On Saturday, November 13, David Semple, a local guy who organizes nature-themed arts, educational, & recreational programs, held one such nature-themed art show and sale at the Perinton Community Center (1350 Turk Hill Rd., 223-5050). The event featured 15 talented artists, and a bird-of-prey show. You know I like art, but I'm also utterly fascinated with raptors as well, so some friends and I piled into a car and headed out to the 'burbs.

Of the 15 artists present at the show, six in particular caught my eye. Mary Mullard Young showed beautiful paintings of wildlife, including the pairing of a handsome black wolf and raven, and a fox hiding among the gnarly roots of a tree. Nearby, Henrik Søderstrøm's semi-abstract, ghostly landscapes and figurative paintings captivated us for a spell, and the artist even took the time to show us the pages of mixed-media books he had created. Peter F. Colosi delighted us with his mandala-like collages, which he called "collide-o-scopic" images. My group's favorite among Marie F. Heerkens' animal illustrations were those she wood-burned onto bracket fungi. Al Jordan's immaculate wood-carved and painted birds were the 3D mirror across the aisle from Raymond J. Easton's photorealistic, amazing bird paintings (Easton's work can also be viewed as one-half of a duo show, with Charles Houseman, at the Oxford Gallery through November 27).

We finished our visit with the $2 bird show. Ron Walker, program presenter from Friends with Feathers Ltd. (5433 Triphammer Road, Avon; 346-0423; friendswithfeathers.org), brought along three gorgeous and (harnesses notwithstanding) mildly intimidating birds of prey, which he introduced to the all-ages audience during a roughly hour-long presentation.

During the show, we met and learned about a large, one-eyed female barred owl (the aviary takes injured birds under its wing), a smaller, pretty female barn owl, and a large and slightly spastic male red-tailed hawk with a bad shoulder. It was strange to see these continuously calculating, mighty creatures up close - though Western New York is nesting ground to eight species of owls and 14 species of diurnal raptors, it's a rare treat to be in such close proximity to them.

Walker walked us through the specifics about each animal, including camouflage, eating habits, body temperatures, and calls (some owls don't give a hoot, but scream to intimidate prey), black & white sight, and Doppler hearing. We learned that the slower-swooping owls' wings are deadly silent, and that the speedier hawks' feathers makes a soft ruffling sound, but by the time the prey is alerted, it's far too late. Other fascinating trivia included the process of a young male hawk seeking and obtaining his own territory, raptors' natural predators (raccoons eat their eggs, and great horned owls hunt them), and that hawks also hawk up pellets, though without bones, because unlike owls, they can digest those. Gulp.

The seriously intriguing show left me wanting to learn more and make time to visit the aviary, not to mention find out what I can do to aid in the survival of these species. You can learn more by visiting friendswithfeathers.org, and find out about future nature-themed events by becoming a fan of DSEnvironmental on Facebook.