Forest Creatures

I went for a walk at Fontenelle Forest this morning. Before I even entered the forest, this baby rabbit crossed my path. He was hanging out near the door of the Nature Center, just hopping back and forth across the sidewalk, nibbling at the leaves of the various garden plants lining the way.



Just as I began my walk, while I was still in sight of the Nature Center, I encountered a family of three woodchucks. Here they are all lined up in a row.



Later on, I encountered a young dear. Notice his little nubby budding antlers.



And, of course, there were turkeys everywhere. I lost count of how many I saw, but I encountered individuals and groups of turkeys throughout my walk, start to finish. And even when I couldn't see them, I could hear them gobbling in the distance.





The neat thing about this tom is that periodically throughout his plumage display, he'd fluff up his feathers with a dramatic whooshing sound, and he'd charge forward a step or two as he did this. It sounded really cool. That's exactly what he's doing at the end of this video, when he goes behind the log and turns away. Unfortunately, the sound was too soft to be heard on the video. Still, he put on quite a show. I watched him for at least five minutes, and I never saw a turkey hen in the vicinity. Maybe he was showing off just for me.

I have more forest photos on Flickr.

More Zoo Pictures

I went to the zoo again yesterday. (Yes, again. There are no individual memberships available, and since I have no spouse or children to take along, that means I need to go to the zoo rather frequently to make the cost of the family membership worthwhile.)

These red river hog babies are not even a month old.



The white-ruffed lemur was sleeping with his paw resting on his friend. The red-ruffed lemur looked a bit annoyed by this.



Most of the lemurs were napping in the grass, but this guy was sprawled on a nice hot rock.



And here's a super close-up of his adorable foot.



But even if the lemurs were all asleep, the ostriches were frisky.



This ostrich mooned me. (Well, actually, he was showing off his plumage to a female that happened to be on the opposite side.) Doesn't the bare underside of an ostrich's wing look freaky?



Look closer . . . see that extra claw or thumb sticking out, about two thirds of the way from the elbow to the wingtip? Weird!



I have more zoo photos on Flickr.

The Unamused Giraffe is Watching You

I ended up renewing my zoo membership after all. It's a nice, safe place to take a walk. Plus, I love checking up on my favorite animals.

Check out my Flickr photostream to see more.