Autumn at the Zoo

Hannah turned seven on Tuesday, and, as we often do on our kids' birthdays, Josh took the day off, and we took a surprise trip to the zoo. I love visiting the zoo in the fall. First of all, on a weekday, students are in school, and, especially in the afternoons when any school groups have left, we have the zoo nearly to ourselves. The weather was beautiful and sunny, neither too warm nor too cool, and the fall leaves added a splash of lovely color to our day.

On such wonderful, warm autumn days, many of the animals move around more, because they are not uncomfortably hot or cold, and the shier animals often come out instead of hiding from the crowds.

This autumn afternoon did not disappoint us! When we reached the flamingo exhibit, we could hear them squawking loudly at each other. Two of the flamingos in the very back had their feathers all ruffled up as they made their raucous noises.

The penguins enjoyed the lovely weather as well.

Birds in the African aviary seemed less afraid to show themselves as we stood quietly in their exhibit. This bird perched quite close to me for a little while.

And, the East African Crowned Cranes strutted around next to the walkway.

The big African cats, more comfortable in warmer weather, appreciated the chance to lounge in the warm fall sunshine.


As we walked through the Australian section of the zoo, we heard nearly deafening screams and wails coming from the gibbon cage nearby. We hurried over to that area and saw that the zookeepers had confined one gibbon in the caged portion of the exhibit while allowing the rest of the group to roam outdoors. Apparently, these apes did not like being separated and loudly expressed their displeasure to the entire zoo! They whooped and wailed and shrieked back and forth to each other, calling to each other in a clamorous frenzy.

As we watched, we observed the caged gibbon puffing out his throat like a frog before he howled to the others. After a while, we moved on, partly because their loud noises actually hurt the kids' ears. I told them they often sound like that on their rowdier days. They did not seem to appreciate the comparison...

Heading to the orangutan exhibit, we noticed both auburn apes settling down for a nap. The male climbed to the lower platform with an armful of dried grass.

The female rested herself against the glass with a dreamy expression on her face.

She even looked right at me for a photo!

We wrapped up our visit by heading to Hannah's favorite place - the manatee exhibit. Of course, all three kids had to pose on the sculpture for a picture.

Hannah always loves seeing the sting rays.

This one appeared to like seeing people as well. It swam over to the glass and hovered near Hannah as she watched him. It almost looked like it was smiling, and we could clearly see its many teeth.

Because it was Hannah's birthday, Josh took her to the gift shop and allowed her to pick a small present for herself. She chose a tiny stuffed penguin, just like the baby emperor penguins in the movie March of the Penguins. She named him Fluffers and wrote about him in her journal yesterday. I must say that I am impressed at how accurate her drawing has become, at least when she tries to draw exactly what she sees. Her penguin drawing is pretty impressive, I think, though I may be a bit biased, of course!

The other drawing is a giant tortoise, drawn from memory, so not quite as accurate. Still, I am beginning to think that Hannah may very well become an author and illustrator someday, just as she wrote to Mo Willems.

Overall, we enjoyed our autumn trip to the zoo on Tuesday. The animals entertained us, we learned quite a bit, and we also had a lot of fun. Hopefully, we will return to the zoo very soon, perhaps for another fall fun day!