A little Cincy Zoo love!

Man, what a beautiful day today was and incredibly enough still is! The temps peaked at about 77 degrees and the sun was out and shining.

Nick and I spend the majority of the day at the Cincy Zoo. We had gotten there when the zoo opened and enjoyed ourselves imensly as there wasn't much of a crowd there yet.

We were fortunate to see the baby giraffe and the baby okapi. Nick got to hear on of the male white lions roar, which was very cool. The bird of prey nerd inside me was ecstatic because I got to see a pair of Stellar sea eagles. :)

Here are a few more pics from today. If you want to see the rest of my zoo pics, check out the set on my Flickr page!

Enjoy!

Asian elephant
A beautiful bloom that caught my eye while we were going through the Discovery Forest in the education building. I love the vibrant color!
Giraffe
A pair of Mexican wolves
Momma okpai. Her calf was also out in the yard with a keeper observing how the little one was doing.
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Redtail Hawk stuck in SUV after being hit!

Is there a full moon or something? Have planets aligned in a weird way out there in space?

Just read a story from KPTV out in Portland, OR about a redtail hawk that was hit by a SUV along I-5 and it survived. Somehow it managed to get stuck between the radiator and the front grill.

Crazy!

Read about the redtail hawk on their website. Continue reading >>

Druzy love!

Got a Google Alert this morning notifying me that my Etsy shop was mentioned in a blog somewhere on the 'net!

Leslie over at 315Thomas has written a lovely article spotlighting 8 wonderful jewelery artists whose beautiful druzy jewelery she found on Etsy. Yours truly was included! Woo!

Head on over to her awesome blog and check out the article! Continue reading >>

One lucky Golden Eagle...

Apparently out in Reno, NV a 15 pound golden eagle crashed through the windshield of a tractor trailer and survived! Luckily for the eagle, the truck was not moving as it was parked along the sleeper berm along the highway.

"I heard a loud thump like a brick or something coming through the glass," said Daryl Young of Miami, the co-driver who was dozing in the sleeper berth when it happened. "I woke up, and the windshield was all over me. Next thing I know there was a big bird lying on the floor."

Read about this lucky eagle in the Associated Press. Continue reading >>

19 Days until Spring!

I'm ready! Are you ready for Spring?

19 days until it is officially Spring! :)

It sure doesn't look nor feel like it here in the Southwestern corner of Ohio. We're still getting the typical dreary cloudy days of winter but the sun is making an effort here and there to shine! Temps this morning were in the teens. Looking ahead for the next couple of days, we'll peak at 60 degrees on Friday and then cool off in the low 40s by next Weds.

It's getting there though!

I love going hiking & camping during the spring, especially during the melt as the streams & rivers are gushing with melt water. There's still a little ice along the banks and you can see the little green buds of fresh growth peaking out from the ground and the surrounding trees. It's still a little nippy in the morning, but it's a refreshing kind of nippy. You know you have a little longer before the bugs show up...a little calm before the storm per se. :)

Actually, we've got a family trip planned in May to do a little camping down by Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. We've invited our parents and siblings! It should be a good time!

What do you like to do during the spring? Have anything fun planned?
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Catching up with old friends!

I had the wonderful opportunity today to catch up with some old friends of mine from the zoo. We spent time catching up on what everyone was up to nowadays as well as going back down memory lane and reminiscing about the good old days at the Columbus Zoo. :)

Perhaps a little background for y'all?

My mom had signed me up as a teenage volunteer at the Columbus Zoo when I was in high school. Little did she know what kind of monster she was unleashing...heh. I spent an awesome 4 years spending my summers at the zoo helping out in the depts I was assigned. You know all that fun stuff - cleaning, manning the yard at the children's zoo, cleaning, face painting, cleaning & more cleaning. It was not glamorous at all but I loved it! Soon I spent most of my time with the Shows department, cleaning out cages, cutting up produce, watching the hawk weathering yard and other small jobs. The end of my senior year, I had hit the age cap for being a Zooaide, but I didn't want to leave.

I eventually got hired on full time and spent my first 1 1/2 working the front gate & parking. Then I went to talk to the Shows supervisor. Sent in my resume and interviewed. Got hired on and spent the next couple of years working in the Shows dept. while going to school at Ohio State.

Man, were those days crazy & chaotic but unforgettable!

Good times!
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