Amaya's Day at the Zoo

Today was another end of summer vacation outing

inspired by the ADAD prompt for the day; selfie.

Amaya went to Florida with me at the beginning of the summer.

Flamingos are a commonly recognized bird in Florida,

and Amaya has now taken over the care of the smaller

flamingos that live with us.

The mid-morning sun created a beautiful reflection

in the flamingo pond.

One notable feature at the zoo is the waterfall

and mountain like structure by the seal and sea lion exhibit.

Amaya asked to be photographed with the small side

waterfall behind her.

We moved on to one of my favorite animals:

the polar bears!

Two of them were out and resting on the structure.

I had an interesting insight about Amaya.
When photographing her,

it can be really difficult to focus on her and still

see larger objects in a distance behind her.

I moved her to a sign about the polar bears.

These polar bears are twin brothers.

The images on the sign were closer to Amaya than the real bears,

so I tried the topic "selfie".  It is an interesting perspective,

but not what I was looking for in today's photo.

Amaya wanted to climb on a rock in the viewing area.

That only lasted a few moments as a spider walked up

toward Amaya. It was a beautiful spider, but not one that Amaya

wanted beside her!

We left the polar bears and the spider

and went to visit the "cat walk" where

the large cats are housed.

The bobcat reminded me of a house cat!

This snow leopard cub is one of many new zoo babies.

The mountain lions were a powerful presence!

I would not want to meet one on a hike!

As we walked past the cafeteria, we saw a peacock.

I started to notice new changes at the Rio Grande Zoo.

This sign and the change of names on the food establishment

are new. I personally don't like how bright it is compared

to the adobe colored stucco walls. 

The last sign was much more tasteful.

We made our past the building to the seal and sea lion area.

The area for animals from Australia/Tasmania

have both a few Tasmanian devils and Tasmanian wombats.

Further along, the chimpanzee exhibit had many resting

chimpanzees, but the smallest one was so cute!

Amaya complained that I wasn't taking enough photos of her.

So, I very carefully stood her on a ledge by a waterfall feature.

 The group of rhinos stood peacefully in their enclosure.

The zebras, like many animals, were enjoying their lunch.

Unfortunately, the new baby giraffe was not out,

but the male giraffe was wandering around.

Jazmine was out in the elephant exhibit.She was born October 2, 2013.

Amphibians are near the elephants.
The frog exhibit can be a very colorful place!

There is a new exhibit for alligators.
I counted at least 7 or 8 in this enclosure.

I have not visited the reptiles recently,

but we decided to walk through their exhibit hall today.

Amaya was interested in the fossils.

We continued visiting other areas of the zoo.
We stopped on a bench in the Raptor Roost area.

 It was getting warmer and we had been at the zoo

for more than 2 1/2 hours. I realized that I had done

everything I wanted to do at the zoo, and it was time to go home.

Amaya had enjoyed her own adventure out,

and I enjoyed learning more about where and how

to get good photos of her.

ADAD Amaya