The One About The Parrots

At the Flamingo animal habitat, just down from the flamingos and the pelican, was a flock of parrots.

These colourful birds were out so tourists could take photos with them - for a fee of course.  However since this is one of the few souvenirs we got from Vegas, it seemed like a fun thing to do.

So my wife and I got some photos taken holding the birds. The rules were no photography of people holding the birds, so we ended up buying them. They had an option where one could get all the photos they took on a USB stick, which ended up being the best deal (especially considering I'd likely never display a printed photo).

The rules may have been no photos of people holding the birds, but there were no restrictions of taking photos of the parrots whilst they were resting on their perches, so I put on my best lens for the job, and started snapping.  The following are the results.

One last shot... my wife hogging all the parrots :)  This is obviously one of the purchased photos, but it serves as one heck of a souvenir.

The One About The Pelican

While I was at the Flamingo checking out the flamingos, I also came across this jaunty looking fellow.

I've always liked pelicans.  Not overly sure why - I think its because they are so majestically absurd, kinda like giraffes.

I spent a few minutes watching this fellow mug for the camera - at least it seemed like he was showing off, as he kept doing this rather graceful bow for whoever stopped long enough to notice him.

I have always tried to capture pictures of pelicans in the wild, so it was nice to spend some time up close to one.  However it feels like cheating to say I finally got good pictures, so my quest for good wild pelican pictures will continue.

In the mean time, these photos will have to do.

 

The One About The Flamingos

On the Sunday during The Great Scavenger Hunt meetup, we decided to head down to the strip and check out the scenery.

One of then places we ended up was checking out the flamingos at the animal habitat at the (approriately enough) Flamingo casino.

The following are a few shots from that encounter.

A Saturday At The Zoo

It is the Saturday of a long weekend, I have two young kids to entertain, the outside temperature is in the 50s, and I recently purchased a new camera.

Sounds the the perfect reason to go to the zoo!

That is exactly what we did today. The following is the photographic evidence.

The cat in the first picture is a bobcat.  I have never seen a bobcat before, and I was surprised to find out that bobcats are not that much larger than your standard house cat.

The new polar bear exhibit has opened up at the NC Zoo, so this is the first chance we have had to check out the polar bear.  She had just gotten out of the pool.

Just before we left the polar bears, the keepers tossed in some food for her.

This picture of the owl was taken through glass.  The UV and polarized filters really helped cut down the glare.

I got to exercise the telephoto lens on my camera.  These bison where hanging out on the far side of a rather large field.

We also lucked out and caught the feeding of these baboons.  Baboons are monkees - I know this cause Larry The Cucumber told me in his informative yet silly song.

The zoo has a really cool enclosure that is essentially a ginormous field where many of the larger african herd animals hang out: gazelles, deer, and in this photo, rhinos and gemsboks.

A closer up shot of a rhino hanging out beside a bird.

The elephants are kept on the same african plains exhibit as the other animals, but are kept separate by a fence.

The giraffes, universally considered the favourite animal among the members of my family, hang out with zebra. This enclosure, which is separated from the african plains exhibit, is quite large.  We had to chase these animals down.  Because it was cold for African animals, many of the animals didn't come out until later in the day, so we lucked out to see these guys.

So that is our trip to the NC Zoo.  I still have a lot of learning on my new camera, but so far I like the results.

The Peterborough Zoo

In Peterborough Ontario there is a pretty cool zoo.  The zoo is actually run by the cities water department (why, I do not know).

It is a pretty small zoo, all things considered, but it has the following things going for it:

- It is easy access
- Lots of parking
- IT has a play ground for the kids
- It is 10 minutes from where my parents are staying for the summer
- It is free

So it was the perfect place to take my kids, and my parents, when I went to visit them a few weeks ago.  The rest of this post is some pics of the animals, starting with this jaunty looking goat.

Wallabies.  Basically micro-kangaroos, but with more laziness.

This tortoise was surprisingly quick. It was hard to get a good shot of him due to the extreme speed (no foolin'! - It didn't help that he was walking along the fence line, and I had to get down on my knees to take the shot (I don't bend easy - I am freakishly Entish that way)).

'Sup?

Molting reindeer.  I think this one is Blitzen.

This camel has a floppy hump.  Do with that what you will.

More goats.

Thanksgiving dinner!  Looks pretty raw *and* cooked.

Cafe Giraffe!

I think its fair to say that amongst my family the favourite animal is the giraffe.  They are basically deformed clown horses, and who doesn't love a deformed clown?

During our visit last week to the North Carolina Zoo, we took some time to feed the giraffes.

Apparently giraffes eat 75lbs of vegetation a day, which is about 2 Zekes, or 4 Abigails. Since we only had only one of each of those, we resigned ourselves to providing them a snack of conveniently provided leaves.

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it (if you don't get the chance, I still recommend it, but you likely won't get the same sense of satisfaction.

These are a few pics from the experience. We'll start with a nice shot of a giraffe stalking its prey...

 The zoo keeper feeding the gangly beast.

Zeke fed the giraffes a few leaves.  He was surprisingly brave about the whole thing (he tends to be skittish around such things.. first time he touched a horse he cried).  He probably would have stayed all day and fed them if he could.  Abigail, on the other hand, cried her head off when she saw the giraffes up close - not a fan (yet!)

NC Zoo

Last weekend my wife and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary, so we decided to celebrate it in one of the most fitting places possible for a couple who are raising a brace of yard apes... the zoo.

The Zoo is 2.5 hours away, so we made a day of it. We left early, spent the day (well, a toddler day - 10am to nap time at 2pm) walking around the African and Asian section of the zoo.

When we got there we put Zeke in charge of the map, then we headed off.

Here are some shots from the day, starting with the king of the jungle, and ending with a large floppy nasal-beast.

Auto Awesome'd Chimpanzees:

Wordless Wednesday

Ripley's Aquarium

This weekend we (wife, kids, grandparents) took a trip to Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach SC.

I brought along my camera, which I am still learning, and I think I got a few decent shots off (I took 200+ photos, but barely had enough good ones for this post - fish are tricky).

The following are the ones that made the cut.

This tank has over 1000 fish in it. The viewing window is 8ft high, 40-50-ft long.