My first spoony babies!

"Listen Mom, I have to tell you something."

"I can't get comfortable."

"Who's your favorite, Mom?"

"Look at my pink wings!"

"Three's a crowd."

"Don't poop on us Mom."

I stopped by Lowry Park zoo for a quick visit to check on the spoonbill nest. What a nice surprise to find 3 babies on the nest. They were so cute! I spent about an hour taking pictures. If I had my camera pointed at the nest, people would stop and notice the nest above the alligator pond. If I wasn't taking pictures, most walked by without even noticing the nest. People where noticing the big alligators laying below. They were mesmerized by how big the alligators were. The babies were my first spoonbill babies. They were light pink and fuzzy. I hope they don't outgrow that nest too fast. I'm going to try and stop by each weekend to keep track of their progress.

Check out more birds at

More wild birds at the zoo

Roseate spoonbill scratching.

Spoonbill sitting on the nest.

She's crying "It's your turn to sit on these hard sticks."

Carolina wren. I don't see these too often here.

Great egret flying by.

Just a few more pictures from my last recent trip to Lowry Park zoo.  I'm really keeping my fingers crossed on seeing spoonbill babies. I'm going to stop by there every weekend to check on them. It's only 10-12 minutes away and I have a membership so I may just stop in and run back to the rookery to see if any babies are present. Although, I sometimes get distracted by other cute animals.

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Baby birds at the zoo

Baby tricolored heron. I took this right into the sun. I do like the way it lights up his white fuzz.

Adult blue heron. Standing on the alligator boardwalk. Taking a break from the screaming babies.

Baby blue heron profile.

Screaming baby blue herons.

Great egret feeding it's baby. This family was high up in the trees.

Baby night heron staring at me.

The Lowry Park zoo in Tampa has a great little bird rookery at the alligator exhibit. It's not as big as the one at Gatorland in Orlando, but hey, it's 12 minutes from my house. As you walk along the boardwalk you can hear the babies crying. It's mostly blue herons and great egrets but there are a few night herons and tricolored herons there as well. There is one spoonbill couple and I'm hoping they have babies soon. I'm going to check back again for that one.

Random stuff at the zoo

Grasshoppers are popping up everywhere.

Dragonfly at the zoo.

Baby penguin trying to get out his playpen.

The new baby penguin is so cute. The keeper kept the baby close to her. It's still a little young to be out running around with the grown ups but soon it will be out officially on exhibit.

One of the resident manatees. You can see the boat marks across it's back.

Lots of flowers everywhere now.

Things I found at the zoo

Beautiful hibiscus at the zoo. My dad used to grow award winning hibiscus in his backyard here in Florida. Sadly, when we sold my parents house I didn't take any of the bushes with me. I was living in a condo in Atlanta at the time.

The african penguins are so cute. I always want to jump in the pool with them.

Cool caterpillar.

A roseate spoonbill couple are nesting over the alligator exhibit. I have to keep checking back to see if they have babies. I've never seen spoonbill babies before.

A sad manatee with a happy ending.

Injured manatee being attended by the vet at the zoo.

She's cleaning his flipper that was tangled in a crap trap.

Sad face.

The manatee gets a back rub.

On a recent trip to the Lowry Park zoo I happened to stop by the manatee exhibit just in time. They had raised the platform on one of the hospital tanks and was cleaning an injured manatee's flipper. Tangalee (there's so many injured manatees that I'm sure they get tired of coming up with names for them) had been at the zoo manatee hospital for a couple of weeks. She was found with a crab trap rope tangled around her flipper. It had cut into the flipper and done some damage but thankfully she didn't have to lose the flipper. She will be released in about 2 months. I see those crab trap buoys floating all over Tampa bay but I never thought that the manatees could get tangled in those. It happens quite often. If you stop by the zoo in the next few months, stop by the manatee hospital. You can see Tangalee's name on the board which shows you which tank he's in.

Birds at Lowry Park Zoo

Found this little sparrow on a railing.

Wild great egrets are starting to nest over the alligator exhibit at the zoo.

Permanently injured eagles live at the zoo. This is the first time I've seen them this close together.

Mates.

Love was in the air at the lorikeet exhibit. They were all busy preening each other.

Pink flamingo in the African aviary.

There's always something interesting to find at the Lowry Park Zoo. When my sister came to visit recently from South Dakota we spent an afternoon at the zoo. She was excited to be outside in the warm weather. It felt like spring. I was anxious to see if any of the blue herons were nesting over the alligator exhibit. There was no sign of them there but it's still a month or two early for them. There are a handful of great egrets nesting high up in the trees already. Last year blue herons filled the small palm trees along the exhibit with nests and by May there were baby blues everywhere. I'll check back in another month.

Zoo animals

Above are some pictures of a recent trip to the Lowry Park Zoo. I used to say I would never go there in the summer but yet I still keep going even when it's 95 degrees outside. It's a great place to walk around and get some exercise. They have a new pair of koala bears. I stopped there first and they were sleeping, then on my way out of the park I stopped by again and they were awake. The picture of the ducks (hooded mergansers, female on the left and male on the right) was taken through the manatee window which was all scratched up but thought it had a certain fogginess about it. I think Tamani, the elephant on the right, is 5 years old now but he still isn't as big as the older elephants. And the baby rhino was looking so cute with that little piece of hay hanging out of his mouth.

Wild things at the zoo

I'm probably one of the only people that goes to the zoo and looks for non-zoo animals. There's always a lot of wildlife hanging around zoos. It's a good place to steal a handout. I almost always find the above great blue heron hanging out at the pond at the cheetah exhibit. He's eating the little fish that live in that pond. Usually, I find tons of wild water birds but a recent visit only provided a few. The above yellow flowers where covered in little critters and the zoo was still full of grasshoppers eating their way through the plants.

Baby Blue heron update

All of the above birds are blue herons. I stopped by the Lowry Park Zoo recently to see how big the baby blue herons were getting. The small palm trees in the alligator exhibit there are full of blue heron nests. The babies look almost like adults now except they are white until their first full molt. They were so busy trying to walk on the branches and flapping their wings. They have so much personality. A few of them were old enough to have their beaks just starting to turn dark. None had started getting blue feather spots yet. I'll check back in another month or so to see if I can get pictures of them with blue and white spots.