Went to the zoo today…hadn’t gone for awhile. The cooler temperatures–it’s about 70 out–yes, in mid-December, ha!–brought the animals out during the mid-afternoon, so I got some great Charismatic Mammal shots, and of course, my favorites, the Weird And Awkward Mammal shots. The warthogs were snuffly and warty. The capybara was wet and drippy. The peccaries were…well, rather like the warthogs. The anteater was practically dancing in its pen. The photos of it tongue kissing the other anteater through the wires, alas, aren’t very clear, but it was touching.

I’ll post some of the photos later, but here’s a Charismatic Mammal:
http://www.metalandmagic.com/Images/gfx/urstiger1.jpg

and a coupla Deviantart pics
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/4302198/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/4302152/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/4302009/

There was an enormous flock of starlings, going after these weird blue-violet grape-looking clusters hanging off the palm trees. I was at the capybara exhibit, which is a covered walkway extending into the water, surrounded by these fruiting palm trees. And as the capybara sedately munched duckweed, and I tried to get a zoomed shot of his weedy muzzle, there was this sudden cacaphony, and like a scene from the birds, starlings were suddenly descending everywhere, on these trees and the fruit. The sound of starling poo on the roof was like rain. The capybara and I both froze, gazing up like…well, large startled rodents, which reflects better on him than on me…and after a minute or two, while I fumbled to take photos (I despise starlings, but anything’s interesting in a horde) they flew yammering off. I looked at the capybara. He dropped his head and looked at the duckweed. I said “Okay, then,” and moseyed off to photograph tortoises.

All in all, a good day.