Thylo's Travel Log!

Not at all. Though I do wish I had photographed a couple more birds.

In Florida, storms tend to blow by very quickly so the storm was gone within 20 minutes of it starting. The thing is, the people who run the beach have a policy of keeping the beach closed for 30 minutes after the last lightning strike that was 2-3 miles out. In total, we ended up waiting about an hour before the beach opened up again. During that time, went back to see if the tortoise was still there about three or four times. Every time but the last he was just sitting under some tall grass, eating. Each time I spend a bit of time watching him/her and photographing him/her a bit. The last time I saw the tortoise, it was walking away into some heavier foliage.

So yes really.

~Thylo

 

Today I tried going to the Manasota Scrub Preserve but got there too late (around 1:30pm) so it was too hot for us and for really anything else to be out. I did manage to see what I presume was a Reddish Egret with the white color morph. Since it was hot and we weren't seeing anything, we went back to the house and rested a bit before heading to the beach. Unfortunately, the first birds I saw were a pair of Rock Pigeons. Since we were going to be there all day, I decided to just go swimming first but decided to go check out a river area I had discovered the day before first for some reason. And I was very glad I had! I heard a splash while coming up to the area and just saw some bubbles coming up. Then, a large, dark thing emerged from the water and, at first, I thought it was a huge Alligator Snapping Turtle shell but soon realized that it was a tail! As this settled in, a large dark mass floated towards the surface and I got my camera ready. I then managed to capture a perfect shot as the wild Florida Manatee gathered some air and disappeared back into the murky water! I got one last tail splash and headed back. I went swimming for a bit and then went for an hour long walk down the beach to an area void of people. As I walked down, I found a large group of resting seabirds. Among the group was a single Laughing Gull, two species of terns (one of which I believe was a Least Tern), either one or two species of sandpipers, and and a few of what I believe to be Limpkins. After that, I found a Moon Jelly and a couple of sand dollars (I think they're Mellita tenuis) and that was it for new species for the day. I also saw another Common Ground Dove, another Gopher Tortoise (who made a b-line for his burrow once I came upon him), and I saw a few more Brown Pelicans. I have also seen a small tern species with a black face flying around and a turtle species in a pond across the street that I want to identify but have so far failed to photograph.

Tomorrow is my last day at the beach so I'm going to make sure to try and locate as many species as possible while having some generic beach fun as well I am heading down to the Manasota Scrub Preserve again to try to find myself a Florida Scrub Jay so any tips on how I could see one would be greatly appreciated!

The attached is my manatee photo!

~Thylo

 

Well done. I would love to see a wild manatee - even a captive one would suffice. I saw a captive dugong once, and that reminds me of a manatee....

You are racking up quite a few birds. Keep a list!!

 

Must have been quite the experience to see a wild manatee out of nowhere! Congrats!

 

It's not my first actually. I was in Puerto Rico a few years back and a small group of Caribbean Manatees swam up to us. I'd love to see a Dugong so we're equal!

I am indeed! I just hope I manage to see my Florida Scrub Jay! I heard one when I was there today but good not investigate as the path was completely flooded! I'm a bit nervous about going earlier as we saw freshly spray painted satanistic markings at the entrance of the preserve so I hope I don't run into some satan worshipers leaving in the early daylight hours....

@BZF, It truely was! Especially since I thought the body of water was a large enclosed pond! And thanks!

I would definitely recommend the Manasota Beach area to anyone looking for a place to see lots of wildlife and have a fun time in a more man-made setting that's still more private than going to a regular public beach.

~Thylo

 

You're planning a trip to Berlin aren't you

~Thylo

 

Well, because of the satanistic symbols that were spray painted on the entrance of the preserve, my Mom thinks that it's unsafe for me to go to the preserve so I'm not going to be able to add the Florida Scrub Jay to my already nice list of new bird species I'm not sure when my next opportunity will be to see this special species but it is what it is. I'm just going to try to get photos of those unidentified turtles and that tern now before we leave later today.

~Thylo

 

Very jealous you got to see a wild manatee! Ive only ever seen them in captivity at places like seaworld

If you had more time and wanted to really get some good bird pictures I would have recomended going to Gatorland. Its pretty terrible in terms of a park- just pools of gators but the birds are so tame you can get some great pictures of things like snowy egret, wood stork, ibis, vulture and heron.

(ill get round to uploading them at some point)

 

I went to Gatorland once a few years back and saw many great birds like Black Vulture and Wood Stork. I didn't have my camera nor had even started seriously zoo visiting at that point yet. I actually saw my first Emu there! I do want to revisit someday.

Well, since we're leaving today and are short on time, I can't get to the beach today so will not be able to photograph my mystery tern. Hopefully I'll be able to identify it once I see a picture. As for the turtles I've not seen them yet but will still try.

I probably won't be able to update you for a bit after today since I may not have internet in Orlando. I'm still trying to get to SeaWorld and still am going to Discovery Cove as planned.

~Thylo

 

Hey does anyone know what species of gecko lives in Florida and has a red tail?

