November 24, 2013

After spending a week singing songs about turkeys with toddlers and their parents, the first image I was compelled to capture was this one. As most of the rest of the Minnesota Trail was quiet, I started across the bridge to the Northern Trail.






The first thing that caught my attention was the way leaves were skating across the newly-formed ice on the lake. It lost a little something when viewed on a small scale.
 

The noise of a woodpecker (in the open, not in the MN Trail exhibit) was the next thing I noticed.

Like the female moose we saw a few weeks earlier, a stray caribou was near the front of the exhibit.











When he/she noticed my presence, however, he/she quickly re-joined the other caribou.
FUN FACT OF THE DAY:  Caribou have a tendon that clicks when they walk.  They use the sound to keep track of each other.

  I have been on a mission to catch the Asian small clawed otters awake (I had heard a dad commiserate with his child a week or so earler: "They're always asleep!"). A volunteer suggested arriving early when they were checking out their fresh water, etc., so I was not hopeful having had a late start. A wonderful surprise -- they were awake, and later, on the move.

I would've taken more pictures at the farm had I known that it would be closed in December. The goats were watchful, hoping I would stop to get some food from the dispensers.

"Selfie Sunday" was observed with this picture of a bird on the Tropics Trail (hopefully I'll be able to supply his name soon).

November 17, 2013

I finally remembered to bring a few quarters in case I wanted to use any of the coin-operated binoculars at the zoo (or buy food for the goats at the Wells Fargo Family Farm).

The brown bears in the Russia's Grizzly Coast exhibit were fun to watch today (although not as fun as when they were play-fighting in the water during our first summer visit). I believe all three bears were fishing and that this one, hard to see through the glare, was eating his catch. FUN (OR MAYBE DANGEROUS) FACT OF THE DAY: A brown bear can easily outrun a person. Its movements may look ponderous and slow, but a single gallop can cover the distance an adult human travels in four steps.

This image of one of the takins (in my opinion an under-rated animal on the Northern Trail), was my favorite picture I took that day.

The goitered gazelles seem to frequently be hidden from view. I thought that was the case today, and almost missed them blending in with the long, dry grass.

I had arrived very shortly after the zoo opened, and it was apparently too early for any prairie dog shenanigans.

To celebrate "Selfie Sunday," a thing made up by my son and a buddy, I got this picture of me and the lionfish.

November 10, 2013

My daughter Allie joined me for this zoo trip. This is a picture of us with a leafy sea dragon (one of my favorite creatures at the zoo) in the background.

While still only manned with my phone for taking pictures, we captured images of three notable things. First, two zoo staff members wading in the large Tropics pond. As a result, the flamingos were swimming! That was something neither of us had ever seen at the zoo. We waited around to see what the zookeepers were going to do, but to us it looked like the task that had brought them into the pond (they were carrying nets behind their backs) either no longer needed doing, or could be done later.

Another thing that surprised us that day, was seeing the beaver outside of his lodge. While not a great photo, it was a treat to see him at all.

We had one last nice surprise. The female moose was very near the front of the exhibit. We lingered a long time to watch this magnificent animal amble around nibbling at the ground.

FUN FACT OF THE DAY:  Moose have no top front teeth.  They grab their food with their upper lip.

November 3, 2013

My favorite image of the day (again, just from my phone), was the wolverine sprawled out on his back.















This gray wolf was taking it easy.














I loved the coloring on this goat that was eagerly eating with his barnmates.

The baby tapir is losing its markings that remind some of a watermelon.