Well folks, last update 'from the field' (or at least, 'from Atlanta airport'). Georgia Aquarium was, as a few people have previously suggested, a good but not too outstanding aquarium with one major exhibit that knocks the pants off almost anywhere else. Ocean Voyager is simply incredible. I can well understand why at least one well-travelled Zoochatter considers it the best single animal exhibit in the world. The Mantas are three birostris (or birostris-type) and one alfredi; they do indeed have Lesser Devil Rays as well. And the Whale Sharks... blimey! Next post will be when back home tomorrow!
I can't wait for a full trip report, sounds like it's been a great time! Glad you've had fun and clocked up a fair few new species along the way.
Back home and spent this afternoon going through the notebook and through photos to put together the wild list (for mammals, herps and birds so far). I had about a dozen or so photos (of varying quality) of birds 'to be identified' and have managed to put a name to most of them - my favourite being the bird-that-was-with-some-Willets-but-wasn't-a-Willet that turned out to be a Stilt Sandpiper once I got an image on a decent screen. A fish/invert list will follow but there's even more ID work to do there! This is cut-and-paste from a spreadsheet and will lose the italics and alignment so sorry about that - it would take forever to put it back! Anything with a * is an introduced/feral species and anything with an 'A' after it was only seen (or confidently ID'd) in Atlanta, not Florida. Mammals Eastern Cottontail Sylvilagus floridanus Marsh Rabbit Sylvilagus palustris Big Cypress Fox Squirrel Sciurus niger avicennia Eastern Grey Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis Eastern Chipmunk Tamias striatus A Northern Raccoon Procyon lotor Florida White-tailed Deer Odocoileus virginianus seminola Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin Tursiops truncatus truncatus Reptiles Yellow-bellied Slider Trachemys scripta scripta Florida Softshell Turtle Apalone ferox Green Anole Anolis carolinensis Brown Anole* Anolis sagrei sagrei Green Iguana* Iguana iguana Northern Curly-tailed Lizard* Leiocephalus carinatus armouri South-eastern Five-lined Skink Eumeces inexpectatus Water Snake (ID tentative - brief view) Nerodia sp. (probably taxispilota) Everglades Racer Coluber constrictor paludicola Southern Black Racer Coluber constrictor priapus American Alligator Alligator mississippiensis Amphibians American Green Tree Frog Hyla cinerea Pine Woods Tree Frog Hyla femoralis Cuban Tree Frog* Osteopilus septentrionalis Birds Wild Turkey Meleagris gallopavo Black-bellied Whistling Duck Dendrocygna autumnalis Egyptian Goose* Alopochen aegypticus Muscovy Duck* Cairina moschata Carolina Wood Duck Aix sponsa Mallard (inc. domestic hybrids) Anas platyrhynchos Mottled Duck Anas fulvigula Blue-winged Teal Anas discors Ruddy Duck Oxyura jamaicensis Pied-billed Grebe Podilymbus podiceps Wood Stork Mycteria americana American White Ibis Eudocimus albus Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus Roseate Spoonbill Platelea ajaja Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax Yellow-crowned Night Heron Nyctanassa violacea Little Green Heron Buteroides virescens Western Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias Great White Egret Ardea alba Tricoloured Heron Egretta tricolor Little Blue Heron Egretta caerulea Snowy Egret Egretta thula Eastern Brown Pelican Pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus Anhinga Anhinga anhinga Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura American Black Vulture Coragyps atratus Western Osprey Pandion haliaetus Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus Snail Kite (ID tentative - brief view) Rostrhamus sociabilis Red-shouldered Hawk Buteo lineatus Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis A American Kestrel Falco sparverius Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus American Coot Fulica americana Sandhill Crane Grus canadensis Limpkin Aramus guarana Black-bellied Plover Pluvialis squatarola Semipalmated Plover Charadrius semipalmata Wilson's Plover Charadrius wilsonia Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularia Willet Catoptrophorus semipalmatus Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres Sanderling Calidris alba Stilt Sandpiper Calidris himantopus Black Skimmer Rynchops niger Laughing Gull Leucophaeus atricilla Greater Black-backed Gull Larus marinus Lesser Black-backed