International Tiger Day

 

I read somewhere that today is International Tiger Day so I decided to dig into my archives and see if I had some good tiger photos.  I found these images from the Phoenix Zoo taken several years ago.

International Tiger Day was set aside to recognize conservation efforts to protect these beautiful beasts.  The tigers at the Phoenix Zoo have it pretty easy.  Someone brings them their food while they relax in the shade.  (I hope they are relaxing in the shade today.  It's pretty hot even for tigers.)

They even have a few trees in their enclosure that they can climb to get a better view of all the guests who are admiring them.  Don't you wonder what he's thinking?

More Glowing Animals

 

I have a few more animal lanterns today from the Zoo Lights event last weekend.  I love this cute little koala bear.  

Nearby the koalas, I saw a couple of kangaroos loping across the area.  

Some interesting birds were watching as we drove by.

This rather fierce looking tiger looked like he was about the charge our car.

I really enjoyed seeing all these great animal lanterns.  

Zoo Lights

 

Here are few scene from a very different kind of Zoo Lights fund raising event put on by the Phoenix Zoo.  This year, because of the pandemic the zoo arranged a way to for participants to drive through to enjoy the  lights.  We entered through the arms of this giant gorilla.

And, once on the trail, we were greeted by some very large and glowing insects.

My favorites of the night were the animal lanterns.  Polar bears on an iceberg and great woolly mammoths were just part of the excitement.  I'll show you a few more tomorrow.

Feathered Greeters

 

The event I went to last Sunday night  started with greetings from some interesting characters.  First up was this Spectacled Owl. It's called that because the white color around its eyes looks like it is wearing glasses.  He looks very "wise" doesn't he?

The next one offering greetings was this yellow crested cockatoo.  I love that slight blush on its feathery cheek.  

The last of the feathered greeters was this Hyacinth Macaw.  We were told that this fellow doesn't care to be out doors after the sun goes down so he was about to depart for  his in-door perch.

All of these wonderful birds were part of the greeting of guests at the opening of the Phoenix Zoo's annual Zoo Lights event.  The event will be staged a little differently this year.  It will be a drive-through event.  My friends Julie and Dave are zoo supporters so they were able to go to the opening fundraiser and they invited me to go along.  It was fun.  We never got out of our car but we enjoyed the feathered greeters above along with dinner from a variety of food trucks and then as the sky darkened we got to drive through the zoo and enjoy the lights.  I'll have some photos of the "lights" in future posts.

Theme Day: Photo of the Year

It's the first day of a new year, a day when all City Daily Photo bloggers pick their favorite photo they posted from the previous year.  When I started searching I came up with 19 photos on my list.  I narrowed that down to 8 and then down to 4 and out of those 4, I picked this one from back in March as my favorite.  It really was a miracle shot.  This mandrill was moving all around and I had to shoot directly into the sun to catch him.   I was so thrilled when I downloaded the photos and saw how well this one turned out.

To see the favorite photos of other City Daily Photo bloggers, click here!

Regal

When I was at the zoo last week and managed to get a pretty good shot of the gorgeous bald eagle.  Such a handsome and regal looking bird.  If I am remembering correctly, I've only seen one of these magnificent birds in the wild and of course I wasn't quick enough to take a photo.

Birds, Birds, Birds

I took a long walk at the zoo yesterday. I wanted to see the new home for the tigers and I have to say, I was a bit disappointed.  The new facility has a viewing building that is completely surrounded by glass making picture taking almost impossible.  There was another viewing spot away from that shelter but, it was surrounded by a high, chain-link fence, also bad for photo taking.  So, I continued on my walk and found other things to photograph like this very cooperative Great Egret.

This Black Crowned Night Heron was also a perfect model sitting very still in the reeds.

And, I spotted this Blue Heron just outside the zoo hiding in the reeds around the lagoon.  So, the birds won out on this picture taking expedition.  

Round and round we go!

