Bird Park

We decided to go to the bird park today. We have not really done any outings and so we decided to do the bird park. I think it has been 16 or more years since I went to the bird park. It was hot but then again every day here is hot. We took a bus to the train and then a bus to the park.

As we were going into the park, we saw this guy walking across the street (why do we always think of them as guys, I really didn't check to see if it is a guy or gal). I am not sure if he escaped or where he came from but they didn't have any creatures like him at the bird park.

He ran up into the grass and disappeared into the bushes. My husband who knows all kinds of things told me it is a Monitor Lizard and they are native to this part of the world so he just lives here.

As I write this the gecko, is running across the wall in the room. He has been seen in the bedroom or bathroom on a regular basis.

We bought tickets for the park and included the tram so we were able to ride to some of the places in the park.

If we think it is hot here, I really don't know what the penguins think. There were a few outside and most of them were sitting under a tree.

This bird was shaking his beak and the small pouch that he has attached. We learned later that is to help cool off. They vibrate the pouch.

There were a number of other penguins and some puffins. These were inside where they had water and air conditioning.

We then rode the tram to tram to the African bird section. The village leaders were welcoming us to their area of the park.

Then we went into the aviary. On the tram at least two or more times we were told that this is the world's largest man made waterfall in an aviary.

We walked around a bit and saw some birds. Then we headed to another section.

We got to the flamingos when it was feeding time. They really are noisy birds and very social.

I asked the girl who was feeding the flamingos a few questions. I like that I can ask a question in English and be able to understand. So I asked about the flamingos neck and learned that they have 19 bones in their neck that allow them to bend and turn.

I thought the black on the wings was interesting as it is hidden when they are standing. Flamingos can fly. The area where they are at the bird park is not quite enough room for them to take off and fly but one did fly away and they got a call from another part of the city that the flamingo was there. Do you know that they stand on one foot so that they don't cool down as fast. It was so hot that they were all standing on two feet.

The flamingo feeder told us to go to the pelicans for pelican feeding. So we headed to pelican cove. We learned all about the different kinds of pelicans.

We did enjoy watching them eat. They would catch them in their pouch and some would swim in the pool for the fish.

We walked around a bit and enjoyed some of the other birds but really did not get to see everything. It was too hot. We enjoyed a visit to birds of darkness which was where they had a number of different owls in a dark area so we could see them awake. It was cool to see the birds but also cool because it was air conditioned. We stood and enjoyed the cool air for a few minutes.

We also watched this bird and wondered for a minutes if it was a statue but we did see him move a time or two.

There were lots of birds that we didn't get to see.  Some of them we could get close to and others were in cages.

There were some shows but we didn't time our visit at the right times to see the shows. I think J would have enjoyed the birds of prey show but we didn't have time to stay for the show.

I think we all agreed that the bird park was a fun day.

Beth