Shout out to sonnyjane!!!!

[Squirrel!!!]

My daughter and I caught your Harpy Eagle talk at the San Diego Zoo today, very interesting and entertaining. Very handsome bird!!!!

 

[sonnyjane]

HAHHA! I was just coming onto the boards to find you after our encounter today! Great to see you there! Hope you had a wonderful day at the zoo

 

[stasijane]

At first glance I thought I seen my name!

 

[Squirrel!!!]

HAHHA! I was just coming onto the boards to find you after our encounter today! Great to see you there! Hope you had a wonderful day at the zoo

We had a wonderful day. My family has been members for about a billion years, so we go often. My daughter and I tried something new today, made a photo scavenger hunt for ourselves and really had a great time being silly and creative finding the items we came up with last night. It made me look at the zoo in a different way. I was no longer looking at just the hippo exhibit, but looking for something unsual to photograph that was prickly or purple or tiny.

Competition was fierce!!!! The amazing thing was that the hardest photo for both of us to find was a tantrum. The zoo seemed full of happy kids today, I was hard pressed to find a crier.

My daughter caught two Meercats having a bit of a discussion for her "Tantrum" photo.

Anyway, felt like I was finding a celebrity when I spotted you today.

 

[Squirrel!!!]

At first glance I thought I seen my name!

I could give you a shout out too. Hello stasijane!!!!

 

[sonnyjane]

Competition was fierce!!!! The amazing thing was that the hardest photo for both of us to find was a tantrum. The zoo seemed full of happy kids today, I was hard pressed to find a crier.

Some of the worst tantrums I've ever seen at the zoo were not thrown by kids at all, but rather by their parents "AN HOUR WAIT TO SEE A BLACK AND WHITE BEAR?". "The escalator is broken? What do you expect us to do, WALK all the way to the elephants?". Once we were stopped by a dad that approached our cart and shouted "What's the quickest way to get out of this place? I've had enough of this crap".... "You're welcome sir, have a nice day!" lol.

In other news, I'm glad you got to see our eagle. We are working REALLY HARD on having some of our other birds up there and flying free, but it is just a longggggggg process. Our birds don't have clipped wings - they are fully capable of flying away forever if they so choose - so training them is an art and a science. This morning we had two of our up-and-comers at the entrance for opening ceremonies to see how they will react once they see people, so we're hoping that in a couple more weeks they will be ready. I used to work the BIG bird show but the contract was not renewed and all the birds left town with the show. It's really been humbling to have to start over from scratch with brand new, never-before-trained birds. Keep checking back to see our progress

 

[Squirrel!!!]

In other news, I'm glad you got to see our eagle. We are working REALLY HARD on having some of our other birds up there and flying free, but it is just a longggggggg process. Our birds don't have clipped wings - they are fully capable of flying away forever if they so choose - so training them is an art and a science. This morning we had two of our up-and-comers at the entrance for opening ceremonies to see how they will react once they see people, so we're hoping that in a couple more weeks they will be ready. I used to work the BIG bird show but the contract was not renewed and all the birds left town with the show. It's really been humbling to have to start over from scratch with brand new, never-before-trained birds. Keep checking back to see our progress

The Harpy Eagle has been a long favorite, such an exquisititely handsome raptor. My DH has a thing for raptors having grown up near an avid falconer, so I developed an appreciation and the Harpy was long chosen by me to be the most impressive! I am in awe of anyone who handles bigger birds. Anything larger than a cockatiel makes me a wee nervous. Other vets in the practice where I work handle Macaws---I respect my fingers too much. Actually, a bit a fear there.

I will be back again to check things out!!!

Didn't see any real adult tantrums and our fashion victim category turned up lame photos too. Odd for a day at the zoo!!!