Thylo's Trip to the Land of Tea Drinkers

Good show, old chap! (in my best Bertie Wooster accent)

 

Just a quick post to register my great distress that this excellent thread with its interesting tale still hasn't caught up to the bit that I'm in.

 

The best is worth waiting for Maguari.

 

I've actually written all of the day reports up to the day with you in it

It's mainly the actual zoo reviews which are unfinished.

~Thylo

 

Get ready

~Thylo

 

So the reason I've neglected to post any of the finished day reports up to this point despite almost all of them being finished, is because I wanted to be able to post all the zoo reviews for every zoo I visited each day all at once and I was hit with severe writer's block when it came to them before I eventually fell out of writing the day reports. After thinking about it for some time, and considering I've already done another major zoo trip with a third only a couple of months away, I don't think I'm going to give full-on reviews for every zoo like I did before. Instead I'm going to incorporate my general thoughts and stories about each zoo into my day reports so people can still read them. This also takes care of the main issue I was having with most of the reviews from the beginning in that I didn't know how to talk about most of the smaller collections as in-depth as I feel a proper review should do. I may still do proper reviews for one or two of the larger zoos, like Edinburgh, but we'll see.

I was going to spam you all with all the day reports at once, but I think I'll sprinkle them out instead, especially since I'll probably be rewriting portions of most of them so my mini-zoo reviews are present. Maybe I'll give you two or three tonight to make up for making you wait so long

~Thylo

 

July 30: Numpties and C*ckwobblers​

I guess you could say this was the day my trip really took off. Four days in the Southwest with an average of three zoos per day! Nisha, zoogiraffe, and I were the only ones to stay for the entirety of this leg of the trip, though ophidia and GentleLemur joined us for this day in particular (though GL only joined for Paignton).

We started by driving down to Living Coasts, which was one of the most unique and enjoyable collections of the trip. The way I described it was if a major zoo had gone all out on building an aquarium/seabird aviary complex but then forgot it at the port. You could very easily pick up this aquarium and place it inside Chester or London and it’d fit perfectly as another fantastic exhibit in my opinion. That said, as a standalone it works great, too. I haven’t visited all that many aquariums, and even then most of them strike me as being very similar to one another so this probably won’t be saying much, but it’s definitely in my top 5 aquariums I’ve been to, probably sitting in at #4. By far the standout species here is the Bank Cormorant, though they have plenty of other nice ones including South American Fur Seal, both kittiwake species (but the Pacific subspecies of Black-Legged), Common Guillemot, Macaroni Penguin, and various native shorebirds. The way the aquarium works is you start out underneath the walk-through aviaries and view various fishes before heading up a ramp that includes underwater viewing for the guillemots and head outside into what I think is three separate walk-through aviary sections. The first is a native shorebirds and sea ducks enclosure, the second is a general Sub-Antarctic section but also holds the cormorant and otters, and the final is a North Atlantic seabird aviary. After this you head back underneath to view many more fishes and inverts.

After the aquarium we visited the tiny Shaldon Wildlife Trust. This is probably the smallest collection I’ve ever visited at around 1.5 acres and would probably take the average visitor maybe 15 minutes tops to see the whole zoo. As such I took about an hour. This collection may be tiny, but I don’t think there’s a bad enclosure here and it’s home to many wonderful and rare species such as Margay, Owston’s Civet, Bengal Slow Loris, and a variety of odd amphibians including one that didn’t even have a ZTL page when I visited: Summers’ Poison Dart Frog. Unfortunately a never spotted the Margay and only got the upper ear and a mirror reflection of the civets, but knew I had other opportunities for them later on.

We topped the day off with Paignton Zoo, which made for a good ending to a good day. The zoo isn’t great, but it’s very good and I enjoyed myself. Exhibit-wise the rainforest & desert houses and crocodile house were all very well done, and the West Caucasian Tur enclosure is one of the best Caprine enclosures I’ve seen being converted from an old quarry. The whole area surrounding and including the giraffe and elephant house besides the tur were on the poorer side, though, but I think this area has already been done over into an African savanna exhibit. A lot of the bird aviaries were pretty standard, but all still solid and it was fun to see some Bronx-born Lesser Adjutant Storks at another zoo. It was also fun to see an echidna very active in an outdoor enclosure, I’ve only ever seen them in nocturnal settings otherwise. Other notable lifers I got here included Mishmi Takin (which I prefer over Sichuan; now gone), Abbott’s Gibbon, Kafue Lechwe (now gone), Common Cusimanse, Red-Necked Ostrich, Crested Quail-Dove, Buffy Fish-Owl, Seychelles Giant Tortoise, Pacific Giant Gecko, and various mantellas.

We ended the evening by arriving at ZG’s friend’s house, which is where we would be staying for the next several nights.

It was around this time where I learned my favorite British insults: numpty and c*ckwobbler My preferred way of saying the latter being, “You, sir, are a wobbler of c*cks!” Anyone care to guess who taught me that?

~Thylo

 

I didn't tag anyone because I don't think any of those members are around anymore... except maybe @gentle lemur?

~Thylo

 

Maybe I misheard him then. Sentiment remains!

~Thylo

 

Speaking of tags, your tags for this thread are most impressive... it's like you aced several games of British Stereotype Bingo and plastered them up on the wall

Also I just looked up what a "chocolate orange" is, and I'm very disappointed that it's just chocolate and doesn't taste anything like an orange.

 

July 31: Parrots & Pasties​

Day two of our four day excursion to the Southwest and the day’s itinerary brought us to Paradise Park, Newquay Zoo, and Newquay Blue Reef Aquarium. We were once again accompanied by ophidia, though he missed out on the first collection of the day.

