Sunday, November 6, 2011

Recap: The Big Day

My 41st birthday was fabulous.


It was a perfect fall day.  Temperature around 50 degrees, bright blue sky and sunshine.

I love fall.

It went exactly as I had planned.  I slept in til almost noon then had my favorite breakfast, eggs benedict.  Then I was off to the zoo!


With the temperature weather, just about everybody was out and about.  Including at my very favorite exhibit at the Oregon Zoo, the otter!


I spent a good thirty minutes with this little guy.  He was taking advantage of the sun to give himself a bath.  He was scrubbing with his little paws and at the same time his little feet flippers were scrubbing away too. 


Then he would wriggle around on his back for a while...


Then he would do flips, side to side and back to front.  But don't take my word for it, see for yourself:


You'll notice that front to back flips apparently afford the best opportunity to clean the southerly regions.  (Let me know if the video link doesn't work, this is my first time using YouTube.)


This guy is also known as the horny otter. 


The polar bears were enjoying the sun. 


As were the tigers.


It's always great when the animals are all out.


This was the first time I've ever seen this guy awake.


I can't decide if I like this shot or not.  I was trying to get the giraffe's reflection in the pond but he's so damn tall it was tough to get it all until he obligingly bent down. 


Now this shot I do like.  This year's Christmas card!


I almost never take pictures of people that I don't know but the circumstances cracked me up.  I was trying to get some pics of the goats and then this little girl comes running up to this goat yelling "Rawrrrr!" with her arms up.  Her mom immediately chastised her (I was laughing) so the kid gets down to the goat and I took the shot.  What makes the picture for me is knowing immediately what came before it.


The hippos were very obliging and I immediately felt the urge to diet.


I saw this little guy on my way out.  It's a beaver, in case you can't tell.


The reason it may be hard to tell is because he has smashed his little nose and teeth right up against the glass of his tank as he's swimming for all he's worth.  It was the funniest site.  He'd do that for several minutes then he'd do a flip then smash back up against the glass and start swimming all over again.  Not sure where he was trying to go but he was giving it all he had.

Now for the best part of the day.

My second favorite exhibit at the zoo is the lorikeets.  That's a lorikeet I have for my profile picture here on Blogger.  Here's a better look from an earlier visit:


The lorikeets live in an aviary that is open to people, meaning you go in and they're flying around.  You can also buy a cup or two of nectar and feed the lorikeets.  Normally you get two or three landing on you for the nectar.  There weren't that many people in the exhibit and the guy who gave me the nectar said they were unusually hungry that day. He was not kidding. 

On my birthday, I had at least twelve on me.  At the same time.

It was fun at first and then it started to get a bit like a Hitchcock movie.  Particularly when one landed on my shoulder and took a liking to the sapphire stud earring I was wearing.  He decided he wanted it for himself and starts tugging at it.  With his beak.  Meanwhile I'm holding two little paper cups of nectar, one in each hand, with two to three birds sitting on each hand plus they're sitting on my forearms, shoulder, on top of my head, and on my chest.  So I head over to the keeper inside the exhibit for some assistance before I lose part of my ear. 

We get most of them off but one lorikeet -- dubbed Mr. Orange, I learned later -- got so excited by everything that he started making his way from my elbow up to my hand.  With his beak.  That rapidly began to resemble a pair of pliers pinching my bare skin.  Luckily I was still with the keeper and she noticed my "ow.... Ow.   OW!" and pulled up my sleeve and got him off me. 


This is post-massacre.  As you can see, I brought my boobs with me to the zoo.  They split their own admission ticket.

Once I was all out of nectar and no longer the subject of birdie attentions, I noticed that my arm hurt quite a bit.  I went back over to the keeper where we discovered that Mr. Orange -- the keeper told me "he's a little shit" -- had actually broken the skin in three spots.  So off we went to get the first aid kit.  One of the bites bubbled up quite nicely from the hydrogen peroxide.  Eeek.  This isn't the greatest picture, but here's the damage:


I had three spots where the skin was broken -- look for the red spots, the brown spots are moles -- two really good ones, and they all bruised up to the size of silver dollars.  They've all scarred and the one closest to my wrist is still sensitive because he got the tendon and nerves right along the radius.  It twinges every time I use the mouse. 

I have to keep telling my mom that no, I'm not suing the zoo.  Despite the wounds, I had a blast.

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl

1 comment:

  1. I'd like to think it was the bulky shirt I was wearing, but it's really the fat -- my boobs were almost pointing in different directions, didja notice? Bleah.

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