Tag: Brookfield Zoo

  • The Secret Forest-Dweller

    \"20160319_0002\"

    This shy fellow is a forest-dwelling creature called an okapi.  From central Africa, they resemble a zebra crossed with a giraffe and are about the size of a tall but skinny horse.

    They also have long, skinny black tongues.

    \"20160319_0003\"

    I\’m disappointed because I can\’t find the series of photographs I took of the mother with a newborn, nor the ones of a single okapi over in the holding area in the back corner of the zoo.  However, on this particular day when we visited, I had my cell phone camera with me.  When we came into the building where the okapi live, there was a volunteer zookeeper there doing some research.  She told us that this okapi had been orphaned and was hand-raised by the zoo.  He will not be able to go back into the wild.

    \"20160319_0001\"

    I thought he was going to go back into his paddock, so I turned away to talk to the zookeeper.  Then my husband softly said, \”Honey.\”

    I turned back to find that the okapi isn\’t just shy, but also curious.  Unfortunately, I jiggled my camera when I tried to be sneaky about bringing it up to snap his photo.

    \"20160319_0004\"

    He moved his head when I took the shot, so he\’s blurry, but you can see his striped legs.  Skinny little legs, aren\’t they?

    \"20160319_0005\"

    Squirmy little bugger, too.  He reached up to see what was up above in the enclosure, so all I got was his ear.  Phooey.

    \"20160319_0006\"

    He decided to wander back inside, and I got this picture of his back and ears in the light.  He has a lovely coat, like a bay horse but with giant satellite ears.

    And yeah, I wanna pet him.  🙂

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • North American River Otters… Were Busy?

    \"IMAG0395\"

    Okay, so, not every photographic expedition is a success.  Take this one, case in point:

    1. My big camera, the SLR, (Single Lens Reflex), couldn\’t handle the lack of lighting.
    2. I used the camera in my phone, which has much better performance in low lighting, but even it had trouble focusing on the very dark corner.
    3. The otters were… well…  Here.  Take a look at the sign:

    \"IMAG0396\"

    So we were, like, interrupting.  As I stood there, trying desperately to take a decent picture of them, one of the otters got up and grumpily wandered over to its little den cave thingie to hide.  The other one, clearly wanting to nap, curled up with a smug sort of \”And stay out\” attitude.

    Hmm.  There\’s only one problem.

    What am I going to use for \”N\” today?

    I know!  The Reticulated Python!

    …

    It has an \”N\” in it, come on!  Granted, it\’s at the end, pythoN, but it\’s still an N.  Besides.  There\’s a story here.

    \"20160326_0237\"

    This isn\’t even a fully grown snake.  He\’s fricken huge.  A little background:  my husband is what they call a \”herper,\” short for the word \”herpetologist,\” meaning someone who studies reptiles and amphibians.  I\’ve learned, though him, that the herper community is filled with highly knowledgeable people because if one decides to keep these animals as pets, there\’s not a lot of information about them and so one must learn a lot about their care in order to do it properly.  It\’s a lot more complicated, therefore, than keeping, say, a puppy or a kitten.

    For those of you not familiar with our books, my coauthor Rachel and I have a series with snake shifters whose animal form is a Burmese python.  Burms are very popular in the pet trade because they can be socialized and are quite friendly if handled properly.  They get very large, with the females growing to between sixteen and twenty feet.  In these snakes, the females are larger then the males.

    In the pet trade, as I understand it, reticulated pythons, pictured above, are responsible for the largest number of pet-related deaths every year.  They are not friendly, and they are not socializable in the way that Burms are.  They trade off with the anaconda for the longest snake in the world.  Their natural diet in the wild is baboons, among other things.  And humans, you may have noticed, are awfully similar to baboons.  Why someone would want a pet that looks as one as a potential food source, I don\’t know, but there you go.

