London: Zoo

London Zoo

26 December 2015

We took a bus to Regent's Park. On our way to the London Zoo entrance, we saw a man skipping rope in an overgrown field between two streets.  About a dozen fastboy cyclists passed us in groups of three or four. They were on carbon, all of them.

Many of the pictures I took at the zoo I discarded. Below are the ones that were worth keeping.

A Ruppell's gryphon vulture:

Eastern black-and-white colobus monkeys are fun to watch. They jump and bounce and swing and chase:

The Sumatran tiger was napping after lunch:

Two others were sacked out on a ledge far from view, one's foot around the other's face in a housecat pose:

The puss under foot had enough, eventually, and got up to stre-e-e-e-e-e-tch.

Anyone who owns a cat knows that this is an interim stretch before turning around to settle down again. I waited with the zoom lens.

Next, ibises:

There was a stiff wind today. The ibises faced into it. Don't want to ruffle those feathers.

Black-headed squirrel monkeys romped in their enclosure, which people walked through. The monkeys completely ignored us. They came within a few feet of people. I watched one's antics on a fence:

Here'e an obligatory sky picture, to prove that the sun does almost shine in winter here:

Leaf-cutter ants in the insect exhibit traveled in the open between enclosed boxes.

The insect building also housed an aquarium:

This snake is bright green in real life. I guess the ambient light confused my camera. Anyway, I like the way he's folded himself over the branch:

Then there was the spider section, which we walked into unprotected. These spiders were huge by suburban New Jersey standards (easily four or five inches from one end to the other). None seemed the least bit interested in dropping onto anyone's head.

Pelicans, pinkish:

An explanatory plaque told us that the birds turn pink in the spring for mating season. It's December. Why are they pink? Maybe they're trying to fit in with the flamingos in the background.

These birds are goofy. They're fun to watch.

As with the spider enclosure, the butterflies hung out on the ceiling, surrounded by diffuse white light. I couldn't capture their colors.

For the third time this trip, I've been faked out. The moth on the right is real.

Humboldt penguins and a great blue heron:

They look a lot more like birds when they're in the water.

While I was working on getting still pictures, Jack was taking video after video, trying to capture the perfect twerk.

Eventually, he did:

Water ballet:

We walked out of the zoo over Regent's Canal:

After lunch and a bus ride, we were back in the mobs of Boxing Day Oxford Street. We stuck our heads into a tea shop. I like the crazy patterns, but I can't carry anything big back home with me:

The street decorations are still lit:

I'm not sure what we'll do tomorrow during the day. In the evening we're meeting a friend from college. We have tickets for 8:00 p.m. at Kew Gardens to see the lights. Think Longwood Gardens in London. I'm sure I'll take lots of bad pictures.