Birds at the Zoo

A mid-afternoon visit to the San Diego Zoo was in order so we had a look at the hummingbird house, and we walked around little, never more than a few hundred feet from the entrance. The fun of having a membership is that you can go as often as you want and just have short, non-tiring visits.

At the flamingo pool, these duck have always been quite elusive for me to photograph, too dark, moving too fast, and all the other excuses... This time was a little different. Joan thinks these are Wood ducks, I think they're gorgeous.

If this next guy was smaller, I'd say he was a Coot, but I'm almost sure he's not...

I don't think that the world has a bird feather as well known as the peacock feather: they end up in floral displays, fancy hats, room decorations, and everywhere you want to create a center of attention. Here's a small carpet of them, still attached to the bird!

The peacock just walked between Joan and me so we had a good chance to inspect him. What a sight; the more you looked, the more there was to see. Colours, patterns, textures, this bird has it all. I guess that makes up for this bird being thought of as a bird of little brain...

It maybe of little brain, but this particular one looked worried, and I'm not sure why. He had the run of the Zoo, had flocks of people stop doing whatever, straining to gawk in awe. I'm sure no-one was disappointed.

We also went to the three o'clock show which always has some beautiful birds flying on command. Here's an Owl, flying at great speed over the crowd, with a few spectators looking in different directions to follow his flight. This is a bird with a five foot wingspan, that only weights five pounds, and is gifted with silent flight. I don't think he misses too many mice and rodents when he's hungry...

Here's a pair of parrots doing their thing. They mate for life and apparently always fly together. It's quite a sight!

Then we went to the hummingbird exhibit. This is a small screened building with lots of air plants, a good sized waterfall that keeps things moist, and a small stream to keep water-birds happy. Unfortunately, the roof is somewhat covered with leaves and the place is quite dark, not the best of conditions to make photos of small, fast birds. Here's the best of the lot.

Not sure but I think this is the Northern Blue Dacnis. At any rate, he's certainly blue!

This next little guy was having a bad hair day and spent a lot of time right in front of the heat lamp. Th last few days have been without any sun in San Diego, and his home cooled down quite a bit. He just looked frozen and his colour looked like he had been dipped in black ink. Still a cutie though.

I think these next guys are both Broad Billed Hummingbirds. These two pictures have been cropped pretty severely so the pictures are far from the best, but they're the best I have.

The next feller had a few feathers out of place [the white patch] and didn't seem to care; maybe they were feeling the cold also. I watched him clean himself, even wiped both sides of his beak on the branch that he's standing on, but he never tried to fix his bad hair. Maybe it's considered sexy???

And for Albert, here a blooming orchid [cattleya] au naturel. It's been growing on this ficus tree for years, and were lucky to see it in bloom. Another joy of Southern California; orchids growing outside without pots.

... and that's it.

For supper we had the best pizza I've had in years! Maybe we'll have another before we leave.