Category Archives: wildlife

Young Snow Leopards

1 Reply

As members of the Brookfield Zoo, we get regular emails telling us about changes that have taken place at the zoo.  A recent email caught our eye.  Two new Snow Leopard cubs have arrived at the zoo.  There was a YouTube video of them playing in their enclosure.  They are not related but are of similar age and have been paired.  Just like any small cat, they were full of energy and were rolling around and fighting.  Exceedingly cute!

We figured we need to get there to see them.  When Hudson the polar bear was a cub, we were a bit slow in getting to see him and he was a little large by the time we first caught him.  Still very cute but certainly a lot bigger.  It seems that Snow Leopards grow fast too!  With winter (supposedly) here, animals outside are a rarer event since a lot fo the zoo’s creatures are not suited to Chicago winters.  We also wanted a sunny day to make some photography opportunities.

We did get to the zoo and we were lucky to have a great weather day.  Both the leopards were out in their enclosure.  They are already quite large so we missed the cutest stage.  However, they are still quite playful.  They have some high locations that they like to rest on but they would still fight with each other.  I watched one sneak up on the other and the leap in the air that resulted was very funny.

Shooting them in the enclosure can be tricky.  There is a glass wall which gives great viewing but makes shooting a little tricky.  The glass is thick and the light is very shaded.  In the enclosure open spaces they are more easily shot.  However, the high rock area they like to rest on is very close to the netting that keeps them in.  When they are further in, a shallow depth of field will remove the netting from the shot but when they are close to it, there is nothing you can do.  Hence, I apologize for the net in some shots but I still think they look cool!

Halloween at the Zoo

Leave a Reply

Whether it is the weather or whether it is some subconscious thing, it appears that we get lured to the zoo at Halloween.  The weekend weather forecast looked very promising so we thought we pop out to Brookfield to see what the animals were doing.  It was only when we got there that we realized that, being Halloween weekend, everyone was there in costumes.

This triggered something from our recollection that we had done the same thing last year.  Let’s go to the zoo when everyone else is planning on being there and all dressed up!  (I will leave my thoughts on Halloween for another post I suspect.)

As it turned out, the center area of the zoo was very busy but the rest of it was no busier than most weekends.  The sun was out and the animal were active so it was a good time to go.  We got particularly lucky with a couple of things.

I have never seen the kangaroos move before.  They have always been lying down taking a nap when I have been there.  Sometimes, this is tucked up against the  wall for extra shade.  However, this time they got up and fed for a while and even hopped across the enclosure.  That was a big plus.

Next we arrived at the brown bear enclosure and the staff were seeding the place with vegetables for the bears to find and feed on.  Consequently, we got a couple of grizzlies rummaging around the enclosure for a long time.  Given their love for dozing this was a result.  I guess the polar bears had already been fed since they were out for the count.

The lions are always a stop for us.  The male was lying down and looked like he was falling asleep.  A lion roaring has a very small mouth shape which doesn’t look like much.  A lion yawning, on the other hand, has a wide mouth and lots of teeth.  A good photo opportunity!  A little patience and we were rewarded with a big view of fangs!  As an aside, lions are not empathetic creatures since we tried yawning a bunch of time to try and induce a yawn but to no effect!

Out last stop was the leopard.  Normally another one having a nap when we are there, this time he was also on the prowl.  We only had a few minutes before it was time to lie down again but even so, this was better than normal.  Not a bad day out!

Evil Frigates

Leave a Reply

Early in our visit to Kauai, we paid a visit to the lighthouse and wildlife refuge at Kilauea Point.  We were there to see the lighthouse and the surrounding coast but the wildlife element was an interesting addition.  There were tons of birds in the area.  Along the cliffs we saw a lot of Red Footed Boobies.  These are a pretty decent sized bird that is akin to a small albatross.  The boards also mentioned the presence of frigate-birds.  These weren’t close in but appeared to be out towards the lighthouse.

