Sunday Morning Walk Around The San Diego Zoo

I spent several hours wandering around the Zoo today, most of it either at the Tigers or the Polar Bears and the Arctic Fox. The Malayan Tiger cubs were playing up in the tree at one point, while Mek, their mother, sat up on the hill and watched. 

Once Rochelle got there with some fresh meat they focused their attention to where we were standing.

On my way up to see the polar bears I stopped by the large bird pool at the bottom of the hill. This Lesser Flamingo was mixed in with a group of Caribbean Flamingos. It's pretty amazing the way they can turn their heads almost completely around and bury their beaks in their feathers, all while standing on one leg. 

   

These two are White-Breasted Cormorants - I don't know why they're called that, I don't see any white.

The Egrets are local birds, they pop in and out of the Zoo whenever they want.

On my way up the hill I stopped for a bit to watch the Grevy's Zebras.

Tucked away in a corner out behind the Polar Bear is a small enclosure with a couple of Arctic Foxes. I hardly ever get a good look at them - they're usually either up against the back fence watching the Polar Bears, or hiding back in a cave. Today they were both out and even moving around some. This one looks to missing part of an ear.

Their fur changes color to adapt to the season or where they are, from white to grayish-brown. There's one of each color out right now.

The Polar Bears at the Zoo are one of the toughest animals to get a good photo of. They're behind a very thick piece of glass, which is generally quite dirty, and has lots of reflections on it.

The bear was sitting up on a rock ledge not doing much, but I was in no hurry so I hung out for a while and just watched. After a bit a keeper showed up and began feeding fruits and vegetables to the bear. I saw carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, and even grapes. I've been told that they also feed them raw meat, but do that in the back off exhibit.

It looks like they get along pretty well.

On my way out of the Zoo I went back up Tiger River so that I could get one last look at both Paka and Miri. Paka, the male Malayan Tiger, and the father of the 2 cubs here, is moving to Fresno in a few days. They've arranged a new girlfriend for him, and hopefully he'll father a few more cubs. When I first got back to the habitat he was up on the hill watching from behind a rock.

Every now and then he would stick his head up for a better view.

Miri, the female Fishing Cat, is on her way to another zoo in a few days as well. The plan is to breed her with another cat since Bullet didn't seem all that interested in her. She was sitting in her favorite little cave watching the people walk by. Someone conveniently dropped something loud, and she perked up for this shot.

Last stop on the way out was the big Flamingo pool right by the entrance.

The Flamingos must have gotten too close to something, because the Crested Screamers that share the habitat with them were just going nuts. They were working together trying to herd a group of Flamingos out of the way.

Click here to see more images from Sunday, October 9, 2011 at the San Diego Zoo.

    

A Little Road Trip Across The Desert

I attended a conference for work in Las Vegas earlier this week, and decided to drive out there from San Diego rather than fly. Two of us from the office drove out on Wednesday morning, just in time to catch most of the rain heading up the Cajon Pass. There was pretty much no visibility until we got out past Victorville. At Barstow we turned off from I-15 (the route that goes straight to Las Vegas) and headed east on I-40 until we got to Kelbaker Road. From there we drove north through the Mojave Preserve, first to the restored train station at Kelso, then northeast across the Preserve until we connected back up with I-15 just west of the Nevada border. Not long after we got off the freeway we found a little dirt road that went up to a radio tower, and got this view looking out towards the southwest.

They've restored the train station in Kelso, but have not quite gotten around to the old Post Office yet. The roadway could use a bit of work too.

The views from the Kelso-Cima-Nipton road were pretty nice, especially with the storm clouds.

On our way back from Las Vegas on Friday we travelled south on US 95, then west on Old Route 66 for a while, then south to Twentynine Palms. We stopped for dinner in Palm Springs and then headed over the mountains to San Diego.

At Amboy we stopped to check out Roy's, one of the iconic spots along old Route 66. We got there just as a group of German tourists on Harleys were lining up to take a picture in front of the famous sign.

Click here to see a few more shots from our quick trip out to Las Vegas, including one of John in the Kelso jail.
     

A Few Tiger Pictures From Saturday

The Malayan tiger cubs at the San Diego Zoo spent most of the morning Saturday playing around in the water. Every now and then they would chase around the rest of their habitat. 

Mom alternated between ignoring them, hanging out near them at the pool, and occasionally wandering around on her own. She can go from being a peaceful looking, almost friendly cat to looking like a total psycho in no time at all.

Here's little Conner biting his brother Christopher on the back.

