Zoo Pictures

As I promised yesterday, Lee and I went to a zoo today. First we spent the night last night in a blissfully dark and quiet Home2 Suite in Waco. The hotel was a little odd in that their breakfast oatmeal was in reality gravy for biscuits. I’m sure glad I didn’t spoon it out and sprinkle brown sugar on it!

Still, I enjoyed a morning walk in the working class neighborhood, where I managed to hear some birds and met some dogs that didn’t particularly want me there. But, hey, I found some weeds to photograph, too. That let Lee have his morning alone time!

We eventually went to the Cameron Park Zoo, which is in a beautiful riverside location near downtown. It’s worth a visit. I’m sort of glad we didn’t go when we’d originally planned, because now we were able to see the new exhibit of African penguins. They were cute, though many were shy.

I had two exhibits I really liked. One was a lot of fish native to Texas, including paddlefish, gars, and extra cute rays. There was too much glare and too many kids running around to get photos. Those big fish were mighty majestic, though.

The other exhibit I enjoyed was the Texas shore birds. It was great to get close-up views of the birds I usually see at a distance. They’d just been fed, so many were eating fish. A couple others were carrying around sticks. Perhaps they were building nests. Forgive all the Roseate spoonbill pictures. They were so pretty.

There were many other birds to see. I was surprised how many I knew from watching nature shows. Some were spectacular, like the bustard. All were fun to watch.

Of course, there were other animals at this zoo. It’s a fairly good sized one. Here are a few that I enjoyed.

I also enjoyed the people, especially kids. We watched one boy, around 3, dragging his grandmother from exhibit to exhibit saying he wanted to see more animals. He was thrilled at each one and knew what they all were without being told. I just wanted to hug him.

There was also a little girl who bravely fed the giraffe, to her parents’ surprise. The best part was on her way out, she grabbed some of the romaine lettuce for herself. If it’s good enough for the giraffe…

One thing I liked about the design of the Cameron Park Zoo was that it was quite shady, either additional shade canopies where needed. And it seemed like each area had an indoor air conditioned exhibit to cool down in. That was good planning. And wow, it was clean. It didn’t smell like poop, which many zoos do.

If you live around Waco or visit, be sure to go visit this zoo and maybe hit the mammoth dig site, too.