Once we got out on the peninsula on which the lighthouse sits, we became a lot more familiar with the frigate-birds.  It turns out that they are something I have seen on one of the TV nature programs that the BBC produces in great detail every five years or so.  Frigate-birds are a prehistoric looking creature.  Their wings make them look like a pterodactyl and their beaks have a most evil looking hook on the end.

The thing that the TV show explained and that we got to see in action is their preferred method of getting food.  The boobies head off out to see to catch fish.  They bring the fish back in a pouch in their throat and then use it to feed the chicks.  The frigate-birds are not so interested in making much of an effort so they hang around and wait for the boobies to return.  They then attack them trying to make them spit out their catch.  Nice, huh?

Anyway, we got to see this at close range.  The frigate-birds would pick a target and go for them, sometimes in pairs.  The attack would continue for some time as the boobies tried desperately to get out of the way.  If they got close enough to the shore, that seemed to be good enough and they could get back to their roost.  Otherwise, the frigate-birds would be pretty tenacious.  Quite something to witness at close quarters!

The Chicken Secret

Leave a Reply

We have just spent a week on Kauai having a great time exploring a fantastic island. I will cover aspects of the trip in coming posts but today I want to cover the big story that no-one tells you about.

We read many books and websites when researching the trip to Kauai. They were full of lots of good information about the island but not one told you the number one theme. Chickens! The island has thousands of chickens roaming wild. The normal predators are not present on Kauai so they flourish.

We arrived at the airport and a family including some very small chicks were walking across the parking lot. Someone mentioned it to the shuttle bus driver and he said they were everywhere. He wasn’t wrong!

More Zoo Stuff

Leave a Reply

Previously I showed the pictures of Kalina, the baby elephant.  Indy Zoo has plenty of other things to see.  It is not a large zoo but it is nicely laid out and has a good selection of things to see.  I find visits to zoos to be an interesting time.  The places are filled with parents dragging very young children around.  I wonder whether parents feel an immediate need to take their kids to the zoo.  They kids certainly don’t seem to care.  They are dragged around and told what to look at but they don’t seem in the least bit interested.  It seems that around 10 years old is the point when the kids seem genuinely interested in the animals.

Anyway, plenty of things to see at the zoo so here are some shots of the various animals on exhibit.  Some of the indoor ones were tricky given the limited lighting but they are included anyway.

Aww, so cute!

Leave a Reply

When looking for a possible short getaway trip, all you need is something to trigger the choice of destination.  How about the birth of a baby elephant (as opposed to a full grown elephant being born!).  Indianapolis Zoo has recently put on display its latest addition to the elephants, a baby called Kalina.  She is still very young and causing quite a level of interest.

So, couple of days in Indy for us then?  Absolutely.  I hadn’t been to Indianapolis itself before.  I had driven through a couple of times and visited friends in one of the northern suburbs but downtown Indy was a new one for me.  Turns out it is really quite a nice spot.  More on the city in another post though.

This is about a baby elephant and so I will cut to the chase.  Kalina is very cute.  She makes a couple of appearances each day and there are plenty of people wanting to see her.  Whether this is noticed by the animals, I don’t know but I did see a neighboring cheetah eying the events closely.  Of course, he could just have been taking a look at a tasty young animal waiting to be felled!

Just like lots of young, Kalina is full of energy and exploration.  She runs around a lot, a little away from mum sometimes but never too far.  A regular run back to nurse can be expected.  She really is quite tiny for an elephant but still a lot larger than most of us.  It was interesting to see her hanging out with the keepers sitting nearby.  Mum didn’t seem bothered either.

Anyway, enough of the chat, here’s the last of the pictures.

Swallows but no Amazons

Leave a Reply

When trying to be smart and come up with an amusing play on words for a title, I realized I could be on dangerous territory with this one.  Instead, I decided to play it safe but dull!  Back to the topic…

I was sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan recently watching the swallows do their thing.  I find them a fascinating bird to watch since they have a level of agility that is hard to comprehend.  I guess when you eat by catching insects in mid air, you have to be pretty sharp.  Catching a swallow on the wing is a trickier proposition altogether.  They are hard to pan with and they are small so a long lens helps keep them visible but makes the panning so much harder!