This last shot is pretty blurry, and is actually only a small portion of the original frame. All three cats were up at the very top of the habitat, way in the corner. The size of the paws and the extended claws on Conner reminded me of the Puss-N-Boots character from Shrek.

Click here to see more images of the Malayan tigers from Saturday, October 1, 2011 at the San Diego Zoo.

    

Fishing Cats - San Diego Zoo

I spent a few hours on Saturday morning at the Zoo, mostly watching the Malayan tiger cubs chase each other around in the water. I'll put up some pictures of them later. When I first stopped by the Fishing Cats on my way down Tiger River, Miri was sitting up on her favorite spot just watching.

The one I've never been able to get good pictures of in the past is Bullet, the male. On Saturday I got lucky. After spending quite a while with the tigers, I stopped by the Fishing Cat enclosure again on my way out. I watched Miri for close to 30 minutes but she barely moved, so finally I decided lunch was more important. Right before I got to the Zoo exit I ran into the keeper who takes care of Miri and Bullet. She had a bowl of fresh meat in her hand, and said she was on her way to give Bullet a snack. She was going to pull Miri in off exhibit, places chunks of meat in various spots around the enclosure, and let Bullet out so that he would have something to go looking for.

Bullet weighs about 25 lbs but doesn't really look all that big. He moves pretty fast too.

He's spotted a piece of meat on the log that crosses the pond.

I think this next one is my favorite shot of Bullet so far.

Click here to see more pictures of Miri and Bullet, and a bunch of shots of the Malayan tigers as well, from Saturday morning, October 1, 2011 at the San Diego Zoo.

     

Miramar Air Show 2011

New Photos Added 10/8/11: Here are some more images from the MCAS Miramar Air Show 2011. One of the first planes up on Friday was the B-25 Mitchell bomber. This particular aircraft was built in 1944-45, and has been restored to its original condition, complete with operable bomb bay and a Norden bombsight.

After watching the B-25 we decided to walk around the static exhibits for a bit, including climbing inside an MV-22a Osprey. Here's the cockpit. Looks complicated.

The Marines keep a rescue helo fired up and ready to go immediately.

The Air Force brought out an F-16 Viper.

Here's a shot of the Heritage Flight - an F-16 Viper along side a WWII-ear P-51 Mustang.

After the F-16 it was time for the F/A-18 Super Hornet. That's condensing water vapor, not smoke, coming off the wings.

I didn't quite get the full donut-shaped ring of vapor when the F/A-18 got up to just below Mach 1, but I came close. I saw it clearly with my eyes, which meant that my camera didn't get it. Oh well, it was still fun to see it that close. The bright sun produced all sorts of color effects in the vapor.

The Navy called this one a Legacy Flight - an F/A-18 Super Hornet along side an F-6F Hellcat from WWII.

All in all it was a great day to be out at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar with a bunch of friends and a whole lot to see.

If you scroll further down this page I have separate posts for the Blue Angels, the Oracle Challenger Bi-Plane, and the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) demonstration, each with links to their own galleries with more images.


Click here to see more images from the MCAS Miramar Air Show 2011. Note that these are not the same pictures as in the galleries linked in the other posts.
    

Miramar Air Show 2011 - The Blue Angels

The Blue Angels shows always start out with Fat Albert, the C-130T Hercules transport that is used to carry all of their maintenance and support personnel and supplies. Unfortunately they ran out of Jet-Assisted Take-Off (JATO) bottles in 2009, so we don't get to see those spectacular jet-assisted take-offs any more. It's still an impressive aircraft to watch fly.

The Blue Angels have been performing for 65 years. These days they're flying F/A-18 Hornets, which they get from the fleet once the plane has reached the end of its carrier arrestment functionality. Here's the lead pilot, in Blue Angel One, taxing for take off.

The Diamond Formation. Blue Angel Seven is a two-seater, where they can carry a guest. I imagine it must be quite a ride.

We had really great weather at the air show on Friday, there were some nice clouds to give some character to the sky.

There was also enough moisture in the air to produce some great vapor effects at times.

Quick question - how many planes in this next picture?

Check out the heat mirage coming from the engines in this next shot.

 

"Maybe if we split up they won't know which one of us is which." I think this is the first time I've seen 2 Blue Angel Sevens in the same show. I think Friday may be considered sort of a practice day, and they were taking the opportunity to give rides to 2 different special guests.

That's it, time to head off into the clouds.

Click here to see more images from the Blue Angel's performance at the MCAS Miramar Air Show 2011 on Friday, September 30, 2011.