what about the plastic animals?

Turtle Town

Turtles love the Morningside Park pond!  There usually are a couple dozen or more sunning themselves in the late morning.  Most of the turtles are red-eared sliders, which were all pets, or descendents of pets, that have been released into the pond.

More Zoo Creatures

Yes, meerkats actually do that standing up thing.  So do prairie dogs.  Nieces not so much.

I'm trying to think of how many zoos I've been to.  Not many.  As an adult I've gone to the San Diego Zoo once, the Cleveland Zoo once, but that was only to see the newly opened rainforest, and the Central Park Zoo a few times with visitors.  There was the Catskill Game Farm when I was a kid.  I also remember going to the very awful zoo in Watertown, New York.  The only clear memory I have of that is of people throwing gum and marshmallows to the bears, who would then chew and chew and chew.  I think that's it.  I'm not much of a zoo person.

Creatures at the National Zoo

Panda, lion, orangutan, an orange guy, sleepy flamingo, buzzard of some sort, and a red panda.  Aren't they all adorable?

Not Batman

Perhaps a few too many beers were consumed at Harlem Tavern for me to put up an involved post.  In other bird news the goose couple at work were showing off their goslings this morning.  All eight or nine of them.  There were too many of the downy little critters moving around on the lawn to get an accurate count.

They're Back

How long to geese live in the wild?  A pair of Canadian Geese return to campus every year, hatch a group of goslings, and leave once the kids are old enough to fly.  I noticed the geese a couple of weeks ago but haven't had time to bother them until now.

Speaking of large, flightless birds, the penguin cam at SeaWorld San Diego.

America's Most Wanted Bird

Griggsville, Illinois loves purple martins!  The invasion began fifty years ago when a local antenna manufacturer decided to go into the purple martin hotel building business.  Right there in the midde of Main Street is a 70-foot high, 562 unit, tower.  Purple martins. which, shhh, don't actually eat mosquitoes, were everywhere in the purple martin capital of America!

The Hidden Elephant

I've walked by the corner of 116th and Manhattan Ave. a few thousand times in the past ten years but it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I noticed this elephant on the building's facade.  There's a mirror image elephant looking to the left as well.

Bonus:  Turtle fight in the Morningside Park pond.

Turtles in Morningside Park

One thing I've noticed this summer is that there are an awful lot of turtles in the Morningside Park pond.   The Columbia Spectator ran a story about them today.  If the sun is out there will be dozens warming themselves on the rocks and dozens more swimming around.  All four of the turtles above are red-eared sliders which, as the article notes, are not native to New York so they, or their ancestors, were pets released into the pond.  The rock in the bottom photo is the "prominent rock" mentioned in the story.  It is usually more prominent but we had a lot of rain on Friday (the photos were taken on Sunday).

Happy Trails

This little guy was making his way across one of the steps in Morningside Park this morning.  I hope he or she made it before drying up!

Where Dinosaurs Roam

Granger, Washington is a town after my heart.  In 1958 woolly mammoth bones were found in a nearby quarry.  Many years later someone had the bright idea "Hey, we have these mammoth bones, let's put up a bunch of dinosaur sculptures and call Granger the town 'Where Dinosaurs Roam'".  Brilliant!  Nevermind that mammoths aren't dinosaurs and any trace of dinosaur fossils would have been wiped out by the previously mentioned flood basalt eruptions that covered the area several million years ago.

There are dozens of dinosaur sculptures in Granger and the local businesses have embraced the theme.  It was not clear to me if the medical clinic was for dinos or people.  The volcano erupting behind T-Rex is not part of the flood basalt eruption but rather houses the town park's bathroom.  Said bathroom, park and T-Rex are right next to Granger's sewage treatment plant.  Let's just say there was a good reason why I was the only person in the park.