Nap Time at the National Zoo

This picture is real.

7 June 2015

Jack and I went to the National Zoo today.  We arrived mid-day, when many of the animals were asleep. It's easy to photograph an animal that's not moving around.

Scarlet ibis:

Cheetah (continuing my now weekly series of big cats facing away from the camera):

Buffalo, the closest we got to seeing moose:

Duckling atop an allagator sculpture:

Whooping crane!

Tiger, in a perfect snooze-cat pose:

A sacked-out lion:

Zonked panda:

Not everyone was asleep.

A gazelle languidly watched us watching him:

A pair of vultures ignored everyone:

Water lily (not an animal):

Not a moose:

 An itchy panda:

 Hornbills:

 Dig the outsized head on this Stanley crane:

Storks:

This whooping crane belongs in the Ministry of Silly Walks.

A wild flock of black-crowned night herons takes up residence at the zoo every year:

More scarlet ibises.  Ibes?  Ibi?

A roseate spoonbill and a scarlet ibis:

We were in the pink bird section.

Live lawn ornaments:

I tried and tried and tried to get a good picture of this double-wattled cassowary, but he was moving around too quickly for my zoom lens to track:

 The lion eventually woke from his nap:

As did the tiger, who paced with his mouth open.  I remember reading that caged animals pace when they're not happy.

After we finished at the zoo, we went to the Iternational Spy Museum (Jack H had suggested it).  There's a hefty admission fee, and we could have done without the hoaky premise that each visitor is on a mission and must adopt an identity (we blew that off).  At times it was tough to tell if the tiny cameras and umbrella guns were real or James Bond movie props. There was plenty of both.

In the evening, we met a former student of Jack's who is also spending a couple of weeks at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Now Jack has a playmate during the week, and I've promised to return next weekend.