    I am mildly afraid of snakes.  I\’ve handled them, having grown up on a horse ranch; we had common garter snakes in our garden and rattlesnakes weren\’t uncommon in the forest where we lived, though I only ever saw one.  But even a large garter or rattler isn\’t all that huge; they certainly don\’t get as massive as this guy.  Every time we\’ve visited the zoo, he\’s been quiescent, either sleeping or… well, waiting.  o.O…

    \"20160326_0255\"

    I asked my husband how big they get, and he said that in theory, they don\’t stop growing.

    Like that\’s not seven kinds of creepy.

    \"20160326_0236\"

    Since I was doing shots for the challenge on this visit, I bent down to get a better angle.  Out of reflex, I started talking to him.

    Sue me.  I talk to everything.  Cats, people, dogs, birds, walls…

    Okay, maybe not walls.

    That I\’ll admit.

    Moving right along…

    Apparently, he realized I was talking to him and started moving.

    \"20160326_0240\"

    My hands started to sweat at this point.  I don\’t mind snakes, as I said, but moving snakes are unpredictable, at least to me, and I don\’t know what to do.

    Understand I\’m in absolutely no danger here; there\’s a very thick (3 inches or so) lucite barrier between me and him.

    There is, however, a thick screen grate thing over on the left front of his enclosure.

    \"20160326_0241\"

    I started talking to him at this point, because clearly he\’s looking at and responding to me in some way I don\’t understand.  He\’s not a mammal; I don\’t know how to read his body language.  My husband was off looking at the Galapagos turtles and, to be honest, by this point I was totally engrossed in what this fellow was doing.

    \"20160326_0247\"

    We are, at this point, nearly eye to eye.  I\’m 5\’8\”.  This is, shall we say, disturbing.  My mind kept gibbering, \”Retic – highest pet-related deaths – babboons – striking speed of … what\’s the number? … damn it, I have crappy number memory… hundreds of miles an hour… that can\’t be right… A THOUSAND!!… he\’s pretty…\”

    At which point my husband barks, \”Step back.\”

    My husband never barks at me, so when he does, it\’s serious.  I took a convulsive step backwards, still sweating.  Michael came up to me and said, \”He was hissing.\”

    I swear, I did not hear it.  I did hear something hiss-like, but I thought it was a water system in another enclosure.

    Michael was puzzled too, and watched the retic for a few moments.  Then he slowly extended his hand.

    \"20160326_0245\"

    They had a long moment of some kind of interaction I didn\’t understand.  Michael moved very slowly, and the snake just watched him.  Or at least, I assume he did.  One of the problems I have with understanding their body language is they don\’t have eyelids, so they can\’t close their eyes.  One cannot tell, or at least I can\’t, if the snake is awake or asleep or what.  He never opened his mouth to hiss, which I assumed he would (too many monster movies with really pissed off snakes); Michael said the small triangular black spot between his lower lip and upper lip is an opening through which they can hiss; he said that\’s what he heard.  He said the hiss sound was intermittent, though, not continuous, so he can\’t tell if that means I angered the snake or not.

    \"20160326_0253\"

    Before we left, I took this one just to show how big he is.  Michael and I talked it over when we left, because I still don\’t understand what happened or what the interaction meant.  It bothers me that I didn\’t hear him hiss, because I don\’t want to irritate him or something.  Michael said snakes have a very good memory, and it\’s likely he will remember me now.  After I got over the initial shock of that, I\’m curious to go back and see what that means.  Will he come over to see me again?  Did I make him mad?  Did he think I was there to feed him?  Michael pointed out that the screen thing was probably the food slot (you can see the padlock and sliding opening below left in the picture).  I was scared the whole time, but I can\’t help but feel … I\’m not sure the word.  Honored, maybe?  Something.  I feel honored that this huge animal came over to … what, talk? … to me.  I wouldn\’t have believed it if I didn\’t take the pictures to show myself what happened.

