I've decided not to comment on the internship until afterward, so I can relive choice moments, and weed out what I thought were the most important aspects. For the time being though, I may as well report some of my more recent escapades.
It all started with a trip to the beach to shmooze with a large group of people from a website that myself and my companions frequent. While at the beach, our group was approached by a beach naturalist, and he gave me a tour of the beaches tide pools. That tour ended with a two for one coupon for the Seattle Aquarium. Thus, the spur of the moment aquarium trip was spawned.
Myself, and two of my friends who volunteer at the wildlife center headed out that Friday. I hadn't been to the aquarium since the recent remodel, so I was pretty excited. Right inside the entrance is essentially a wall of local saltwater fish. It's a gigantic tank that spans from floor to ceiling. There was a diver in it at the time, and a presentation going on. If I had been in the right mindset, I'd have taken a picture to illustrate the scope of the tank, but I was unfortunately fighting off a cold, and somewhat groggy at the time.
Past the tank, you follow a hall lined with large print photographs on the left, and a long, narrow wave simulating tank on the right. This hall leads you into the main room; filled with interactive tide pools, jellyfish, and Cephalopods. I promptly began taking way too many pictures of jellyfish, as I couldn't get to the octopus right away. A large crowd had formed around their tank because they were being fed. 
I may not be crazy about fish like I am birds, but I'm a huge fan of Cephalopods. I find them to be fairly intelligent, and they're just kind of neat. You should read about them. Or better yet, watch this episode of inside natures giants. They're so different from vertebrates, and it's difficult to grasp just how different they are without some sort of visual aid. Inside natures giants is an awesome source for that. I would avoid it if you're squeamish though.
....
I should really obtain a tripod at some point. He's still pretty awesome.
A good portion of the rest of the time spent there consisted of fish. Tons of fish. You may not know this, but aquariums are full of the little buggers. It's almost as if they specialize in it or something...
A good portion of the rest of the time spent there consisted of fish. Tons of fish. You may not know this, but aquariums are full of the little buggers. It's almost as if they specialize in it or something...
The bird lover in me is always excited over the very small portion of the aquarium containing birds. Especially exciting this time around because it gave me the chance to see a couple very high risk birds, including this little guy, a Long-billed Curlew. This little guy's species is very high risk, so getting to see one up close is pretty darn neat.
I happen to rather enjoy the penguins, auks, and puffins as well. We arrived right around feeding time, so we got to see their antics in full swing.
Have I mentioned that I birds?
The visit concluded with the viewing of the marine mammals.
After concluding our trip to the aquarium we explored pike place. We were excited to find ourselves a little shop called the live bug safari. You can find their web page here. For a small fee you can view the collection of live insects and arachnids housed in the back. This guy actually has a pretty impressive little collection, and they're a pleasure to view. I was ecstatic to find that he was also selling little praying mantis nymphs. I was super into bugs before I developed a passion for birds, and even entertained the idea of minoring in entomology at some point.
Needless to say I was really attracted to the idea of them. He noticed me taking a particular interest in them, and insisted on letting my hold one. I pretty much knew at that point that he was destined to be my mantid, and that he would be coming home with me. I ended up naming him Clark. (He's old enough now that I've been able to count the sections on his abdomen, and I'm fairly certain he's male, so my assumption wasn't too misguided.)
This picture was taken just days after he came home. He was tiny here, just under an inch long. Now he's close to two!
Clark went through his first molt under my care recently, and he's doubled in size since I brought him home as a tiny little nymph. I admittedly spoil him a little bit. I catch him most of his food myself, and have worked out that he prefers flying insects, and most specifically great big juicy flies. I've kind of fallen into the role of the overprotective, doting parent. Clark is spoiled rotten for a bug. His growth has definitely reflected this though, and I expect him to get huge before he reaches his life expectancy. He should live until about some time in December. I'll definitely be adopting another mantid after he dies.
Since I got him he's darkened considerably in color. I was told that he's a Chinese Praying Mantis, and if so, he's going to look pretty awesome by his final molt, and he's going to be enormous too. Possibly up to three or four inches long. Google image them if you're curious. Mantids have great depth perception, and even before they grow wings, they're great jumpers. Clark makes very good use of his skills. He jumped onto my face tonight.