Before entering the first zoo, we did a short run of birding which provided mostly gulls and Little Egrets but also a few Eurasian Curlew, which were a lifetick.

Now while mammals may be my primary interest animal-wise, I do love a good bird, with two of my favorite groups being owls and parrots. Rodbaston had succeeded in skyrocketing my lifelist of the former, and Paradise Park in Hayle (the southernmost point of my trip) blew away my expectations for the latter. I gained 23 parrot lifers, including some incredible species such as Philippine Cockatoo, Red-Tailed Amazon, Buffon’s Macaw, Rajah Lory, Duyvenbode's Lory, Yellow-Streaked Lory, Hahn’s Macaw, Musk Lorikeet, Sierra Parakeet, Mitchell’s Lorikeet, and of course the now-deceased Saint Vincent Amazon. The zoo also has some cool native species they work with such as British Red Squirrel and Cornish Red-Billed Chough. There’s not much in the way of innovative exhibit design here as the majority of the collection consists of rows of bird cages, but they’re functional and are mostly fine in my opinion.

Newquay Zoo is a fun small to medium-sized zoo that’s the sister collection to Paignton Zoo. It’s a nice place with plenty of unique mammals such as Visayan Spotted Deer, Belted Ruffed Lemur, Black Wildebeest, Bornean Prevost’s Squirrel, Black-Tailed Marmoset, Crowned Lemur, and Narrow-Striped Boky. They’re quite well-known for their constantly changing bird collection as well. At the time of my visit, they held rarities like Pink-Headed Fruit-Dove, White-Necklaced Partridge, Red-Tailed Laughingthrush, Chinese Black Bulbul, Lilacine Amazon, Greater Vasa, Spectacled Parrotlet, and Blacksmith Lapwing. I’m pretty sure I’m the one and only ZooChatter who managed to spot (and photograph) the zoo’s Chinese Grosbeak as well as I’ve never seen or heard anything about it since. I recall the zoo putting about five new odd species, all of which would have been lifers for me, on-exhibit a couple days after my visit, too, which was quite frustrating and would not be the last time a zoo did this promptly after my visit either. The zoo also has a small but choice collection of herps including Elongated Tortoise, Cunningham Skink, Long-Nosed Whip Snake, Northern Curly-Tailed Lizard, and Giant Forest Dragon (Gonocephalus grandis) for reptiles and Himalayan Newt, Trinidadian Stream Frog, European Green Toad, Bony-Headed Toad, Anthony’s Poison Dart Frog, Spotted Reed Frog, Four-Lined Treefrog, Northern Banded Newt, Japanese Fire-Bellied Newt, and Chinese Fire-Bellied Newt for amphibians. The skink referred to above actually isn’t a species on-exhibit, however we managed to sneak a quick peak off-exhibit to see it and as well as the hatchling room. This was accomplished by incredibly good luck and one of the keepers being so kind as to let us in after engaging in a discussion on the zoo’s small but impressive collection. Exhibit-wise the zoo is very good with there being very few enclosures to complain about. The Tropical House is very nicely done and the main walk-in aviary outside is fairly large and tall for the mostly smaller birds it holds. Enclosures for Brazilian Tapir, zebra/wildebeest, and native wetland species were particularly memorable. There’s a log tunnel that goes underneath a portion (or the entirety?) of the cusimanse enclosure that features tanks for many of the zoo’s amphibians that’s quite nice as well. As a fan of nocturnal houses, one of my personal favorite exhibits here is the small nocturnal building home to Grey Slender Loris and Owston's Civet, which is where I got my proper view of the species.

My understanding of BlueReef aquariums is that if you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all. It’s a shame then that the one in Newquay isn’t very memorable. Don’t get me wrong, it’s by no means a bad aquarium, there just isn’t anything that really stands out- particularly now that’s been almost two years since I visited. It’s got some nice fishes, though, in the form of some odd surgeonfish species, some cool pufferfish species, Tricolor Sharkminnow, Bird Wrasse, Panther Grouper, Large-Spotted Dogfish, Port Jackson Shark, Thornback Skate, and a variety of species native to UK waters which were all new to me. I can see why many people on here aren’t in love with the collections but I’m glad I visited.

We explored the coast for a short while both before and after the aquarium, the most interesting aspect of which being the famous house on Towan Island. For those of you unaware of the house, it sits on a tiny rocky island not much larger than the house itself about 80-feet above the water. The most interesting aspect, though, is the nearly 100-foot long suspension bridge that serves as the only way to access the property. It is the only privately-owned suspension bridge in the UK.

Outside of the collections, the highlight of the day was sitting on some benches with my assorted ZooChatters, over-looking some dragon boats practicing in the harbor while trying two British delicacies for the first time: lemon-flavored Fanta and a steak and potato Cornish pasty. The pasty was perhaps my favorite new food from the trip, and the scenery made it a highly memorable meal. In fact, writing about it gives me a craving for one and it’s too bad that it doesn’t sound like anywhere outside of Cornwall knows how to make them properly.

~Thylo

 

Not so, they taste very much like orange chocolate in general (maybe not all that similar to orange itself), and are generally fantastic.

 

They're ok I'd get one again.

I want to try a fried Mars bar, though!

~Thylo

 

Oh, right you are. The Wikipedia article didn't lead with calling it "an orange-flavored chocolate treat that is both tastefully and structurally brilliant" and I jumped hastily to wrong conclusions

Truly horrifying, but I wish you good luck on that endeavor nonetheless.

 

There are chocolate oranges in the US...

 

Interesting; I've never seen one or even heard of them. I'll be on the lookout.