    And for the record?  This is a big damned snake.  lol

    Remember, no post tomorrow for Sunday.  We resume the challenge on Monday with the letter \”O\”.  This is one of my favorite new-to-me animals, one that wasn\’t discovered until comparatively recently because they are so shy.  Stay tuned!

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • Mexican Grey Wolves Are Sneaky

    \"20151220_0569\"

    Brookfield Zoo has a spectacular habitat for the Mexican Grey Wolves called Regenstein Wolf Woods. I learned something while reading about them on the Zoo\’s site:  \”All the types of wolves you’ve heard of, like timber, gray, Arctic, and Mexican, belong to the same species: the gray wolf.\”

    The habitat is large and affords the wolves much privacy; the downside is they\’re not always available for photographing.  We lucked out on one of our visits, though.

    \"20151220_0571\"

    Nap time (in the very center of the image).

    Again, from the Zoo:  \”Mexican gray wolves were considered extinct in the wild until their reintroduction into Arizona and New Mexico in 1998.\”  Brookfield successfully reintroduced the female they had to a wildlife park in New Mexico, and last year celebrated the birth of a litter of wolf cubs.  They even held a naming contest on their website!

    \"20151220_0572\"

    They won\’t, however, let one pet them.  ~pout~

    \"20151220_0573\"

    This one is, admittedly, difficult to spot.  It\’s the center knoll in their enclosure.  If you see the smaller tree in the foreground, travel up along its trunk to where the branches first start on the right of the trunk.  You\’ll see the wolf centered in the branches.

    \"20151220_0574\"

    Wolves have a strict hierarchical structure.  Whomever is at the highest point on the knoll is the alpha.

    \"20151220_0575\"

    Another one arrives on the knoll for a nap.

    \"20151220_0576\"

    The other wolves show deference to the alpha pair by lowering their heads and not making direct eye contact.

    \"20151220_0577\"

    It\’s fascinating to watch their body language as they move around.

    \"20151220_0579\"

    At first, it seems this one is hiding.  Then one realizes that it is, in fact, capable of seeing pretty much everything in the field of view – me and my husband photographing them by the fence, the front of their enclosure, the pedestrian path beyond that gate, all the way to the bald eagle.

    \"20151220_0580\"

    And when one looks back, they\’re nearly invisible.  Camouflage.  ~shiver~

    Check back tomorrow for the North American River Otter.  Or… not?  Stay tuned to find out!

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • The King of the Jungle

    \"20151206_0098\"

    This ferocious young man is the pride of the zoo, the king of beasts, the lion of doom.

    Well, I added the, \”of doom,\” part.

    His wife, on the other hand, isn\’t impressed.  Snooze city.

    He\’s actually not all that young, and he\’s been at the zoo for a while.  They are seriously threatened in the wild and Brookfield Zoo participates in an international Species Survival Plan to try and conserve these majestic creatures.  They are African lions, mostly nocturnal, though we did get to hear him roar one evening long about closing time.

    \"20151220_0332\"

    Lions spend about 20 hours a day asleep.  Kind of like house cats, really.  In fact, in the book Tribe of Tiger: Cats and Their Culture, by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, biologists liken house cats\’ behavior most closely with that of lions.

    \"20151220_0333\"

    Just makes you want to pet her, doesn\’t she?

    \"20151220_0338\"

    Um.  Maybe… not?

    \"20151220_0342\"

    Tomorrow, we get to visit the Mexican Grey Wolves.

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • Lookit Them Feet!

    \"20160326_0095\"

    Kangaroos fascinate me.  They don\’t live on this continent, so I\’ve never encountered one outside of a zoo.  They\’re marsupials, which is rare here too – though not on their own continent of Australia, where there are many species of marsupials (the distinguishing feature of which is carrying the young in a pouch).  Interestingly, I read that during the Mesozoic they were more common on this continent than \”placentals\” (i.e. animals who deliver their young in a placenta). (1)

    \"20160326_0094\"

    Their powerful hind feet, on which they stand, appear to have fewer toes than I assumed.  I\’m not sure why I thought they\’d have toes like us, but I did; from what I could gather it looks like one large claw and at least one, maybe two smaller ones.  But looking down at him like this, you can\’t really see the power of the haunches.