Gull Larus fuscus Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia Royal Tern Thalasseus maximus Sandwich Tern Thalasseus sandvicensis Common Tern Sterna hirundo Feral Pigeon* Columba livia Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura Common Ground Dove Columbina passerina Eurasian Collared Dove* Streptopelia decaocto Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus Ruby-throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubris Belted Kingfisher Ceryle alcyon Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Myiarchus crinitus White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus Loggerhead Shrike Lanius ludovicianus Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata Florida Scrub Jay Aphelocoma coerulescens American Crow Corvus brachyrhynchos Fish Crow Corvus ossifragus Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica Tufted Titmouse Baeolophus bicolor Brown-headed Nuthatch Sitta pusilla Carolina Wren Thryothorus ludovicianus Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher Polioptila caerulea American Robin Turdus migratorius A Grey Catbird Dumetella carolinensis Northern Mockingbird Mimus polyglottos European Starling* Sturnus vulgaris Palm Warbler Dendroica palmarum Black-and-White Warbler Mniotilta varia American Redstart Setophaga ruticilla Northern Parula Parula americana Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapilla Worm-eating Warbler Helmitheros vermivora Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis Song Sparrow Melospiza melodia A Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus Common Grackle Quiscalus quiscula Boat-tailed Grackle Quiscalus major House Sparrow* Passer domesticus Some of the birds will be confidently assignable to subspecies when I go through them properly. The two crows were ID'd by call and I'm pretty sure we saw both. Well over 100 MBRA taxa, the majority species I've either never seen at all or never seen wild - I'm extremely chuffed!
The penguin exhibit itself is very good, and the little ride before it is actually quite fun. The first area you see the penguins on foot from is for the land area, and has a small underwater viewing area that I was perplexed by as it seemed very unambitious given the scale of the construction, but then you walk into the next room and there's an enormous window into a lovely deep pool. Very nicely done. I couldn't see an obvious way of getting to the penguins without riding, although the signs specified that infants 'in arms' couldn't ride but could be taken to the penguins, so it must be possible somehow - perhaps you need to ask someone. As an actual enclosure, though - one of the best at SeaWorld. Re: DAK's Gerenuks, were they in the small paddock towards the end of the safari ride (on a little hill with woods at the top and a marshy area at the bottom)? If so, there are now Addax in here - these are definitely new arrivals.
Welcome back Maguari. When i was at DAK a few years ago now, the gerenuk were in an enclosure in the Pangani forest trail, behind the meerkat and dik-dik.
Ah, I didn't see anything there at all - I couldn't work out if I should be seeing animals there or not! No dik-diks visible or labelled either, just meerkats. I did look, because it looked very big just for meerkats.
We cross-posted, I think! Further to this, the printed Animal Guide leaflet for the park has nothing listed for Pangani that I didn't see, so unless anyone knows otherwise I'd say that enclosure is still empty for now.
Leaflet image attached! Doesn't include everything - birds and small reptiles are often glossed over - but it was handy in making sure I didn't miss anything big. Only mammal I remember that is missed off from the walk-around was Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec; the Springbok were new in the savannah and weren't yet on the list either.
Who's this well-travelled Zoochatter? If it's not me, I also think that, and am also a well-travelled Zoochatter haha (and as a mammal guy I don't usually like aquariums/fish very much)
I'm sure he won't mind being unveiled - it's Tim Brown (and I hope what I said is correct; if not I'm sure he'll be along to correct me!). And Mr. Eland makes two!
@Maguari: Thank you for your reply. So no more Gerenuks, no more Malayan Tapirs, maybe no more Dikdiks (at least on exhibit), a zebra enclosure that has failed and only a few bird species left in the Asian aviary but rising entrance fees almost every year - not really something that makes me happy.