The carousel at the Phoenix zoo is a great attraction popular with little kids.  Each of the "seats" are different wild animals.  I heard kids saying I'm riding the giraffe....I'm riding the tiger, I want to ride the ostrich.  It was fun to watch them race for the entrance.

Billboard Discovery

Never before has a billboard stopped me in my tracks but, that is exactly what happened yesterday.  I was walking along when I looked up and saw this enormous billboard with that distinctive face looking down at me.  I stopped and stared!  You might be wondering why this advertisement would have such an impact on me.   You see, last Friday I went to the zoo and I took lots and lots of photos and when I downloaded them the photo I loved the most was....well....this one!!   I literally thought someone had stolen my photo!  See for yourself, my photo is below.

Comparing the two photos I now see subtle differences but, they are pretty darn close, wouldn't you say?

I even cropped my photo a bit so I could do and exact compare.  Still pretty close!

The funny thing is, this particular Mandril was pretty far away from me and was constantly moving so when I took the photo using the telephoto lens in the bright sunlight, I really didn't know until I downloaded the photos if it was going to be worthwhile.  And, I only got this one shot of him.  The second I snapped the shutter this guy got up and walked inside his enclosure.

Love Nest

I went to the Phoenix Zoo yesterday and I happened to catch these two beauties (and I use that term very, very loosely) tidying up their nest.  Storks are certainly not the prettiest birds around.

But, regardless of their lack of elegance or charm, these two seem to have found each other irresistible.  It looks like there may soon be a baby stork on the way.

Flamingo nursery..

When we were at the Wildlife World Zoo, we saw several flamingos sitting on eggs.  

This one got up the stretch it's legs.

And, one had already hatched because this fluffy little baby flamingo was wobbling around with the others.

More weekend activities

On Saturday morning I once again joined Janet and her guests for a trip out to the Wildlife World Zoo.  We braved the 100+ temperatures and had the zoo almost to ourselves.  In the above photo, Emmalin went into the petting zoo to feed the animals but this young deer took a keen liking to the hem of Emmalin's top.  She managed to pry the shirt away and give him the handful of food she was holding for him.

We all enjoyed watching the keepers feed the penguins.  Tomorrow I'll show you what else we saw that day.

Don't disturb the king

I made a trip to the Phoenix Zoo yesterday and I must have hit it at the wrong time.  Everyone was asleep!

The Lion!

The Tiger!

The Bobcat!

Blue and Yellow

I found this beautiful blue and yellow macaw at the World Wildlife park when I went two weeks ago.  Another one near him kept saying "Hello" to me while I was taking pictures.  If that one hadn't been in a dark area, I would have captured his picture too.

Wildlife

There were quite a lot of birds out and about at the Wildlife World Zoo last Saturday; many kinds of ducks and lots of more colorful birds including this gorgeous macaw.  I was impressed by the variety of birds I saw there.

I hope they are all smart enough to stay away from the crocodile compound.  I'm pretty sure this fellow would make quick work of a tasty duck or two.


I have a new photo on Sharon's Sojourns today.  I'm featuring a photo from my recent trip to London.

Mothering

Last Saturday I took a drive way out to the far west side of the valley to visit Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.  It's been there for quite a while and I had never visited.  It was much bigger than I expected and there was a huge variety of animals.  I saw this monkey playing with a young baby.  She looks like she's scolding it here.  Maybe saying "quit moving around so much".

But in this shot, they both seem to be saying "I love you".  

Theme Day: Pink

Another first of the month has rolled around and it's time for another City Daily Photo theme day.  This months theme is "Pink" and I chose this pink flamingo that resides at the Phoenix Zoo.  It was keeping its tiny little eye focused on me as I took its picture.

You can click here to see how other City Daily Photo bloggers have depicted the subject "Pink".

Shhhh.....

"Shhh....Be careful of that one behind you, she's a real gold digger!"  

Whoooo are you?

And what do you want?

A cute little burrowing owl looking right into the camera.

Being observant

If you happen to be out hiking and you round a corner and see this sight, you might be it a bit of trouble.  Fortunately, I was well behind the steel bars of the lion's compound at the Phoenix zoo.