    \"20160326_0086\"

    These two \’roos show you the sheer power of the butt. But in all seriousness, the mass seems mostly concentrated in the hindquarters; they clearly can pack a helluva wallop.

    Which leads me to my story.  My friend in Australia and I were talking by chat one day, and she commented that there was a \’roo in the front yard.  \”Cool!\” I said.  \”We can\’t leave the house.\”  Pause.  \”Why not?\”  I\’m thinking, at this point, what\’s the big deal?  We had deer in our yard growing up and you just walk outside, the deer run away, no problem.  \”She delivered young.\”  \”Cool!\” I said again.  \”You don\’t understand.  She\’ll attack us if we go out the front door.\”  The light bulb went on.  Never mess with a mother and young.  It\’s one of the first rules of hiking in the wild.  Stay away from rattlesnakes and don\’t bother bears.  Especially mammas.  Any mamma.

    But not leave the house?

    \”What about work?\”  She seemed resigned to it.  \”We can get out the back, as long as we\’re careful.  It\’ll take animal control a couple days to come get her.\”  Meanwhile, they had a mamma with a baby in their front yard, near enough to touch.

    Cool!

     

    Tomorrow, it\’s the King of the Jungle – Lions!

    References

    (1) \”Marsupial Mammals,\” Dave Smith: New photos; modification of Thylacinus graphic; application of UCMP style sheet; addition of footer includes; minor text editing 10/10/05; from University of California, Berkeley, website retrieved from the following link, 04/13/2016.

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • The Bird That Wasn\’t: Jambu Fruit Dove – and a Party #giveaway

    \"20160326_0196\"

    The Jambu Fruit Dove, admittedly, is a lovely fellow.  He looks like a flower – one of those star lilies with the overpoweringly lovely fragrance.

    He is, however, shy.

    \"20160326_0197\"

    The more literal-minded among you will note this is not, in fact, a Jambu Fruit Dove.  I thought is was, as I stalked the wooly mammoth of a bird through the edges of his habitat.

    I did, successfully, identify the aloe vera plant, about which I\’m rather smug.  A birder I am not.  A planter, apparently, I am.

    Or something like that.

    \"20160326_0198\"

    These two appeared to be gossiping.  Perhaps it was about how poor a naturalist I was?  But I adore nature.  Birds are not, perhaps, nature?  After all, the dreaded terror birds struck fear into the hearts of our forebears, at least according to the movie 10,000 BC.  Granted, that movie is fiction.

    I do want to point out, however, there is still no Jambu Fruit Dove.

    \"20160326_0205\"

    Are you a Jambu Fruit dove?

    I\’m reminded of Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam.  \”We walk up to people and ask them, \’Are you the enemy?\’ and if they say, \’Yes,\’ we shoot them.\”

    Upon reflection, perhaps that\’s why Mister Jambu Fruit Dove was nicht?

    \"20160326_0208\"

    Okay, fine.  These gentlemen are the Gambel\’s Quail.  Which is a Q, which I don\’t need until next Wednesday – not tomorrow, but a week from.

    J is a fail at the zoo for this visit.  The Jambu were hiding.

    I\’m sure there\’s a parable here about something Zen, and maybe a tree or a river, but I need coffee and I do, as it happens, have plenty of lovely K pics for tomorrow.

    But tomorrow is another day, my friends, and you\’ll just have to wait.  (There.  I fit in another \”J\” for you.)

    And, if you\’re still with me thus far, we have some awesome stuff going on this week for you because of the RT Booklovers Convention going on in Las Vegas.  If you\’re not familiar, RT is the largest romance genre event of the year, with over a thousand readers and several hundred authors in attendance for a week of workshops, parties, networking, and fun.

