Tuesday, February 26, 2008

zoo-ventures (lotsa photos)

This picture is the best introduction I could give. Detroit Zoo. Snow. No people. Awesome for des and Jay.


This picture as nothing to do with the zoo other than that's where I took it. But I liked the way this tree looked in the frozen lake. And you know, I'm always taking pictures of interesting trees because I'm neurotic like that.


First stop, the butterfly house. I do like year-round jungle rooms that contain so many butterflies that you can barely see. You might say that I had a ton of photo ops, and since I love my new camera, took many a fine picture.



There were several really pretty giant blue butterflies, but they all mocked me and my photo skillz. They would either land right next to me and close their wings (thus hiding the brilliant blue) or fly around me in circles, but too fast for me to get a decent shot. See that blue streak? Yeah. That's the best one I could get.

Where there are butterflies, there are also hummingbirds.


It knocks me out that I could catch a hummingbird in flight but not the stupid blue butterfly.

On to the aviary.
This bird was hanging out on a ledge... about 6 inches from a small child that enjoyed running back and forth, scaring the wits out of the poor bird. This bird was also very fast, but I managed to get him making his escape.


Here we have a very elusive species, the JayBird. He's not naked though.


I think this is the cutest duck I've ever seen in my life. I wanted to take him home, but he looked so comfy in his spot.


A Scarlet Ibis. Because I think they are neat.


Sure, the aviary was cool, but my favorite birds were nowhere near there. That's right, on to the Penguinarium!

All penguins are made for photo shoots. These are King Penguins. (I think - and yes, I could be wrong - that the difference between these and Emperor Penguins is that a King's beak is longer.)


This Rockhopper kept swimming in front of us, demanding that we take many many pictures. And so we did. This is just one of them.


This might be my favorite picture of the day. The Lone Watching penguin, perched high atop a cliff. It might be that I'm a little nuts, but the guy cracks me up every time I look at him.



To paraphrase Jessica Alba's character in Good Luck Chuck, you can't help but smile when you see a penguin. Especially a baby one.


We did spend the most time in the Penguinarium, me squealing with delight every time a penguin did so much as blinked. But there were other things to see on this day, so we moved on to the Arctic Ring of Life.
Seals? Yes. And one of them spends his day swimming completely upside down. That is totally the way I would roll if I was a seal.


The natural progression of animals of course goes Arctic animals to big cats. So here's a big cat. I don't need to tell you that a male lion is a lazy butt, especially when it's cold outside.


My preference in any zoo (after los pinguinos of course) is the tigers. The 2 tigers were much more active than the lazy old lion, and when we walked up they were actually play fighting. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the action. But you can build your own story with these 2 photos:



I like tigers.

And finally, the most unhappy animal in the whole zoo, the camels. Camels don't belong in the snow, especially being upstaged by some snotty deer.


We spent just under 2 hours in the zoo, so we did not see all of it. However, my camera's battery died as we were leaving, so it's just as well. Since Jay has a membership that gets him and me in free, and neither of us has a job right now, we will definitely be back. And I will take many more fun pictures because I will make sure my battery is fully charged.



ps - if you liked this sampling of the zoo photoshoot, you can check out my flickr page that has a whole bunch more of everything.

13 comments:

Arlene said...

Take two, google doesn't like my wordpress open ID.

Love the pictures Des!

Anonymous said...

What a fun day! I totally love zoos, and I think winter zoo visits rock the house.

super des said...

Thanks guys!
I could take 10 million zoo pictures.

LittlePea said...

Nice. I don't go to my zoo in the winter because when it starts to get cold here they move all the warm climate animals to Tampa. I guess that's a winter vacation for the animals who hate cold. I hate cold too so I don't hold it against them. So anyone who goes will miss out on the big cats and beloved elephants. I haven't been there in forever, this made me want to go.

Mr E. said...

Those are our two lady tigers. They have to be kept from the male!

I was excitied when I saw the coffee plant, but now butterfly when I took the pic.

Mr E. said...

p.s. great pics! I will have to look for the JayBird next time I go. LOL!

super des said...

Pea, I was surprised that there were that many animals out.

And Eric Vogel, you suddenly intrigue me.

flutter said...

Those penguins are so freakin cute

super des said...

I know. Squealed. With. Delight.

Pendullum said...

What a great day...
When I went to the Bronx zoo it was the same thing... we were the only ones in the entire park...
It too was the middle of winter... and it felt like our own private visit...
And you are right about the penguin... I could not help but smile at it...

Suzanne said...

Oh, I missed that Jason is now free of his job. I hope he finds something new soon. I'm worried about you.

Alex Elliot said...

I'm impressed that the zoo has a butterfly house. OS would love seeing that!

super des said...

There were SO MANY butterflies! It was awesome.

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