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arawen and I took his grandfather to the Stone Zoo as a birthday present, to see the Birds of Prey show before it leaves (next weekend is the last set of shows for the season - I don't know if they do these every year or not). Despite living about 10 minutes at most from the zoo, we've never managed to visit it, and since arawen's grandfather is very into bird-watching, it made sense as a present in many different ways.
I tend to be a little...not pretentious, really, but picky about zoos. When I was younger, I was taken to a couple of zoos that consisted mostly of barren, empty, dusty enclosures with bored looking animals (one specifically in Phoenix), and I -hated- them, because they seemed so cruel. Luckily, in the past couple of decades (?), many zoos have moved towards recreating much more natural habitats (one of my favorites is Brookfield Zoo in the Chicago area, which has a lovely indoor mixed environment full of birds and small primates and reptiles and other non-predator species from specific regions - I know a number of other zoos have done the same). I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Stone Zoo, since it is quite small and considering that the Aquarium was complaining about not having enough visitors or money (and it's much more of a tourist attraction), it could have been very rundown. Luckily, for the most part that wasn't the case. Also, the Birds of Prey show was wonderful.
Stone Zoo is located in Stoneham (big surprise, that :) - it's actually the Stone Memorial Zoo, so I'm guessing it was named after the same family that founded the town), and according to the map I have is supposed to be in the Fells, but in actuality has a busy street and residential houses right across the way from some of the exhibits (Gray Wolf and Snow Leopard, mostly), which was a little strange, but I guess the animals get used to the traffic noise - I mean, they get used to the people staring at them (and these are some of the bigger enclosures, so they have room to wander about and hide if they wish). The outdoor areas were excellent - lots of trees and plants and other greenery both for shade for visitors and habitat for the animals, and they have a stream wandering throughout with a couple of areas with little waterfalls (and a duck pond with a sign detailing, "Native birds of New England" - things like mallard ducks and blue jays and sparrows :) ). The biggest themed area is the one about animals of the Sierra Madre, which had one of my favorite animals in the cougar (big, big paws). The other two themed habitats are 'Yukon Creek" and "Himalayan Highlands" - I felt really sorry for the yak and reindeer and snow leopards, which I don't think are designed for hot summer days, even in New England (it looks like they may have setup an area for 'yak cooling', though, which was amusing). The indoor area was not quite as well done - it seemed maybe a little sparse and cramped (outside enclosures might have been a bit small, but I really can't tell and I figure they know what they're doing), but they're trying to get money to remodel. They had Malayan Flying Foxes, which are -big- fruit-eating bats that are actually not related to foxes but rather much more to lemurs (flying monkeys!).
And then, the bird show. I've been to a number of live bird of prey shows at various places, but this was one of my favorites, just because the scale of the area in which it occurred was so intimate. There weren't very many rows of bleacher seats, and the way they had the perches setup around the perimeter, the birds flew immediately overhead (to and from the hand of the announcer). In fact, I was literally brushed on the head by the wing of an Eagle Owl. It was *amazing*. Overall, I think they showed off about a dozen or more birds - besides the eagle owl, they had a red-tailed hawk, a kestrel, an Egyptian vulture, a king vulture, a bald eagle, a foraging bird, a bird that eats lizards, a parrot (to demonstrate beak types), a raven...and a couple of others. I tried to get a video of one of the birds with my new camera, but alas, my large memory card has not arrived and I did not have space to make a useful movie.
[The bird show continues this weekend and next at the zoo before departing - I found it well worth the money, so I highly recommend it to anyone else who might be interested in that sort of thing.]
I did test my new camera to the extent I could, and I am pleased with it so far. I provide some pictures:
This is what brushed me in the head with an enormous wing:
arawen and I took his grandfather to the Stone Zoo as a birthday present, to see the Birds of Prey show before it leaves (next weekend is the last set of shows for the season - I don't know if they do these every year or not). Despite living about 10 minutes at most from the zoo, we've never managed to visit it, and since arawen's grandfather is very into bird-watching, it made sense as a present in many different ways.I tend to be a little...not pretentious, really, but picky about zoos. When I was younger, I was taken to a couple of zoos that consisted mostly of barren, empty, dusty enclosures with bored looking animals (one specifically in Phoenix), and I -hated- them, because they seemed so cruel. Luckily, in the past couple of decades (?), many zoos have moved towards recreating much more natural habitats (one of my favorites is Brookfield Zoo in the Chicago area, which has a lovely indoor mixed environment full of birds and small primates and reptiles and other non-predator species from specific regions - I know a number of other zoos have done the same). I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Stone Zoo, since it is quite small and considering that the Aquarium was complaining about not having enough visitors or money (and it's much more of a tourist attraction), it could have been very rundown. Luckily, for the most part that wasn't the case. Also, the Birds of Prey show was wonderful.
Stone Zoo is located in Stoneham (big surprise, that :) - it's actually the Stone Memorial Zoo, so I'm guessing it was named after the same family that founded the town), and according to the map I have is supposed to be in the Fells, but in actuality has a busy street and residential houses right across the way from some of the exhibits (Gray Wolf and Snow Leopard, mostly), which was a little strange, but I guess the animals get used to the traffic noise - I mean, they get used to the people staring at them (and these are some of the bigger enclosures, so they have room to wander about and hide if they wish). The outdoor areas were excellent - lots of trees and plants and other greenery both for shade for visitors and habitat for the animals, and they have a stream wandering throughout with a couple of areas with little waterfalls (and a duck pond with a sign detailing, "Native birds of New England" - things like mallard ducks and blue jays and sparrows :) ). The biggest themed area is the one about animals of the Sierra Madre, which had one of my favorite animals in the cougar (big, big paws). The other two themed habitats are 'Yukon Creek" and "Himalayan Highlands" - I felt really sorry for the yak and reindeer and snow leopards, which I don't think are designed for hot summer days, even in New England (it looks like they may have setup an area for 'yak cooling', though, which was amusing). The indoor area was not quite as well done - it seemed maybe a little sparse and cramped (outside enclosures might have been a bit small, but I really can't tell and I figure they know what they're doing), but they're trying to get money to remodel. They had Malayan Flying Foxes, which are -big- fruit-eating bats that are actually not related to foxes but rather much more to lemurs (flying monkeys!).
And then, the bird show. I've been to a number of live bird of prey shows at various places, but this was one of my favorites, just because the scale of the area in which it occurred was so intimate. There weren't very many rows of bleacher seats, and the way they had the perches setup around the perimeter, the birds flew immediately overhead (to and from the hand of the announcer). In fact, I was literally brushed on the head by the wing of an Eagle Owl. It was *amazing*. Overall, I think they showed off about a dozen or more birds - besides the eagle owl, they had a red-tailed hawk, a kestrel, an Egyptian vulture, a king vulture, a bald eagle, a foraging bird, a bird that eats lizards, a parrot (to demonstrate beak types), a raven...and a couple of others. I tried to get a video of one of the birds with my new camera, but alas, my large memory card has not arrived and I did not have space to make a useful movie.
[The bird show continues this weekend and next at the zoo before departing - I found it well worth the money, so I highly recommend it to anyone else who might be interested in that sort of thing.]
I did test my new camera to the extent I could, and I am pleased with it so far. I provide some pictures:
This is what brushed me in the head with an enormous wing:
Mightily efficient forager:
Egyptian vulture:
King vulture:
Kestrel:
Malayan flying fox (not a bird; slightly blurry because it kept opening and closing its wings):
