• Maruki_Hurakami
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 months ago

    I’m looking forward to seeing your pics. Hopefully it works out soon. Where did you go? Sorry if I missed you saying before.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      I don’t think I got into specifics, but we went to Pittsburgh. We were originally supposed to go to Michigan, but that got cancelled. I already scheduled the owl encounter for the way home, so we just extended our trip there.

      The National Aviary had Cedar, who was not actually on exhibit, and there was a pair of Eurasian Eagle Owls, one Barred Owl, and I ran into one Burrowing Owl. I was excited for that, since it was my third attempt to see one, but my first success. The Burrow Owl was most NOT excited to see me, so that was a little disappointing, but then I spotted the Nicobar Pigeon I mentioned in my post the other week about Andaman and Nicobar, so that was fun. There was also some Owl-Faced Something songbird I got pics of, and 2 adult and 2 juvi Condors, who were huge, and also a pair of gigantic Sea Eagles.

      The Carnegie Institute of Natural History had amazing dinosaur displays I enjoyed as much as the Smithsonian, and they had about a dozen owl specimens of various quality that were nice to give a size comparison between species, and a very beautiful diarama of a GHO vs skunk.

      There were a few owl art things I saw, especially in The Zenith restaurant’s owl themed bathroom.

      The Pittsburgh Zoo did not have any owls. I was also very sad that they have Pygmy Hippos, but they were not on display. 😞 Hippos are another fav of mine and that would have been a great surprise. They did have a momma gorilla with a tiny baby and the big cats were all very active and playful, which were all fun to watch. They’re normally always napping like regular cats. We also met a retired zookeeper of 42 years who still volunteers there and he gave us a ton of info on the Red Pandas and Komodo Dragons.

      I’m sure there’s other stuff owl related in forgetting, plus some other fun stops too, like the Fallingwater house, which is absolutely amazing.