A trip to the zoo, part 2

Before we begin, I wanted to correct something Jeanie said in her comment yesterday.  I don't want to mislead anyone since Jeanie hoped I would see them again before they left.  Jeanie, and all my other readers, friends, and followers, these three stayed at my home for five days.  They flew to Wichita by themselves with their aunt's permission.  As much as those children have been through already in their lives, I can see why their aunt was so receptive to their visiting me.

In case you missed part 1, you can see it here.  Continuing our walk around the exhibit,

we stopped for a few minutes to admire the lovely flowers and greenery planted around a pond that was next to the wildlife exhibit.

I liked how natural everything looked, including the walkway around the pond.

Back to the exhibits, we never saw the beaver, but we had a chance to speak with the volunteer who was taking care of the cages that day.  You can see him in the background.

Although we hunted high and low, the beaver eluded us.

Then it was off to the next cage where we were all entertained by this bird.

The bobcat is the other animal we never saw that day.  I actually feel sorry for him because he has no mate to share his time with.  For some reason, I'm a bit like Noah and want the animals to be paired two by two.

We were now coming round to the final two sections.  Along with that was the heat and crowds that were beginning to form.  We were no longer alone at this exhibit.

There were certainly lots of fowl in this exhibit.

The youngsters laughed as I tried to get the turtle in focus.  You have NO idea how many photos I took trying to get that fence out of view.

Finally a decent shot, and it was also crowded with several fowl in the photo.  I'm not sure what is worse: photographing images behind glass or through screen fencing.

This bird put on quite a show for us, though.

By this time, I had walked around the corner (this cage could be viewed from two sides) and gotten a different shot of the turtle.

I even watched as water fowl paddled by.

We tried to identify the various fowl.

The youngsters were busy counting off the various fowl, animals, and amphibians they found.

The oldest had a small notebook in a backpack, and wrote the names as they found each of the creatures.  One of the youngsters found all the animals online:
▪ One beaver, known as Chapa
▪ One bobcat, known as Bobby
▪ One skunk, known as Scenthia
▪ One possum, known as Virgil
▪ Two Swainson’s hawks
▪ One red-tailed hawk
▪ One turkey vulture
▪ One red-shouldered hawk
▪ Two great horned owls
▪ Two screech owls
▪ One yellow-crowned night heron
▪ One black-crowned night heron
▪ One American kestrel
▪ Two wood ducks
▪ One blue-winged teal
▪ One Franklin’s gull
▪ Six ornate box turtles, the state reptile
▪ Eight Eastern box turtles
▪ One common snapping turtle
▪ One river cooter turtle
▪ One false map turtle
▪ One painted turtle
▪ Three slider turtles
▪ Eight bobwhite quail
I was pleased to see how many of the animals they had actually found before they printed out the list the next day.

When we got back to the beginning,

image from internet

the youngsters found a gazebo which they wanted to check out.   That was actually an interactive water fountain.

I couldn't believe no one was there and the fountain wasn't turned on for the children to run through the water that spurts out of the concrete pavement.

It was getting hot and I was ready for some air conditioning, but children are far more resilient when it comes to heat.

Off we went to the gazebo,

where they sat and ate energy bars they had stuffed in their backpacks that morning.  The rest of the photos at the gazebo had the youngsters in them, so they are for the family's eyes only.

taken from internet

One final area we visited was the solar calendar in the same park.

I couldn't use any of the photos I had taken because at least one of the youngsters was in every photo.  I had to rely on those I found on the internet to share with you.

The metal solar eye (explained below)

All solar calender photos taken from the internet

It was a great teaching moment as we discussed the solar calender, how the tiled stones, made of limestone, resembled Stonehenge, and how the solar calendar was situated in such a way as to show sunrise, sunset, and noon on the first day of each season/Equinox.  The tiles apparently depict constellations and astrological signs, along with the metal eye that aligns and illuminates a colored glass stone embedded in the ground that glows for a few minutes on the first day of every Equinox.   We also found a nearby detailed description of how the calendar works.

Thank you for joining me today (and yesterday, of course) as we discovered this newly renovated Kansas Wildlife Exhibit and park that is no more than two miles from my home.  And the youngsters had a great time, too!