San Diego Zoo Visit, Part 2

  Doing tourist things in our hometown.

Event Report 20210302

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The Experience

For some reason, on our previous visit to the zoo, we missed the baby giraffe.  I think it was hiding from us, but we did not see it.  Since the zoo is too big to swallow in one bite, we came back to see more of this word-class attraction. The zoo is always fun, but sometimes it can be quite crowded.  We lucked-out on the day we visited and the crowds were minimal.

All the photos below were taken with my Sony A7R4 camera and Sony and 24-70mm or 100-400mm zoom lens.  All images were shot in uncompressed RAW format (at about 120mb per image).  Digital images were developed with Capture One and reduced to 1200x800 pixels for inclusion in this page.

The photos below are what we saw.



I happened to step out the front door to take out the garbage and noticed a clear sky and a bright, full moon.



We decided to head back to the zoo and check out the baby giraffe.  This time, he was up and about.  "Baby" is a relative term as this fellow is about 6 feet tall.  The tufts of hair on the head are actually coverings for stubby horns.



The baby was pacing around, then finally decided it was time to crash.



  The baby went to ground, but did not sleep while we were observing.



This adult was facing away from us allowing us to see the exposed portion of their horns.  While they are rounded, I am sure they would do plenty of damage.



We waled past the Hamadryas baboon enclosure and saw one of the younger females combing the grass for bugs.



We traversed the Australian animal enclosure and passed this fellow getting in his daily grooming.  Note the big claws and huge, can-opener beak.



While he was grooming, he paid us no attention whatsoever.



A small wallaby was hanging-out in the sun.



Kathleen is a turtle fan so we headed to the reptile enclosures.  This is a "radiated" turtle and is characterized by the radiating patterns on the shell.



This lizard was out in the open catching some rays.  He has a beautiful green and blue speckled hide.



A large monitor lizard.



An endangered Chinese crocodillian.



This odd beast is a gharial.  They are a fish-eating crocodile and native to the Indian sub-continent.  Note the bulb at the end of the snout.
 



There were a ton of turtles in the same enclosure as the gharial.  It was feeding time as the keepers had just tossed a bunch of lettuce into the water.



I thought that the gharial would eat the turtles, but they much prefer fish.



This was a huge turtle with a really long neck and a shovel-shaped shell.



Another turtle is visible below the gharial.



The nose bulb, narrow snout and many sharp teeth make the gharial an effective hunter.



This fellow went for a swim and was now headed for parts unknown.



A very large lizard, likely some species of iguana.



This tortoise was drinking from the pond and submerged his whole head.  Notice the wet marks on his face.



This very large Galapagos Tortoise was chowing-down on a bale of grass.



  Some kind of beaded lizard, napping in the sun.



Near the exit to the zoo we spotted a trio of peacocks.  Notice the reflection in his eyes.



That pointed beak would give a nasty bite.  I had a long lens on the camera, so I never got close enough to give him a chance.  This bird has rather sparse head feathers, possible due to fighting.



His buddy was in a nearby tree and seemed to have a complete set of head feathers.




A few days later we headed out to east San Diego county to a place called Lindo Lake to see what was there.  We spotted this Canadian goose standing on one leg and watching me carefully.



Another kind of goose at Lindo Lake; check out the girth on his legs.



We struck up a conversation with an older woman at the lake and she told us that she feeds mackerel to the egrets.  The birds can spot her a mile away, possibly by scent, but swarmed her as soon as she started speaking to us.  The birds came very close hoping for a handout.



A view of Lindo Lake looking to the east toward the large cliff-face of "El Capitan".



Another bird standing on one leg.

The San Diego zoo is large and even on our second visit we were not able to see the entire park.  Our yearly pass has already paid for itself in two visits.


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