More Adventures with the Alligators!

This week I'm including more pictures from the Alligator Adventure Park---yep, their main attraction-alligators..here are some of my favourite shots!

1st -juvenile alligator watching the audience at the reptile show
2nd- a little bigger alligator keeping a close eye on the visitors (I focused on his eyes only)
3rd-a whole bunch of alligators laying in the sun...looks like the back patio at our resort!
4th-a small alligator swimming VERY slowly
5th-another small alligator soaking up the rays
6th-a scenic view of the first section of the park
7th-another alligator soaking up some sun
8th- a palm tree that I wanted to shoot, so I included the alligator too

Alligator Adventure

Happy Easter Everyone! I hope you all have a great weekend with family and friends! We had our first family get together yesterday with Kevin's family! The food was very good and lots of laughs too! We have our second one today with my family! Looking forward to it too!

Well, today for your viewing pleasure are photos from the Alligator Adventure in Myrtle Beach...I'm slowly going through the bazillion shots I took--I got through the first couple of days...The next few weeks will be dedicated to photos from the Alligator Adventure, where I took about 800 shots..mind you I only really like about 100 of those!

These shots were taken when we first got there..they have turtles in a little pond at the entrance, so I included a couple of the turtles who were sunning themselves.

After that, are six shots of the Juvenile American Alligators, all found in the same enclosure--- the keeper said they grow about 1 foot per year, so these guys are all approx 3-4 years old.

South of the Border...

On our way to Myrtle Beach, we stopped for a break/lunch at a place called South of the Border, which just happens to be south of the NC/SC border! It is a rest stop/roadside attraction that includes restaurants, rides, gift shops and this Reptile Lagoon, that we visited. It was pretty cool and I shot a few snakes as well as the alligators below (I'm calling them all alligators, but I'm not certain that they are all considered alligators). Anyway, for all my readers who are not too fond of snakes, I'll warn you now, that I'll be posting them sometime soon, so you can be prepared! :-)

The 2nd and 3rd photo includes alligators that were just fed...you might be able to see some chicken in their mouth! There was a fellow who was hand-feeding them, believe it or not! Mind you, these guys are fairly small as well.

I really liked the eye intensity of the last three!

Anyway, that's all for today. Sorry I'm late posting again--my daughter was using my laptop for HOMEWORK of all things yesterday, so I was relegated to using my netbook, which doesn't have Photoshop on it!

Enjoy and have a GREAT week!

Big Tortoises

Sorry for the delay in posting...I thought I'd have time to post when we were in MB, but I barely had time to backup my photos each night before dropping into bed! We had to come back home for a rest! Really! We got home late last Saturday night, but with the loads of laundry, getting groceries, and picking up our animals from the pet-sitters, we were busy all weekend! Then I felt sick all week too--I got Kevin/Brooke's cold...

Anyway, today's photos were taken at the Alligator Adventure, where, yep, you guessed it--lots of alligators live there! Near the end of our walk, we saw these big guys. They started heading over to the fence to check us out, so we made sure to pet them, feel their big, hard shells and scratch their necks!

The first two photos below show the smaller one and the last 4 are of the bigger one! I've included photos of the family so you can see how big these guys really are.

They were pretty friendly too!

The Tree Kangaroo

Here's a cute little guy we saw at the Toronto Zoo on Family Day a couple weeks ago. Officially, he's called a Matschie's tree kangaroo. I'm highlighting him this time because I haven't got good shots of him..he's usually snoozing when I'm there! This time, we timed it right and his keeper was just showing up with some veggies/fruit for him, so he was pretty alert!

Anyway, we are off to Myrtle Beach again for the March Break..leaving on Friday, so not sure when I can post again.  I will try to do so from MB..while the kids are in the pool perhaps!

Have a great week!

The Woodpecker!

Hello Everyone!

This week I'm doing an early and quick post! I'm tuckered out today after attending a Hedley concert last night..totally worth it though! Tomorrow I have my 2 neices coming to stay over (ages 3 and 6mos), so plan to clean the house and prepare for them! On Sunday I have a scrapbook party to attend and then getting ready to head to Oneida to do some training on Mon-Tues!

Wow, so not looking forward to being so busy...oh well, maybe I can sleep in tomorrow!

We did get to the zoo as hoped on Monday (Family Day)..Of course every family in Toronto also decided to do the same thing! Anyway, I did not get any pictures of the baby polar bear..And I must make a correction to my last post, he was born in October of last year, not the previous December as I had mentioned. Anyway, I did get some different pics than I usually do, but have not had time to go through them all yet.

So this week, I'm including some photos of the woodpecker that we saw in Lemoine's Point. He landed right on Kevin's hand. We were surprised that he took bread as they usually eat insects! I believe this one is called the Downy Woodpecker.

Enjoy...more pics next week!

The Nuthatch

Here are some more shots from our visit to Lemoine's Point a few weeks ago...This week I'm sharing my shots of the Nuthatch. A cute little fellow who is funny to watch come down the side of a tree...He looks like he's bent in half at times...Maybe it's to keep an eye out for predators! Anyway, he's a very cute bird and has a very distinctive chirp as well. You can hear them coming!

Here's a bit about the nuthatch, again from Wikipedia (one of my favourite sites to visit):

The nuthatches are a genus, Sitta, of small passerine birds belonging to the family Sittidae. Characterised by large heads, short tails, and powerful bills and feet, nuthatches advertise their territory using loud, simple songs. Most species exhibit grey or bluish upperparts and a black eye stripe.
Most nuthatches breed in the temperate or montane woodlands of the Northern Hemisphere, although two species have adapted to rocky habitats in the warmer and drier regions of Eurasia. However, the greatest diversity is in Southern Asia, and similarities between the species have made it difficult to identify distinct species. All members of this genus nest in holes or crevices. Most species are non-migratory and live in their habitat year-round, although the North American Red-breasted Nuthatch migrates to warmer regions during the winter. A few nuthatch species have restricted ranges and face threats from deforestation.
Nuthatches are omnivorous, eating mostly insects, nuts and seeds. They forage for insects hidden in or under bark by climbing along tree trunks and branches, sometimes upside-down. They forage within their territories when breeding, but may join mixed feeding flocks at other times. Their habit of wedging a large food item in a crevice and then hacking at it with their strong bills gives this group its English name.

We are off to the Zoo tomorrow...Hopefully I'll get some shots of the baby polar bear (born Dec 2010). He just went on display the end of January, so I'm looking forward to seeing him!

Happy Family Day!