Archive for the 'Zoos' Category

We flew back home to Adelaide for a few days to see our parents – my parents had not yet seen Andres except on Skype video calls.

We spent one of the days with my parents at Monarto Zoo – one of my favourite zoos.

Hyena Pup - Monarto Zoo

Lioness lazing on a mound of dirt - Monarto Zoo

Lion enclosure panorama - Monarto Zoo

Cheetah enclosure panorama - Monarto Zoo

Giraffe enclosure panorama - Monarto Zoo

Adelaide Rosella (wild) - Monarto Zoo

Took Andres to Taronga Zoo today for the first time. This was supposed to be an outing for our adoption support group, but nobody else turned up at the allotted time, so we spent the day there on our own instead. I prefer it that way anyway!

I got some good photos – although I still need to practice my technique more for taking photos of birds in flight … difficult subject!

Zebra - Taronga Zoo

Wedgie - Taronga Zoo Free Flight Bird Show

Juvenile Andean Condor with a "Miner" problem - Taronga Zoo Free Flight Bird Show

Juvenile Andean Condor comes in to land - Taronga Zoo Free Flight Bird Show

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo - Taronga Zoo Free Flight Bird Show

Leanne and Andres at Taronga Zoo

Leanne and Andres with the elephants at Taronga Zoo

Luk Chai and Thong Dee at Taronga Zoo

Rainbow Lorikeet (wild) at Taronga Zoo

I’ll eventually upload some more photos to the Taronga Zoo gallery on ZooChat.

Headed out to Taronga Zoo for the day today – my first time with the new lens, I was keen to give it a good workout.

Was a great day – nice weather – and I managed to get some great shots, especially at the Free Flight Bird Show.

Himalayan Tahr - Taronga Zoo, best seat in the house

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo - Free Flight Bird Show - Taronga Zoo

Wedge Tailed Eagle - Free Flight Bird Show - Taronga Zoo

Fennec Fox - Taronga Zoo

As usual, I have uploaded other photos to the Taronga Zoo Photo Gallery on ZooChat.

After many years of saying we must go back there, we finally found the time to head up the freeway to Gosford and visit the Australian Reptile Park.

This is a lovely little zoo where they focus mostly on Australian native species, along with a few select exotics. Their specialty is reptiles and spiders – they have an impressive collection of both that makes it well worth the visit. Unfortunately for me, photographing the spiders and snakes is not typically an easy task – so I don’t really have any great shots of them.

They also have a large collection of Australian birds and some of the more iconic Australian animals like Tasmanian Devils, Wallabies, Wombats, Dingoes and more. There is a large lake full of Alligators, and a couple of smaller ponds with Saltwater Crocodiles in them too.

Bush Stone-curlew

Black Shouldered Kite

Spider World (a bit creepy really!)

Tasmanian Devil

More photos have been uploaded to the Australia Reptile Park photo gallery on ZooChat.

Went to Taronga Zoo today for a quick visit – only stayed a couple of hours.

Mostly I wanted to try and get a photo of a Crimson Chat to see if that would work well as a logo / mascot for my new ZooChat website. A “Zoo Chat” or the “ZooChat Chat” perhaps.

With a few suggestions from members of the ZooChat forums as to where to find them at the zoo, I did track them down and managed to get some decent photos (difficult with the small mesh fence around the aviaries).

Crimson Chat

The Red Pandas were also out and about today, so I managed to get some good photos of them too.

Red Panda