~Thylo

 

are you positive it's a gecko?

Thylo, great read! Have you come across any invasive reptile species?

 

Was it an anole species maybe?

 

It looked a lot like a gecko. If you know another small reptile species with a red tail, I'll take suggestions. I'd know what it was if I saw a photo.

Thanks! I think I saw some Brown Anoles but have photos just in case. I took photos of several lizards so I'll have to get them identified to know for sure.

I never got those turtles photographed btw.

~Thylo

 

Well I'm back home now! I had fun on vacation but am glad to have returned home.

I was unfortunately unable to get to SeaWorld but the Discovery Cove visit went on as planned and we stayed the whole the day which we planned not to do.

I was greatly pleased on arrival to find that the facility hourly displayed off-show species which included species I've been waiting to see for years- Hoffman's Two-Toed Sloth and Southern Tamandua!

The Explorer's Aviaries were very lovely and there were very informative and nice keepers working within them which helped me identify species which weren't listed on the species card. I enjoyed the free bird food which let to very good shots and I got to feed an Eastern Rosella, a Crested Wood Partridge, and a couple of Speckled Mousebirds (Micebirds)- one of which had one leg! A keeper said he fell, landed wrong, and busted it so badly that they had to amputate it. The Wind-Away River goes straight into the main aviary which is very cool. You can't see much of it from the water but the Inca Terns like to rest of the rocks by the water's edge so you get a better look at them there than from the pathway. The other two aviaries must be viewed via the path.

Freshwater Oasis was an alright exhibit featuring Geoffroy's Marmosets and Oriental Small-Clawed Otters. The marmosets can only be viewed from inside the pool which annoyed me a bit but they were placed on an island you could swim around which was pretty cool. The otter enclosure has a land viewing but it's very small and you can't see much. The main viewing is seen from in the water. You have to swim into a fake cave and you're then faced with a large glass wall. The otter pool is the same height as the pool you're in so when the otters go underwater you can, too, and get face to face with them. The pool had a strong current, though and I had to grab onto a fake tree root when I first stopped to keep me from being pushed into people!

The Grand Reef exhibit is simply amazing! The water is freezing at first but once you get underwater and begin seeing hundreds of colorful fish species and huge Southern Stingrays, you soon forget how cold you feel! Since I was able to attach the species identification sheet to my wrist, I was able to identify some species while in the water but many, many of them went unidentified. Had I known I could buy an underwater camera in the gift shop, I would have been better off. Some of the species on the sheet were vaguely named, though. Examples being "Balloonfish" and "Remora". If anyone knows the Ramora species kept at Discovery Cove, identification would be very welcome! Even though I got to see many cool species I wanted to see like Spotted Moray and Naso Tang I unfortunately missed some major species like Panther Grouper (out for check-up), Spotted Eagle Ray (out for check-up), and Spotted Wobbegong (I thought I saw one but after seeing pictures it seems they were far too large and dark colored to be them- though they looked much more like the wobbegong than the Nurse Sharks also in the tank).

Dolphin Lagoon was definitely one of the highlights of the vacation, though! I was able to get into the water and interact with two Common Bottlenose Dolphins (one of which bared my name) and was even able to ride one (the one with my name)! While the dolphins do preform several tricks, the keepers were very informative and gave us information about the dolphins, dolphins in general, and about Discovery Cove and dolphins. If I remember correctly, Discovery Cove is home to 24 dolphins! And they seem to breed them yearly with two young calves currently at the facility. One thing I liked about the program is that, if the dolphins didn't want to "work" (they call it working) a show, they didn't have to. And it happened. Apparently the day before we went, the shows were all backed up because most of the dolphins didn't want to "work" some shows and simply swam into the back areas.

Overall, it was a very excellent day! Oh yeah, and the food was very excellent!

~Thylo

 

Well I'm doing a bit of traveling again this summer so decided why not get the thread up again!

This year my travels are to Philadelphia and once again down to Florida (though a different bit).

So late last night I went up to our place in White Plains, New York, in order to get down to Philly faster today. We woke up early this morning and took the train into the city to catch our bus (Megabus is the company) since taking a bus is much cheaper than driving. We ate a diner where I got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich for $8 (this is relevant later on). So we got on our bus at 8:40am and we expected to get to Philly at around 11:25am. In reality we arrived at 10:45am, which gave us a little bit more time than expected. So then we walked down to our hotel and rested for about an hour.

After we were rested, it was time to head down to the Adventure Aquarium! The aquarium (which is run by the same organization as the Newport Aquarium, which happens to be the aquarium I visited last summer in Cincinnati) is located in Camden, New Jersey, which is just over the Delaware River from Philly. I just don't know what's with me and visiting cities to go to a zoo and then visiting an aquarium run by the same people that just so happened to be technically in another state right across the river from the city I'm visiting and the zoo.... On our way over to the aquarium, we soon discovered that Philadelphia is a vastly cheaper city than New York. We only had to pay $2.50 for the bus to take us down to the river's edge, where we took a ferry across the river at $7 for a round trip ticket. Now notice how a round trip ferry ticket across a river in Philly is cheaper than a breakfast sandwich in New York!

