The missing gardener and I made our first trip together in 2021 to the Toledo Zoo July 10th. I've been feeling as though I haven't been getting great shots. I use Windows' built-in star system to rate my pictures and consider focus, composition, exposure, and what the animal is doing. A five-star photo is compelling in some way and makes me say, "Wow!" I gave all of these except the flower four stars.
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| This African elephant is Twiggy, I think. Some herbivores love their "browse" -- fresh leaves still on their twigs. Renee is the zoo's other elephant. |
As far as I know, Twiggy's name has nothing to do with leaves and twigs. She
arrived at the Toledo Zoo from some kind of private zoo where her care
was insufficient and she was a few hundred pounds underweight. Pure speculation: She could have been named after the 1960's model Twiggy, who was famously thin, but she (the elephant) must've had a name already. She doesn't know how to
be with others, and she and Renee don't hang out together.
A meerkat is on guard, of course.
red-billed blue magpie 
A goat, breed unknown.
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| A chestnut-breasted malkoha. I had previously made an unintentional self-portrait as a reflection in this bird's (species, anyway, if not the same individual) eye. It happened again, although I had a certain amount of intention this time. |
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| The malkoha displays a wing. |
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| As with our trip to Akron in 2020, my best shot of the day was of a flower, in this case a day lily. |
The birds in this post live in the zoo's pheasantry, and many of them are colorful, some spectacularly so. The Himalayan monal is one of the spectacular ones. The brown female was out in the open, but the male was barely visible under a bush. Looks like I have a quest.
