A few saturday pictures!

I was finally able to get out for a few hours Saturday morning, and while there were not a lot of birds about, I did get a couple of nice shots!

These two of the endemic Xanthus's Hummingbird are fun!!

I have not seen to many Phainopeplas lately, so this was a nice surprise...

But the biggest surprise of the day...week, ah heck, lets say the month was seeing only my second every Zone-tailed hawk!

Common Gallinule Story

I have posted this weeks story on 10000 Birds about the Common Gallinule, or Moorhen as many of us have known them as. There are some nice photos of both adults and a few new babies!  Check it out!

http://www.10000birds.com/common-gallinule-the-lost-moorhen.htm?doing_wp_cron=1472144083.4456560611724853515625

You know, every family has one!

Remember Uncle...(you fill in the name) who always shows up for the holidays...and just gets blotzo...well, the Guadalajara Zoo has theirs as well!! This Orangutan was wide awake, but could see no real need to muster up much energy!!

And this is a wrap on the Zoo animals

Here are the last of the animals from the Guadalajara Zoo!  I just can not say enough great things about this Zoo. It's cleanliness, the open enclosures for the animals, the diversity the access to the whole area, by walking, open air train or sky tram.... Just amazing!

I must admit I can not find my notes on the exact name of some of these cool deer....but here are the photos anyway

I am pretty sure this is an Mongolian Ibex?  If you know what these are, please do not hesitate to drop me a note...

Same goes for this beautiful guy.  Possibly a Kudu?

HEY!!  Guys, over here please!   come on give me a break, I finally get you all lined up, and you go shy on me!!

So what is a zoo with out an Elephant?

All day I kept checking back to try to get a good photo of the Mexican Wolf...they just kept hiding in the brush...on my way out of the Zoo, I made one last stop...and here they were!

This guy was running around on these ropes, suspended over water....and while I was watching him, I got to see a brand new bird for me, the Collared Seedeater.

We are going to wrap this up, with a very casual dude, who was over here from Down Under! This Kangaroo was sound asleep, and had absolutely no modesty!  LOL

I hope you have enjoyed your tour of the Guadalajara Zoo!

Thanks for stopping in

Tom

A few more animals

Here are few more of the shots for them Zoo...

The Giraffes were actually sticking their heads over the fence to allow visitors to pet them...I stuck to the more natural images!

There were American Black Bears...

And one of the biggest Iguanas I have ever seen. He was sitting on his own Island!

There was a huge open area for the African animals, but I did not got to spend much time there, as the weather broke and it really started to rain...but I did get to see the Zebras!

A whole family of Chimpanzees where there, but I thought this little guy was awesome...

Without something for a reference, it is hard to imagine just how big this Giant Tortoise was....

 

Ok...I will get some more on for tomorrow

Thanks for stopping by!

Tom

Jumping from Birds to Animals for a bit

The last few weeks have been incredibly hectic, with work, the threat of a hurricane, (twice) and helping Jeanne get around while she convalescences from her surgery.

So, I spent this afternoon, going back thru photos I previously shot, and have not had a chance to look at. I found that I have quite a few very nice animal shots from the Guadalajara Zoo. This zoo uses large enclosures in order to give the animals as much space as possible, and a more life like environment. This also allows me to photograph them, and get the appearance of being out in the wild! Since a trip to Africa is way out of the budget right now, this is the best I can do!

Todays I am going to feature the big cats!! We will start out with the African Lion!

The speedster, The Cheetah

The Cougar, or Mountain Lion.

of course, there was a pair, so I need to feature both!!

But my favorite of the day, was this beautiful Leopard, who was paying little or no attention to the throngs of people going by. Then, when I walked up, to came to full attention, and literally appeared to be stalking me. At first, it dropped to it's belly....

And then slowly began to creep closer and closer...

And then it jumped right up on the enclosure at me. I moved down the way and it followed me. I finally figured out, that it was watching my camera, when I moved it, the cat followed it very closely.

I will get a few more of the "Zoo" shots posted in my next blog!

Thank you for stopping by!

My latest bird story

The new story the week is about the many different doves that we have here on the Baja. If you get a chance, please check it out!!

Thanks

Tom



http://www.10000birds.com/la-paloma-the-doves-of-the-baja.htm?doing_wp_cron=1471729174.0294070243835449218750

After the storms...

As many of you might know, we had our first Hurricane, Javier come thru the Baja this week. Given all the other things I need to take care of, that put a real damper on the birding! I did manage to get a new story out on 10000 Birds. It has some nice photos and information on the Loggerhead Shrike.

http://www.10000birds.com/butcher-birds-the-loggerhead-shrike.htm

A few fun birds from last Sunday

I took a couple of hours last Sunday and made a drive out to Presa Buena Mujer, or in English, The Good Woman Reservoir. This is such an amazing place, there have been several birds, while not necessarily new to me, just birds that I have not seen in this area before!

This was my first ever Varied Bunting though!!

The other highlight would have to be all the babies! some have already fledged, while a few are still running around under Mom and Dad's care!

Here is the beautiful Male California Quail, keeping look out...

While is little ones peek out from the dense under brush

This Verdin is still working on a nest, which I would figure to be a set one for the year....

I am sure that this juvenile Xanthus's Hummingbird has not been on it's own for to long..

One of the biggest surprises of the morning was this Pacific-slope Flycatcher, my first one here in Mexico

This Ash-throated Flycatcher seemed to be feeling the effects of the 100+ degree weather..

One of the hardest photographic targets for me are the very small, always moving Gnatcatcher...this Blue-gray Gnatcatcher did manage to sit still long enough for me to get a quick picture while it was singing.

...and then I got this fun shot of it, just taking off on it's way to another tree...