Tag Archives: animals

Buttonwood Park and Zoo, New Bedford

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Well what do you know? I’m back in New Bedford, Ma.! When I decided to stop at the zoo today I didn’t even think about its location in New Bedford. I was going to Dartmouth to meet up with a friend and just thought I’d do some exploring before we met up. Since I put zoos on my list for the summer I headed to Buttonwood to get started on my zoo list.

Buttonwood Zoo is easy to get to. You hop on Route 140 and just head south. At the end of RT 140 it becomes Brownell Ave. Brownell Ave will take you past Buttonwood Park, a lovely little park with a lake and fountain. There are benches and a path and loads of ducks and geese. In early spring it’s a great place to see baby birds, goslings and ducklings but today it looked like the babies were well on their way to adulthood.

At the intersection of Brownell and Hawthorn St you will want to take a left and you’ll see the Zoo on your left.

I was lucky enough to find a parking spot under a tree so I could leave the car in a little shade. The lot was quite full so I suspected the zoo was busy. That’s not surprising as it is an almost perfect day. The sun is out, there’s a breeze , the temps are probably around 80 and as they say in Arizona…”It’s a dry heat”. It’s not too often we can say that here.  Massachusetts gets lots of hot, humid days but this one wasn’t..it was really pleasant.

As I walked  toward the entrance I spotted the Animal Carousel in full spin. That wasn’t there on my last visit. I really love carousels. 

As I was buying my ticket (only $6.00 for adults) I started chatting with the clerk. Turns out the policy for seniors is age 60. Wow I qualify! So I only had to pay $4.50 to get in. I’m lovin’ it.

The gift shop was packed and noisy so I skipped that and headed into the zoo proper.

The first thing you see is an adorable carved bear statue. I love the face! 🙂

Right behind it is a large open habitat that contains, ducks, geese, turkeys, deer and buffalo. This is where I got the “photo of the day” of a beautiful buck, antlers in velvet, taking a snooze in the shade.

I moved on down the path to my right to the carousel. It was busy but not packed.

 I stood for a while watching and taking pictures. I remember when I was little I only wanted to ride the horses on the carousel. There didn’t seem to be any preference today. The kids were on the lions and hummingbirds, giraffes and seals as well as the horses.

Time to move on down the path. Flowers were blooming everywhere. The zoo considers the flowers part of their exhibits so  picking is not allowed. That’s ok with me. I just wanted pictures anyway. Pictures last longer.

There are wonderful statues throughout the zoo.  Besides the cute bear at the entrance  there a bronze bear statue along the first path leading to the black bear exhibit. There’s also a bronze sow  at the Buttonwood Farm, a double sculpture of 2 elephants at the elephant exhibit.

 2 Cranes grace a patch of grass and reeds near the Aquatic Center.

I explored the Bald Eagle enclosure, visited the Coyote and snuck a peek at a sleeping cougar. The Lynx was hiding and I didn’t see it or the River otters but the seals were getting check-ups where all could watch.

Everyone was friendly. There was interaction among the guests at every display as we searched out the animals.

The little train around the zoo seemed to be doing a brisk business as it was running regularly.

 I met it again as I crossed the covered bridge to the Buttonwood Farm. Horses, ponies, goats, cows, pigs and chickens…lots of domestic animals.

By now it was about 12:30, lunch time so I headed to the “Bear’s Den Cafe”. $7.00 got me a  (square) fish filet sandwich and small fires and a 16 oz drink. Not bad. Grabbing a seat at a table outside I could watch the deer and buffalo as I tried to keep my fries from the birds and squirrels. Actually it was fun sharing with the little critters.

After lunch I started to head out when I heard some music that I hadn’t picked up on before. Following the sound led me back to the elephant’s enclosure.

Across from the enclosure is a large field and there were some performers entertaining a crowd of children. It was the Toe Jam Puppet band. The show was filled with just plain silliness and the kids loved it. From following one of the performers around while he carried a bubble machine to playing “lindy” where the Lindy bar was always held high there were shrieks and giggles galore. My favorite skit was when they told a story with lots of silly characters.

For each character someone was chosen from the audience..all small children except one! There was a “bear”, a “Spider”, a “Worker Bee with honey, a butterfly and I think a worm..oh I’m sure I’ve forgotten some but each character was dressed in a costume and had to clap or jump or some such thing when their part in the story came up. Cute isn’t giving enough credit. Lots of fun.

 The Toe Jam Puppet band is at the Zoo on Mondays only so I was lucky to have run across them! It was good  clean fun for all! Especially with the help of the “bubble machine”.

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Now it was really time to start moving on to my second stop. It’s only 6 miles away but I will have crossed a town line and arrived in North Dartmouth.

Back to the Herrring Run

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WARNING THE CONTENT OF THIS POST MAY BE UNCOMFORATBLE FOR THE SQUEEMISH OR REPTILE CHALLENGED.

If any of you have been following my flickr photostream you know there have been a bunch of pictures of a great blue heron recently. That heron or its twin, has been hanging around the Herring Run off Rt 44 for almost 3 weeks now. In rain and sun, morning and dusk that bird is in the same place each day.

I’ve been trying different approaches to see if I can get a really good picture. You know the kind. Not just a good snapshot but the kind of picture where anyone who looks at it sits up and takes notice, the kind that has a “WOW” factor. I can’t understand what I’m missing because this silly bird has been patient and cooperative. It even lets me walk right up to the river edge and all it does is turn it’s head to look at me!

Well I thought it would be a good day today to go back and try again. I had some ideas that I wanted to try. We’d had rain in the morning and most of the day had been gray but now, around 4:30 the sun was breaking out. The light was soft. I thought it might be just the trick I needed.