More pictures of Clark, just after his third molt, and sitting at about two inches long:
....
I was fortunate enough to get to take a trip to the zoo shortly thereafter, though with a different friend this time around. I love the zoo. I absolutely love it. I was kind of bummed when my camera started giving me trouble right off the bat though. I was having issues with exposure that I definitely should not have, so it wasn't a great day as far as pictures went. It took me a while to sort out the issue, and even then I was still having difficulty with quality. Luckily, I have a few pictures from a previous trip to the same zoo that I can supplement in. As a result I won't be talking about the specific goings on of the trip itself so much as my individual impressions of the animals.
The penguins are arguably one of my favorite animals to photograph at Woodland Park because they get super curious and waddle right up to the glass. They seem to love interacting with people, which is especially great for me and my camera.
That last penguin was unusually interested in my stuffed Toco Toucan.
....
I very rarely have the chance to photograph big cats. Generally during zoo hours they spend all their time sleeping, pacing or tucked away out of sight. I can hardly blame them. There are a lot of people waiting, camera ready, for the perfect photo. I would have had an amazing opportunity to photograph the leopard this time around, if only my camera had been in decent working order. I haven't had any problems since. I have no idea what happened that day. In any case, think of how amazing this shot could have been. Both cats were lounging about right up front, enjoying the attention from the amazed onlookers. It was a pretty awesome sight. They had positioned themselves right up against the glass, and seemed to be making a spectacle of themselves. Occurrences like this lead me to believe that some zoo animals really do enjoy a small amount of exhibitionism.
To compensate for the missed Leopard opportunity, I have some pretty decent shots of the ocelot from a prior zoo outing. This very male Ocelot was pacing his enclosure, and came right up to the glass on several occasions. I found a nice spot to watch him, and he must have been interested in me and my camera because he came right on up. It was almost as if he knew, and he was striking a pose. 
....
There are tons of neat Reptiles and Amphibians at the Zoo as well. I'm especially fond of the Poison Dart frogs, and I took several pictures of them through foggy glass during both trips. There's just something about those little froggy faces that I love. There was a point in time where I remember I had an aquatic frog for a pet. I miss keeping frogs. It's something I'd like to try again at some point 
I'm rather fond of most reptiles as well, though I'm not quite avid enough to start in to Herpetology. I'll stick with one species for now I think. There were several snakes at the zoo that caught my eye. There is on green Boa in particular who is always curled up the same way, hanging over a branch.
....
And then, of course, there are the obligatory birds photos. What is a bird blog without bird photos, honestly? I kind of feel like the first thing I did, involving birds during my first trip, was piss off the Keel-billed Toucans. Now, from what I've heard, Toucans can be a bit ornery in the first place. I'm still not entirely sure what I did, other then talk at them, that could have set them off. Maybe just paying them direct attention was enough, but suddenly all of the Toucans were about, and screaming their ridiculously long beaks off. In the end I'd come to the conclusion that they were either excited, or really angry. I'm still not sure which.
I took pictures of several other bird species as well, including some very familiar domestics such as the cockatiels, and a very brave Rosella that didn't flit away the second I approached it.
 |
| A Rosella Prrot |
....
I took about a hundred photos of flamingos that didn't turn out because my camera was being wonky, so the overwhelming lack of bird pictures isn't due to neglect of my responsibilities as a bird lover. It was a lovely, sunny day, and my camera still wasn't exposing photos well, even when I switched everything to automatic. I was convinced I'd either broken it, or it had been possessed by some sort or ingenious camera demon.
One neat thing I did get to do during this last trip was feed an elephant. I had fed a Giraffe before on a trip several years ago, and I had enjoyed that. I rather like giraffes though. While I don't dislike elephants, I'm not thrilled with them either. I think they have neat feet. Seriously, look into the physiology behind how their feet work. It's impressive. Other then that, I'm fairly indifferent. Feeding them was a lot of fun though, even if the process is brief.