    Not going to Las Vegas this year?  Don\’t worry, Dear Reader.  I will be posting at The Romance Studio for the Staying Home Party, and I\’ll have live convention reports – Tina Holland, Live at the Rio!, behind-the-scenes, interviews, and reminiscences from yours truly about RT\’s past.  And just for you, Dear Reader, it will be five posts a day for six days – PLUS the challenge posts.  So there\’s plenty for you to read and do this week!  Rest your eyeballs, \’cuz you\’re gonna need \’em!

    Don\’t miss it.  Truck on over now – plus, you can enter to win a bunch of awesome prizes, including a $100 USD Amazon store card.

    \"2016-04-12

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well asGrace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • Gettin\’ Beaky With It – The Ibis In the Pond

    \"20160326_0283\"

    Beaky has big feet!  This lovely fellow is…

    The White Ibis!

    I like birds, but they scare me.  Their beaks, in particular, are frightening because they\’re a combination of sword, knife, and skewer.

    \"20160326_0270\"

    The pretty black bird behind the ibis is a Cormorant, another type of fishing bird.  We had lots of them in California, but I don\’t recall seeing very many here in the Chicago area.  (That doesn\’t necessarily signify; I\’m not really a birder.)

    \"20160326_0274\"

    The ibis decided he wanted to move off his perch.

    \"20160326_0275\"

    I didn\’t catch it until he spread them, but his wings have black edges.

    \"20160326_0277\"

    And his wing-span is a lot bigger than it looks like when he\’s just innocently standing there.  This is a big bird.

    \"20160326_0282\"

    He apparently likes being talked to, because he looked right at me.

    Or, he\’s planning to leap clear over the branch and eat my face.  Take your pick.

    Join me tomorrow for the hardest of the letter animals to find:  J.

    Oh, and a quick word about ichthyology – when I was researching the letters, I had a devil of a time figuring out what to do for several of them (including \”J\”).  I couldn\’t think of any \”I\’s,\” so I settled on ichthyology – or the study of fish.  I have lots of neat pictures of fish.

    But then I found the lovely ibis, and I had to use him for today instead.  🙂

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well asGrace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • It Came From the Ocean

    The Dogs of the Sea – Harbor Seals

    \"20160326_0317\"

    He came over to see what we were doing.

    Or, to fish or check out his tank.

    \"20160326_0314\"

    This is actually a Grey Seal, I believe, if I\’m reading my notes correctly.  The fatter speckled ones are the Harbor Seals, I think.

    \"20160326_0322\"

    I wish I had video of this one.  He was hysterical.  He came out of his enclosure, barking, and waving his head back and forth like Stevie Wonder.  We think it may have been near the time they are fed.

    \"20160326_0326\"

    This looks like it\’s on its side, but it\’s actually not – I was trying to get both of them in the same shot.  The one on the right seems to be the harbor seal, and the one on the left is the grey seal.

    I love their whiskers!

    \"20160326_0328\"

    One more of this show-off as he came over and came up out of the water for me.

    \"20160326_0337\"

    These are the seals I grew up around – California sea lions.

    So, I said yesterday I\’d tell you a story about Pier 39.  When I was a kid, Pier 39 was a fun place to go.  It\’s located on the bay in San Francisco, California, USA, and is literally the 39th pier along the wharf.  Filled with shops and eateries, it\’s a good place to spend an afternoon.

    Back then, the sea lions would come up along the shore under the wharf, which was a wooden structure along the coastline on top of which were built the shops and such.

    And the tourists, predictably, would feed the seals.

    A few years ago, there were reports of the now aggressive seals coming up onto the wharf and attacking tourists for food.  I\’m not sure how exaggerated those reports were, but let\’s face it: this is an animal weighing several hundred pounds.  It isn\’t the most agile on dry land, but it can move along at startling velocity.