The ferry dropped us off right next to the aquarium and we were set to go!

I quite enjoyed the aquarium. When I was going through I was thinking about how it reminded me of Newport a lot (this being before I knew they were run by the same people). The only major complaints being that the glass was very reflective and that it was very crowded (which the aquarium would want of course but there were a lot of people blocking hall ways and enclosures and a lot of kids just pushing people out of their way....). The signage at the aquarium I thought was pretty good, though not as ideal as I'd have liked. Definitely better than other aquariums I've been to like the New York Aquarium, though. Contrary to the generally bad Crocodylian enclosures at Newport, Adventure's were quite nice. This aquarium only had two species on display- Orinoco Crocodile and Cuvier's Dwarf Crocodile- but both enclosures seems to have adequate land space and the pools were definitely deep enough for them to dive down and large enough to allow for some swimming.

As several people have pointed out, the African Penguin enclosure is pretty old fashioned and is in need of a serious upgrade, and I agree. The pool is good but the land seems to be concrete and is quite small. It wasn't too bad, but wasn't very good. Still, it was better than Cincinnati's.

Near the penguin enclosure, is a small display area where, every once in a while, a keeper comes out with an education species. The species vary but I believe they have everything from North African Hedgehog to West African Dwarf Crocodile. I got Southern Three-Banded Armadillo, of course

Now many of you have probably heard about the new psychedelic Common Disco-Potamus enclosure the aquarium has now (if you haven't: http://www.zoochat.com/22/lsd-hippos-dont-mix-them-355728/). Well, I don't like it. First of all, the enclosure is pretty dark. Now I don't mean like in a nocturnal exhibit setting, I mean just dark in general. Makes for very crappy photographs. The trees that once held various African bird species and large nests now hold these weirdo oval disks that have mini light shows on them. The back wall of the enclosure also has a light display that's just a bunch of random and very cartoony looking African animals walking across an African savanna. Personally, I would've preferred to see the birds flying around and now even the porcupines are gone. Now apart from that, it's not that bad of a hippo enclosure. Yes, it's all indoors, but it's of a decent size and I quite like the pool as it's reasonably deep and has a nice underwater view and is filled with several fish species (of course unlabeled). It'd be nice if the hippos could have a little bit of natural sunlight and some softer, more natural substrate to walk on but it is what it is. I quite enjoyed watching the two female hippos bound around underwater and interact. At one point the older female hit the younger one which resulted in the younger one jumping into the glass, kicking off of it, and doing an underwater flip over the older one! It appears the pair are also given truck tires to play with, and play with it they did.

Now one of the main highlights of this aquarium, along with the main reason I decided to visit, were the sharks (also the main highlight of Newport). As with Newport, Adventure has a couple of very large and very nice shark tanks filled with some very nice species. The first tank, called Ocean Realm, is home to Zebra Sharks, Silky Sharks, Blacknose Sharks, Blacktip Sharks, Bonnethead Sharks, and, the main highlight of the tank in my opinion, Great Hammerhead Sharks (apparently the only two in the United States). The tank is also home to many other interesting fish species such as Southern Stingray, Roughtail Stingray, Cownose Ray, Bluestripe Runner (Caranx crysos), Sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), unspecified barracuda, and, best of all, several Mahi-Mahi! There were also Loggerhead and Green Sea Turtles in the tank. Now the other main shark exhibit is Shark Realm, which is a large tank with an underwater tunnel. Personally I preferred Newport's tunnel over Adventure's, since it has a glass floor at some parts so you can literally see 360 degrees around you and, for some reason, Adventure's made my head hurt when I looked at certain angles.... This tank is home to Sand Tiger Sharks, Sandbar Sharks, and Nurse Sharks as well was Southern Stingrays, Cownose Rays, Atlantic Menhaden, Yellowtail Snapper, and, best of all, one or two young Atlantic Goliath Groupers! The aquarium also has a nice little shark touch tank with Brown-Banded Bamboo Sharks, Epaulette Sharks, White-Spotted Bamboo Sharks, and Zebra Bullhead Sharks.

Overall I'd say it's a nice aquarium that takes a few hours to do. It takes a moment to figure out where the exhibits start but after that there are a lot of species and a lot of nice exhibits and enclosures. It could do with a few improvements but nothing too major.

After the aquarium, we had to wait for the ferry to come back and bring us to Philly again. Once back, we walked into the city for a while and found our way to the Liberty Bell. After that, we discovered that the subway system costs the same as the bus and gets us around three times as fast!

After we returned to the hotel (which was about 6pm), we just sat back and relaxed, which we continue to do now. Tomorrow should be another exciting and fun day as we head to the Philadelphia Zoo!

~Thylo

 

Who's 'we'?



Hix

 

Oh! Me and my dad.

~Thylo

 

OK.

Thought maybe you'd got yourself a girlfriend.



Hix