2nd Day of the Photography class at the Desert Meseum

The class was really good and I'm so glad I did it!  I learned a lot of tips to use when shooting pictures of animals in captivity besides learning a lot of  information about some of the animals that I did not know. We spent 4 hours walking around the Desert Museum this morning starting at 7:30 when it was about 35 degrees - at least it was sunny and no wind. By the time we got done it was around 50 degrees. I took 289 pictures today so have a lot of editing to do.

This is the back of a Roadrunner.  Edie, her name,  moves her wings over to the side, so the sun can warm her back. Usually her wings cover her back and the sun heat can't get through the wings. We saw two different Roadrunners doing this today. 

Edie: "Who are you?"

This is the carrier used to move hummingbirds from here to another facility or when they bring them here. One bird is in each compartment with their feeder and a couple of lights for warmth. They are shipped on airlines as cargo. They raise a lot of their hummingbirds here but have to worry about inbreeding so trade with other zoos, etc. Every hummingbird in the enclosure, and there are a lot of the, are tracked and periodically caught so they can be checked and weighed. Not an easy task!

A mommy Big Horn Sheep (left) and her baby (right) that was born last April. 

Here is daddy. His horns weigh about 30 lbs total. He has a big muscle on the back of his head, at the base of the skull so he can carry the weight of the horns. When you are close enough to them, you can see the muscle. 

I  heard a lot of coyotes howling and yipping during the time we lived in Tucson.  However, I did not know they bark very much like a dog. His partner was on the other side of the enclosure and they were barking at each other. These two were very healthy with a beautiful coat - unlike the ones we usually see around town here. 

Great Horned Owl during the Raptor Flight today. 

The mountain lion is named "Cruz" and he is about 2 years old. A family in San Jose, CA called the police and said there was a mountain lion drinking out of their swimming pool. Wildlife authorities came out and verified that it was indeed a mountain lion and captured him. That was the day that Cruz won the mountain lion lottery. At the time he was about 6 months old, skinny and had a poor coat. The museum here was looking for a mountain lion after their  lion had died so Cruz came here. He had meatballs and cream cheese for breakfast this morning while we were taking pictures of him.