    As much as I joke about wanting to pet the animals at the zoo, one must always remember that these are wild animals, and we are guests in their demesnes.  When researching some of my posts for the challenge, I happened to look up lions and human interactions, and came across several awful posts of recent deaths of photographers who, in their hubris, forgot this simple fact.

    These are wild animals, not pets.

    But I still wanna pet one.

    Remember, A-Z fans, tomorrow has no post, being Sunday; check back on Monday when I reveal what the heck animal begins with the letter \”I\” – and it wasn\’t easy!

     

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • Number One Goose, and Giraffe Have Long Tongues

    Okay, \”G\” is a bonus letter day because I have a ton of pictures of geese at the zoo, because they make me laugh; and I took some pictures of the giraffes on my last visit.

    \"20160326_0300\"

    This big guy was nesting in a planter immediately in front of the restaurant windows.

    Next to the stairs.

    And he was hissing.

    Hrr?

    Okay, giraffe it is then!

    \"20160326_0135\"

    Their tongues are black!

    I had no idea of this fact until I saw this lady mackin\’ on the tree.

    \"20160326_0136\"

    I\’m pretty sure this is the two-year-old male that lives in the enclosure with the three other lady giraffes.

    They are so dopey-looking when they walk around, and especially when they run.

    I still wanna pet one.

    Tomorrow, we visit the harbor seals and I\’ll tell you a story about Pier 39.

    Bonus, for you fans of Noon & Wilder – for the holidays this past year, we wrote a short story, Six Geese Laid – A Holiday Fable.  The talented Vance Bastian performed it on the WROTE podcast.  If you haven\’t had a listen, step on over there and give it a try.

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature and the Built Environment.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • Too Foxy!

    Fennec Foxes!

    I adore these little guys.  Their ears are bigger than their heads, practically!  While they have a large desert-like enclosure in which to play, I\’ve only ever seen them curled up in their nest, snoozing.

    \"20151220_0364\"

    It\’s tough getting the lighting right, because they\’re in a very dark enclosure.  This one is the center fox, but if you look carefully, you can see his mate\’s ears just behind his haunches and realize that there\’s a whole second fox back there.

    \"20151220_0365\"

    I tried to get a better framing for them both, but the rear fox is in too much shadow.

    \"20151220_0366\"

    I managed to catch it on this one, but kneeling down practically on the same plane as their bed.

    \"20160326_0358\"

    There are actually three foxes in this picture, as this next series was taken on a different day.  You can see more of the right one\’s nose and face structure.  His ears really do dominate his head.

    \"20160326_0359\"

    He\’d almost drifted off here, and you can see the other two\’s ears even though most of their bodies are in shadow.

    \"20160326_0360\"

    Something caught his attention, I don\’t know what. (I\’m using \”he\” in the indefinite form here; I don\’t know their sex.)

    \"20160326_0361\"

    This one\’s a little clearer just on the one who\’d raised his head.  What you can\’t see from this angle is that the rock on the right leads out to their main enclosure, so they get sounds that echo in from the walkway that patrons travel.  I wonder if he heard something there, or if my camera shutter was annoying him.  I don\’t know if he can hear it through the lucite, but with those ears, I\’d imagine so.

    \"20160326_0362\"

    Aaaand, nap time in three… two…

    \"20160326_0363\"

    …one…

    \"20160326_0364\"

    I really wanted to get a close-up on their ears, but was having a devil of a time with the lighting.  I like this one, though, because it\’s pretty clear on the right-hand fox.  I couldn\’t quite get the other two clearly enough to be visible.

    Come visit tomorrow for G is for…

    … well, I haven\’t decided.  Goose or Giraffe, we\’ll see.  Maybe both.

     

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • Stephen Colbert Ain\’t Got Nuthin\’ On Him!

    E Is For Eagle!

    \"20151220_0560\"

    Nestled in a fairly small enclosure between the bears and the wolves is this lovely fellow.  It\’s a bit of a sad story; he was injured and can no longer fly; therefore, he cannot be released back into the wild.  I\’ve seen a few bald eagles in the wild, but always at a distance.

