Saturday, August 22, 2009

Round Robin Photo Challenge: Birds

When the theme of BIRDS was announced for this week's photo challenge, my first thought was, "What a great excuse to go to the zoo!" But since the weather here has been so hot lately, I wasn't sure I could stay out in the sunshine for very long. Finally, on Friday (8/14), we woke up to a cloudy day. When I left work, around noon, it was still cool and pleasant, so I headed over to the zoo.

However, I hadn't been there long before those clouds let loose with one shower after another. I didn't mind getting wet (after all, I'm from Juneau), but keeping my camera dry was a big concern. At one point I sat under a little shelter by the duck pond. The ducks didn't seem to mind the rain at all.




Even though this isn't a bird picture, I had to include it. This orangutan seems to have been smarter than I was. At least he was much more prepared for the weather, with his bright red rain poncho. Quite stylish, for an orang', don't you think?



There were times when the rain stopped, and the sun even peeked out now and then. I had hoped to go to the lorikeet feeding and get some spectacular pictures, but when I got to their area it was pouring down rain again, and feeding time was still almost an hour away. I looked for some nearby shelter, but didn't find any, so ended up abandoning that idea and scurrying off to a dryer place.

Here are a few more bird pictures I took between showers.











7 comments:

Linda said...

Great pictures. I love the colors found in nature, don't you? (and of course, I loved the orangutan, too!

Carly said...

Hi Linda :)

Oh my, this is a very nice collection of birds! I don't know which one I like best, but I do know I just love the one of the parrot with the rope. He has quite an expression on his face! :) Very nicely done!

-Carly

betty said...

such great pictures of the birds (and the orangutan too; very clever with his poncho)

loved the flamingos! when we would go to the San Diego Zoo, always fun to see them on their display at the front of the zoo's entrance :)

enjoy your day

betty

Suzanne R said...

Love the pictures -- beautiful birds! I, too, enjoyed the parrot picture because of having hand-raised a parrot many years ago. Nice job!

Margaret aka: Fact Woman said...

Love the picture of the duck with the rain on it's back. Great shot.

Jama said...

Beautiful collections of birds here. My most favorite got to be that flamingo birds.

MyMaracas said...

You have some amazing shots here! I especially love the duck with rain drops on his back.