in the faces from the great horned owl to the screech owl to the barred owl. Shaun, 5, thought the barred owl the most beautiful animal of the farm.
But all of the children loved the nanny goats, cows and Charlie. The other great sights were the three mountain lions and two bobcats in cages surrounded by a duck pond.
We watched one of the lions yowl and a second pace while the ducks and geese splashed, quacked and played just inches from all sides of the cage.
``It's not nice to tease the lions,'' Ellen reflected, ``when they want the ducks for dinner.''
After you visit all the animals, there is a nice little playground with sand, swings and a miniature barn near the entrance. The building next to the playground is home to a handful of snakes - behind glass, of course.
In the near future, the staff expects newborn calves to arrive from mid-April to mid-May. And on May 6, the farm will host a Country Festival celebrating America's rural heritage. Call the Hampton Visitor Center for details, 727-1102 or (800) 800-2202.
To get there: Follow Interstate 64 to Hampton and take Exit 263A, Mercury Boulevard. Turn left on Queen Street and left again on Pine Chapel Road. The farm is just ahead on the right. Admission is free. The farm is open Wednesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed Monday and Tuesday. There are several picnic tables, including ones in the playground and some on a lovely hill near the parking lot overlooking the farm. No food is permitted near the animals. Handfuls of critter food (what Sam calls ``little dog bones``) are available for 25 cents. This is the only food visitors may feed any of the animals, including the ducks. The farm's information recording is 727-6739.
While you're there, you might consider visiting the Air Power Park, a huge collection of rockets and airplanes, including one of the first supersonic Air Force fighters, Nike surface-to-air missile and a vertical-lift jet. You can get there easily from the farm, just over the crest of the hill as you leave. Follow the signs. Air Power Park, 413 W. Mercury Blvd., 727-1163. Open Wednesday-Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission. by CNB