Last week the weather was all sunshine and wonder. Today it’s rain and storm, many carnival parades have been cancelled already. So let’s go back to flowers and sunshine.
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Our orang utans are doing their best to help with the species conservation, although they demonstrated well that humans can’t plan everything. About 12 years ago a mature orang utan lady and her daughter moved in, hoping that the lady would breed with our male. Turned out the female adult was pregnant already, surprising everybody with a baby in summer. But even after the baby was grown quite a bit, the lady told the dude in no certain terms that he could stuff his dick into the meat grinder or she’d do that for him.
He waited a few years until the daughter had matured and then successfully mated with her, having several kids. He got sent to a different zoo last year to see if could keep up his good work in the conservation of this wonderful species.
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Chinese chipmunks, also known as cute overload.
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I love those little tufts on the ears, so much like tiny horns.
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© Giliell, all rights reserved
And a grey chipmunk that inhabits the ground of the enclosure. It was not chilled out as the other one.
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Happy Birthday to me! ©voyager, all rights reserved
Today is Jack’s 11th Birthday, sort of. Jack is a Leap Year Baby and since there is no February 29 this year we’re celebrating today. So far, Bubba has listened to his parents sing to him off-key, had bacon and eggs for breakfast and then had an exciting romp up at the lake. Plans for later in the day include gifts (a new rubber pig that honks and squeals and a bag of his favourite treats – Greenies,) more singing (Jack loves to sing) and a nice bit of salmon to top his kibble for supper. All in all, I’d say that’s a pretty good day for a not-quite birthday.
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There’s a walk in aviary with budgies, many of them happy to say hello to the visitors (the zoo provides feed you can give them). The keepers probably spend a lot of time checking for escapes, but some of them always do, although they also seem to return as soon as it gets dark and cold. Except for this little fellow, who has decided to move out permanently and make its home in the wooden beams of the aviary. Literally. It seems like the keepers have just decided to let it go as an example of how wild budgies nest.
Every spring and autumn, the cranes pass our little neck of the woods. And every spring and autumn I look out for them, but usually they’re so early or late in the day, that it’s hard to spot them, flying in their majestic V form, but today they were here at around 11 o’clock and my camera was ready.
Of course they did not show their typical pattern, but I think the shots are pretty nevertheless (I had to do a bit of post production, but I swear it did not involve copypasting crane silhouettes). Do click for full size.
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“Come on, display your train!” and whoosh he went. It was the most perfect timing and well, the saying “proud as a peacock” doesn’t come from nowhere.
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The shape of water on wood ©voyager, all rights reserved
Well, we have a fresh layer of snow again and, although it’s very pretty and it reflects a lot of light, I’m fed up with the stuff. I crave the changing shades of green things; the growing grass and leaves that burst into life. I crave the sound of songbirds through an open window and the earthy smell of fresh air blowing through the house. I am so ready to ditch my big coats and heavy boots. My feet want to go bare and feel the warmth of sunlight on the sidewalk and the cool of grass on the lawn. Come, Persephone. It’s time to send Boreas packing.
As a bonus today, this is an early animation produced by Disney studios in 1934. I’m hoping that Spring will see it as an invitation.
I see shoveling in my future ©voyager, all rights reserved
Snow is a four letter word.
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Like in most zoos, our peacocks roam freely, which means that they have access to the enclosures of other herbivores. In this case, the dwarf goats. They had just been fed and you can imagine who thought that HE had been fed.
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Unfortunately I’d put the shutter time really low before and didn’t notice, so the pics are blurry, although their blurriness also adds to the overall mood.
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© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
Well, I guess he was right…
Assorted hoofed animals. Please don’t correct my bad joke.
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© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
The Thames River, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Walking in town is still too treacherous for Jack and I because of icy sidewalks so we’ve been using the well-worn country trails frequented by lots of other dog walkers. This is the Millenial Trail by the Thames River and the path is mostly packed and roughed up snow which is a fairly easy walk. This is the place where the beavers live and I am 90% certain I know where their lodge is, but conditions are such that we can’t get too near until the snow melts. In the meantime, I’ve been reading about beavers and have discovered that they are mostly nocturnal and seldom leave their lodge in winter, so springtime at dusk or dawn would be an ideal time to see them out and about. Here’s my plan. I’m going to leave Jack at home one spring evening when the weather is clear and the moon is full and take a small camp chair to the site and set up my camera ready for dim light pictures. (I should practice first…I’m not very good at dim light photography.) Then, I’m going to sit very, very quietly and wait for the beavers to leave the lodge. They are very shy animals so I’m not sure how much my presence will affect their activity. I might need to sit there for a few evenings to allow them to get used to me. We’ll see. It’s an exciting adventure to contemplate and I promise I’ll keep you posted.
This morning a small group of deer visited the garden, probably the doe and last year’s youngsters. They went foraging a bit and when they wanted to leave, one of them had painted itself into a corner, with the absence of paint and a meaningful corner.
You have to imagine the gardens as one big rectangle cut into four parts. At the head of two of them, are the semi detached houses of us and our neighbour with the gardens that belong to the houses, both with fences (mostly) all around. Behind that are the two gardens we both rented from the city, only that ours is still a work in progress while our neighbour’s is basically abandoned, because tearing down the garden house would be much more costly than paying the rent. There’s only a partial fence between those areas, but the neighbour’s is closed to the woods while ours is open, which is where the deer entered.
One of the then went to the neighbour’s place and you can guess what happened, it didn’t find its way back. While mum and sibling were waiting on the other side of the fence, it took the youngster about half an hour to realise it needed to walk back towards the houses and cross into our garden so it could leave again.
They’re still cute.
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© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
© Giliell, all rights reserved
It’s amazing how well they’re hidden when they don’t move.
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Probably not a deer. Deer are shy. This one looked at me like it was contemplating my right to remain alive.