More shots from the Miami Metrozoo trip. I can't believe that was almost a month ago. Where does time go?

I LOVE anteaters. At first he was nowhere to be found but we returned later in the afternoon and he was strolling around. You can see in the 2nd pic that they sort of walk on their knuckles, something I had not noticed before.




Giant River Otter with a Monday morning face


At the cloud forest aviary, this little fella posed nicely. It was feeding time and the keepers were tossing mealworms to each bird.




One of the best animals in the Amazon exhibit was the Harpy Eagle. It is the largest eagle in the Americas and is truly amazing to see. Their enclosure is huge and gives them lots of space to fly around. When this one took off we just stared in amazement at it. I kicked myself later for not getting photos of it in flight.







I took a close up of the talons because they were just amazingly huge. They can be up to five inches long, as large as a grizzly bear claw.


More to come...

Normally when I want to see Scrub Jays I have to travel several hours to central Florida, but happily I have found out that there are small populations of them near where we live. The Florida Scrub Jay is a rare endemic species that has declined in population because of loss of scrub habitat (The scrublands are usually found on higher ground- prime real estate in flood-prone South Florida, so are first to be cleared and developed). Luckily there are many scrub preserve areas around here so that many rare scrub-dependent species can still be found.









This weekend we participated in a beach cleanup on Munyon Island with some coworkers.The island was named for Dr. Munyon, who touted some laxatives and other remedies brewed from the paw paw plant. The island was also home to a hotel that burned down in the early 1900's. Now it is part of the John D. MacArthur State Park. It was a beautiful morning and we had never visited the island before so it was a great experience.

Finally posting some photos from the Miami Metrozoo trip a few weeks ago.

I posted a shot of these three last year, they always give us a a laugh.


White pelicans enjoying the sunshine.




Pelican No.17 seems a bit sinister


We timed our visit to the Wings of Asia aviary so that we arrived at feeding time. The birds are more active and are easier to see and photograph. They follow the "food cart" around as the staff refill their dishes.





I was amazed by the colors on this dove.




An evil looking starling


During the several times we have visited the aviary in the past few years, we had no idea that they had a Tawny Frogmouth in residence. Was hoping he would yawn to show the bright green lining of the mouth, but I had to settle for an angry glare instead.




More photos to come, featuring the new Amazon exhibit.

Visited with the sea turtles at the Loggerhead Marine Life Center today. Was lucky enough to be part of a guided tour and got a peek at the turtle hospital and a loggerhead recovering from a long surgery. Here he is being wheeled out to the outdoor tanks to the delight of many onlookers.



Normally I am distracted by the hundreds of baby turtles but since it is early in the season, no babies yet. So I concentrated on the adults this time. This loggerhead posed for many photos.





I shot several frames of the turtle appearing to snap at something. Rich mentioned that it would make a funny animated gif. I've never made one before but I think it turned out pretty cool.