2023 Part 5: Different

Sometimes I'm not so animal-focused.

Okay, there's an animal here, but the interesting thing is sloth transport. (In my backlog, I have photos of Sid leaving his basket and going where he wants to go. Here, the Columbus Zoo keeper returns him to its basket. See post.)

turkey vulture on top

Equipment envy

My camera shoots 8 frames per second at its fastest, and I got lucky with the puck in the net but still in the air.

Toledo's North American river otters do backflips, and the kids love it!

Pumpkin chomp for the Toledo Zoo's hippo heads.

Autofocus found the crud on the polar bears' glass in Toledo. I decided to call it art.

Breakfast With the Hippos

The missing gardener and I attended Breakfast With the Hippos July 29 at the Toledo Zoo. Though they did not sit with us, we were able to marvel at their magnificent maws. The residents are Emma (first picture) and her son Herbie (all other pictures and videos).

I blame the keeper, not Herbie.

Herbie's ear twirl:

Toledo October 15

I visited the Toledo Zoo last October 15.

bald eagle

Emma, I think

Renee or Twiggy

scaly-sided merganser

Java sparrow

black crake

diamond dove

I've been trying to get a good shot of a golden pheasant for a couple of years. This ain't it.

Cincinnati October 10

The purpose of a trip to the Cincinnati Zoo was to see Fritz, the baby hippo. It was tough to get pictures of him, though, because people stand right up against the glass.

I used my phone to capture Fritz and his mom, Bibi, comparing maws.

Fiona, Fritz's half-sister, dozes.

Fiona

African painted dog

common murre

honey bee

carpenter(?) bee

Cincinnati

I went to the Cincinnati Zoo December 12 to see the hippos. Fiona has been the star of the zoo since she was born and shows up regularly on Instagram. Her dad, Henry, died in 2017, and Tucker arrived this year from another zoo. Fiona, Bibi (Fiona's mom), and Tucker get along very well, and I had to see them before it became too cold for them to be outside.

Fiona rests her chin on Bibi

There were terrible reflections that I still don't know how to defeat. There is a roof over the viewing area, but the sun was so low that it shone into the area from the back. I kept only a couple of shots, and they're not very good.

Tucker and his staff

The fish in the tank eat hippo poop and take care of the hippos' skin. I don't know why, but they were all over Tucker and not the other two.

Chester, an Andean bear, scratches his chest with straw. At least, that's what it looked like he was doing. He also dragged the blanket back and forth in front of him.

An arctic fox in winter garb rests.

A Florida manatee says hello.

A gray squirrel takes a lunch break. I don't know if he made the sandwich himself.

A grey bird grasshopper

A Peruvian fire stick