Saturday, March 09, 2013

Zoo Eli

Three generations of us went to the Albuquerque Zoo on my birthday to see hot snakes, relict megafauna, and other biophilic entertainments. Mr Eli wanted to swim with the ducks, seals, and most alarmingly hippos. I enjoyed the herps more myself, and the mixed flock of wild migrant ducks including the irritatingly named "Ring necked", whose only ring is on its bill. Johnny UK: remember the "Tufted duck without a tuft"?





A huge gray "horsehead" seal, a creature of Celtic myth and legend; last I saw was on the coast of Maine over 30 years ago, while trapping merlins.






More photos tomorrow. And whoever moved all but the late photo to the center (Reid?): thanks, & please tell me how!

5 comments:

Retrieverman said...

A ton of horseheads (gray seals) now breed on Cape Cod.

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday, Steve! It sounds like a fun day at the zoo.

Shiri

Anonymous said...

Indeed, happy birthday! A terrific way to celebrate.

Daniel and Katherine

Anonymous said...

"Johnny UK: remember the "Tufted duck without a tuft"?"

Sure do Steve , among many other memorable events!! Good to spend family time widening the natural experiences of the young!

Libby - Happy Mom's Day!( at least it is in UK!)

Hope you had a fine birthday , Steve, you deserve a break!!

JophnnyUK

Anonymous said...

A ton of gray seals? What would that be--about one-and-a-half seals?(ha!)---regarding the "tufted" duck syndrome--my local pet peeve bird name is the "red-bellied" woodpecker--which, of course, has zero red coloring on it's belly. It DOES have a red marking on it's HEAD--so I call it a "red-capped" woodpecker--still distinguishes it quite well from our red-headed woodpeckers(whose WHOLE HEADS are red).....L.B.