    They\’re big damn birds, that\’s for sure.

    \"20151220_0561\"

    He seemed to be keeping sentry over the picnic area, and if I\’m not completely mistaken, he was watching a very loud little boy with a dour eye.

    \"20151220_0562\"

    The minute I thought that, he turned.

    \”He\’s looking at me, Ray.\”

    (Think the first Ghostbusters.)

    \"20151220_0563\"

    He has a piercing stare, and that beak looked plenty dangerous.  I\’m curious if the videos with Stephen Colbert and eagles ever featured a live eagle?  That must be something.  Look at how powerful those talons are!

    \"20151220_0564\"

    He didn\’t move very much, content to perch on his branch, so the photos are all very similar.

    \"20151220_0565\"

    I said to my husband, \”Honey, let\’s go.\”  And he turned and looked at me again.

    o.O…

     

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!

  • Dogs – Of the African Wild Variety

    Dogs – Of the African Wild Variety

    I first encountered African wild dogs at the zoo in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, a state to the south of where we live.  I\’m not sure how, but I\’d never encountered them before.  When we became members at Brookfield Zoo, I discovered a whole habitat for African wild dogs that allows them to run around and, well, be dogs.

    \"20151220_0603\"

    This agile little fellow spotted the meat hanging from a tree, which handlers do in order to keep the dogs\’ hunting behaviors sharp.  While they\’re not pet dogs, this one sure looked like what my dog would look like if she came across steak in a tree.

    \"20151220_0602\"

    Hut!  Hut!  Up he goes.

    I love the ruff on the back of their neck and shoulders.  They\’re really pretty, with rounded ears that definitely give them a not-dog appearance.

    \"20151220_0605\"

    Success!  You really get an idea of their physical power when you watch an animal like this pull meat off a hanging thingie.

    \"20151220_0606\"

    Look at that face!  More like a bear than a dog, yes?  He caught sight of his mates squabbling over some bones over in another part of the enclosure.

    \"20151220_0608\"

    The interesting thing here was that the smaller dog kept whining and what we think must be a growl when the bigger one wanted to take the rack of ribs away.  They did not bite each other, however.  Only the bones.

    \"20151220_0609\"

    The interloper didn\’t dive right in between the other two, but waited around the edges without making noise or getting too close.

    \"20151220_0612\"

    The third one circled to investigate, but went back to his steak in a tree.

    \"20151220_0613\"

    The two kept arguing over who would get the rib rack.  Again, neither one bit the other; they only vocalized, (the smaller one did, anyway), and circled around the bones.

    Thank you for joining me for the A-Z Blog Challenge.  If you’re blogging in the challenge, please leave me a link so I can come visit you too.  If you have a moment, please check out these other fine blogs:

    My theme on my Knoontime Knitting craft blog is Letterforms In Nature.  I’ll be exploring my daily round, looking for shapes in the natural world and build environment.

    The theme at Noon & Wilder is The A To Z of Chicago.  Since I live here in the city and we have our Chicagoland Shifters based here, I figured I’d share a window into the city, Noon & Wilder style.

    The Nice Girls Writing Naughty have a new home, and we’re blogging in the challenge again this year.  Throughout the month you’ll be hearing from each of the Nice Girls, and during the RT Booklovers Convention from April 12th to the 17th, you’ll be getting live convention reports.  Join the conversation!

    The Writer Zen Garden’s brand new website is up and running, and we’re bringing you posts from me, Noony; my partner in crime, Rachel Wilder (the Wilder half of Noon & Wilder); the talented Darla M. Sands – a blogger in her own right, see below; as well as Grace Kahlo, Evey Brown, and author Tina Holland.  Check it out!

    My friends who are participating in the challenge (and if you’re not on this list, tell me and I’ll add you!):

    Write on, and Happy Blogging!