Getting them standing on a non-moving surface makes for a far easier time.  Of course, that isn’t so exciting.  There is always the option to keep trying to get a bit closer without scaring them off.

Then again, you can always try and get the flying shot.  These will never be published but they were better than I expected!

Flashing at the birds

Leave a Reply

While hanging around up in Door County in Wisconsin, I have been taking a bunch of pictures of the local wildlife. Mainly a lot of birds in the vicinity of our hotel and that is always a fun challenge. To add to the challenge, one of the afternoons that we were back at the hotel, the weather closed in and it began to rain. There was a patch of grass outside our balcony that seemed to be a popular spot for some robins so I started taking some shots.

As you are probably aware, robins are quite bold creatures so, with a little patience, you can end up with them coming reasonably close in. However, with the light having faded fast as the weather deteriorated and the natural shade of the area, it was not looking good to get a good shot. I started out by bumping up the ISO but that was only helping so much and, without a tripod, I was still going to get mixed results.

At this point I decided to try something that everyone who shoots wildlife a lot probably does to some extent but that I had not tried before and that was using some flash to boost the excitement. I had no idea how much to use so experimented with a little extra FEC, then zero and ultimately one stop under on FEC. The latter seemed to have the best results judging by the quick view on the back of the camera – always such a reliable indicator!

I was using the flashgun straight with no boost like a Better Beamer (if that is the right name) so it was a bit of a raw experiment but the results seemed to be be pretty pleasing so this is something I will have to think about further in due course.

Scotties on parade

Leave a Reply

A weekend break has recently taken us up to Door County in Wisconsin. We stayed in a small town called Baileys Harbor. By coincidence, the weekend that we were there, the town was holding a parade of Scottish Terriers. His parade started off with a pipe band walking through the streets followed by about 200 Scotties been walked by their owners.

This might sound like a recipe for disaster. Scotties are hardly known for their calm temperament (I will resist making any comment on their fellow countrymen) so putting 200 of them together and adding some pipes might seem like it was going to end up being a noisy affair. However, it all went off very smoothly. The dogs all trotted along without any complaint – including no complaints about the outfits at some of the owners had decided they should wear just in case we hadn’t noticed they were Scotties. I really don’t think a dog deserves to wear a fake kilt with fake bagpipes for extra effect.

A lot of people turned out to see the parade. A couple of people asked us if we had come specially for it. It was certainly fun to watch but I don’t think I would make a five hour drive each way just to see it! Interestingly, a lot of people brought their dogs to watch the parade. I’m not sure whether they think that their dogs would be interested in something because it was dog centric or not but I don’t think the other dogs were really that bothered.

Hello froggy

Leave a Reply

Our hotel in Door County Wisconsin had access to the beach across some marshy land. Resident in these marshes was a colony of frogs. You were in no doubt they lived there since most of the time they were trying hard to let you (or more likely every frog of the opposite sex) know that they were there. During the day this blended into the background a little but at night it was a steady sound that actually became quite soothing after a while.

I decided to go and find some of these frogs. This is less straightforward since, while they advertise themselves constantly when you are a distance away, they get awfully shy as you approach. They switch off as soon as you get reasonably close and wait for you to go. Get a distance away again and they are back making whatever noise it is that a frog makes.

Spotting them as they lurk in the water is a little hard at first until you get used to what you are looking for. They head will be just proud of the surface of the water, probably surrounded by weed to he camouflage them. The regularity of the head shape is the giveaway. Once you get too close they disappear under the surface with a plop!

What I don’t know about frogs is whether they are very confident in their ability to get away or whether they are a bit dopey. If you approach slowly, you can actually get very close to them indeed. Maybe they are constantly assessing the threat I pose or maybe they don’t realize I am there until they have an “oh crap” moment and dive for safety. Anyway, whichever it is, I was able to get some good face to face time with a couple of them.

Thankfully not too many people were around or they might have been wondering why I was lying on a wooden walkway across a marsh!