Dinosaur Descendants

The Donald Trump bird.
See the hairstyle?  And the flamboyance?

On the day after Thanksgiving in past years we have gone ice-skating.  But last year we noticed that the teens seemed more interested in watching the horse-drawn carriages than in skating.

This year, we decided to do something different: The National Aviary (I'll bet you didn't know the National Aviary is in Pittsburgh!).  Lots of other people had the same idea, and we had to park very far away.  This was not a total loss, as the long walk made me feel entitled to another piece of pie when we returned home.

I'm not deeply interested in birds, but I really like going to the Aviary.  It is not huge (compared to, say, the Zoo), and can be fully visited in part of an afternoon.  The Aviary works hard to give a conservationist message to the public, without being obnoxious about it.  Spending time around birds makes me feel glad I have limbs.

I viewed our visit to the Aviary as a photo assignment.  This was challenging to me for various reasons, mostly that I don't know what I am doing as a photographer.  (That video photography tutorial I downloaded remains unwatched, due to excessive actual events taking place.)  Visual obstructions included fences, tree limbs, dirty glass, humans, and other birds.  Most birds do not sit still for a photo portrait.

Without further ado, here are the 35 photos of birds and a few mammals which I feel are passable photos, out of the 200 photos I took.  Don't the birds look really prehistoric?  Please click to enlarge and see the photos up close and personal-like.

Andean Condor

Bald Eagle

Another bald eagle

Scarlet Macaw

Golden-breasted starling

White-crested laughing thrushes

White-crested laughing thrush

Scarlet Macaw, smiling

This looks like some kind of macaw.  But really,
to me it looks Very Like A Dinosaur

Hyacinth Macaw

Victoria Crowned Pigeon.
Imagine combing that hairstyle in the morning.

A shiny blue bird whose name I couldn't find.

Rainbow lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeets grooming.
If the photo had turned out better, it would have been
great for Valentine's Day.

As near as I can tell, this is a Southern Bald Ibis, except its
beak is the wrong shape.

Close up of the potential Southern Bald Ibis.  To me it looks
like a Grandpa Bird.  So that's what I'm going to call it.

Penguin

Eastern Screech Owl.
I think this was my favorite.  Those tufty things are not ears.

Keel-billed toucan.
Did not ask us for any Fruit Loops.

I could not determine from the Aviary photos what the
name of this bird is.

Two toucans

The bird with the ridiculously long tail is the Paradise Whydah.
We called it "Miss Lolla Lee Lou." It was an obnoxious bird,
flying all around, dive-bombing humans and birds alike.

Well-behaved shaft-tailed finches

Shaft-tailed finches again

The one in the middle is called a Red Bishop.

Roseate spoonbill

Flamingo, feeding

Talk about your gorgeous colorings.

A flying fox, a type of fruit bat

These bats did not even bother to sit upright for their meal.

Penguins waiting for their dinner.

The Tenth Commandment

X:  “Thou shalt not covet thy sibling’s outing, nor the restaurant meal she will eat.”

On Friday night, we had our Sabbath dinner.  Oldest Daughter is home from college until next week, which makes the table feel complete.  As part of the Sabbath celebration, we light the candles, say the blessing over the bread and the juice.  The kids have juice and my husband and I have a glass of wine.

Near the end of our dinner, the conversation went something like this:

Me, to Youngest Daughter:  There are some leftover spinach enchiladas, so you can have one for breakfast tomorrow.

Youngest Daughter:  Actually, tomorrow I’m just going to wake up in time for lunch!

Me:  Oh, yeah, that’s right. Tomorrow afternoon Youngest Daughter and I are going out for lunch and a movie about a horse.

Oldest Daughter:  Why are you going to that movie?

Me:  It’s by Stephen Spielberg.

Youngest Daughter: We’re related to him!  (We are, distantly.  At least 5 degrees of separation.  Mr. Spielberg has never heard of us.)

Husband:  Where are you going for lunch?

Me:  Probably “Casual Italian Chain Restaurant.”

Son:  Can I go?

Me:  No, it’s a Mother-Daughter event.

Son:  What?! How come whenever I go out to a restaurant with you, you force me to go to a Chinese restaurant, but when you’re going to an Italian restaurant I can’t go?!

(We went to a Chinese restaurant on Dec 21^st.  Yes, during Hanukkah.  Son ordered a mammoth portion of Honey Chicken, which he devoured completely.  He did not appear to be suffering as he consumed his meal.)

Husband:  Yes, Son, it’s a terrible injustice in your life.  You have no idea what kind of injustice I experienced as a boy.

Son: Dad. We all know that you had to walk 3 miles to school, with snow up to here, even though you were only this tall...

Husband: First of all, we hardly ever went out to a restaurant.  When we did go to a restaurant I had to go with my Dad and my grandmother.  She always ate off of my plate, instead of ordering her own meal.  And if I ordered something and didn’t finish it, I got yelled at.

(At our house this line of discussion usually deteriorates into the Monty Python skit “You were lucky!” but not this time.  There was too much coveting of YD’s outing going on.)

Oldest Daughter: Can I go to lunch with you at the Casual Italian Chain Restaurant?

Me:  No.  It’s a Mother-Daughter event with some of YD’s friends.

Oldest Daughter:  But I want to go to an Italian restaurant.

Son:  So do I.

Me:  You can arrange a Father-Son event, and a Father-Oldest Daughter event, and get Dad to take you to Casual Italian Chain Restaurant.

(It was about now that Oldest Daughter, aged 18, grabbed the bottle of wine, poured it into her plastic cup, and drank it down.  I had little time to realize what she was doing before she had swallowed.)

Me:  What are you doing?!

Oldest Daughter:  I was thirsty, and I didn’t feel like getting up to get some water, and there wasn’t anything else to drink on the table.

So our attention turned to other things, such as what the legal age for drinking is.  

It turns out that we didn’t see Spielberg’s movie about the horse.  Instead we saw “We Bought A Zoo” in which, for me, the major feature is that Scarlett Johansson gets to kiss Matt Damon.  But since this is a post about not coveting, I will have to stop here.

When it snows too much, the animals take over

Welcome to the Manhattan Zoo.  Camel rides and dolphin shows!

This is the rare South American Pig:

The camel looks rather ornery today:

But why walk, when you can ride?