When I pulled in to the parking lot I looked where the bird usually stands and it was…EMPTY! Oh no! There were a lot of red wing blackbirds dive bombing the picnickers for bread crumbs from their sandwiches but no Heron.

 I decided I’d take a walk around. Maybe it was around the bend in the river. So camera in hand I started along the river bank and sure enough. There was a Heron, this time on the big rock in the middle of the river. 

 That put him a bit farther away than normal but I figured I give it a try anyway.

As I was setting up the shot I happened to look down, to be sure I wasn’t about to step off the rocks into the river, and realized I was straddling a big snake. Now unlike Indiana Jones I don’t mind snakes but I don’t go out of my way to have a “close encounter” either. Especially when I don’t know what kind it is. This one’s eyes looked opaque so I wondered if it was blind or vision impaired. I’ve never seen a “blue -eyed” snake before either.

 I carefully stepped back away from the snake and looked around at the rocks I was standing on. There was another smaller snake maybe 6 inches away to my left.

Hmmmm I’ve never seen snakes here before but it does make sense. The reeds and grasses in the river are really tall and thick right now. And lots of rocks and old stone foundations give them plenty of hidey holes. Both of these snakes seemed to be sluggish. Since the sun had just come out a little while ago I surmised they were on the rocks to warm up in the sun. Comfortable that I wasn’t going to accidentally hurt them or they me, I turned back to my Heron but in my moment of inattention he’d taken off.

I wandered around a bit more now interested in the snakes. I crossed the little bridge over the fish ladder and gazed over the sea of reeds and tall grass. A line of rock foundation jutted into the center of the river  dividing the foliage and those rocks were loaded with snakes too. I found myself wondering if this is what it’s like to explore in the jungle.

I went back to my original location and both snakes were still there.

I hung around a bit more hoping the heron would return but after about an hour I was still just staring at the snakes so I packed it in for the day. I don’t know what kind of snakes they are but I suspect something like a black racer? Or maybe some kind of water snake? With the small heads I am pretty sure they weren’t venomous. Even so next time I think I’ll wear boots.

Last Night, Sedona

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As we left Flagstaff on 89 A we were following a couple of motorcycles and I was contemplating how it would be to take a bike on those hairpin curves coming up. It was at that moment that I saw one of the bikers point to the left. I was confused as I thought it was a hand signal but there was no turn off there. Concentrating on what the motorcycles were doing I almost missed it! Sandy yelled “Deer”. I glanced around but didn’t see it so I reply with a loud..”WHERE!” Of course her reply was “There!”. (Who’s on first?) Anyway I finally spotted a doe bouncing off through the pine forest. It was definitely a mule deer. It ran with its tail down ( a white tail deer has a tail like flag when it runs) and it bounced more than bounded. It made me think of a cartoon animal bouncing with springs on its feet.  Yea! Wildlife!

It’s my last trip down the winding Oak Creek Canyon for this trip. And as if the sunset gods knew it was my last chance the sky lit up in reds and golds over the red rocks of the area. Afraid I wouldn’t get to the bottom in time to get “my sunset picture” I pulled off to a wide spot on the shoulder. I grabbed my camera and bolted outside to see what I could capture.

Unfortunately there was no iconic rock formation for the foreground (like Snoopy Rock or Bell Rock) but I won’t complain. Who knows when I will have another chance like this.

Parked as I was in a precarious place on a winding road, I didn’t dare stay too long or wait out the setting sun. I grabbed what I could and returned to the car to finish the drive down the canyon.

It seems like Sedona was putting the finishing touches on our trip, a nice sunset, a bouncing mule deer. Too bad we didn’t see any javalina’s while we were here.

It was time to think about packing up, clean out the fridge and getting ready to leave in the morning.

Back at the Time Share, we stopped at the reception area to print out our boarding passes and complete the check in process online. I dropped off a couple of boxes of clothes that I was shipping home and then it was time to go back to the unit and finish packing. It was nice to be able to drop off the “if it fits it ships” boxes. The Time Share charged my card for incidentals for the postage and then they gave the boxes to the postman on Saturday. If I had to go to the post office in the morning I wouldn’t have had time before we left for Phoenix.

A nice perk of the time share is an apartment sized washer and dryer. We’d used it mid-week and tossed in a last wash now so that we could take home clean clothes. It’s nice to get home and not be faced with a pile of dirty laundry. On the other hand, if the TSA is going to paw through my suitcases giving them dirty underwear might be a deterent..maybe? I’m still miffed over the loss of that $50.00 camera battery but what can you do???

I will wrap this up now as we did absolutely nothing special that last night so I won’t waste your time with useless drivel. 🙂 I mainly wrote this post to tell you about that final beautiful sunset. As always I have to say that the pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice.

Are we there yet?

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Having passed the “Fruitland” exit I continued along RT 2 heading west. There are a number of bridges along this route and a couple of them are really pretty. The first one I came upon that bears mentioning is the French King  Bridge which crosses the Connecticut River. There is something about the clean lines of this bridge that just really appeals to me. I think I read somewhere that it is a 3 span “cantilever” bridge but I just think it’s nice. Apparently people who know bridges agreed with me because way back in 1932 this bridge was awarded “Most beautiful Steel Bridge” by the American Institute of Steel Construction.

I actually stopped and parked the car so I could walk out on the bridge to see the river passing under it.

Back on the road I pulled into the little town of Gill. As I passed the town line sign I spotted some goats in a pen by the side of the road. There were a lot of picnic tables around so I wondered if this was a makeshift petting zoo or something. I pulled into the first gas station I came to so I could top off the tank and then turn around to backtrack.

The little pen was set up next to the Wagon Wheel restaurant.

There was a nanny goat and 2 kids.

They were the cutest little family. I pulled into the parking lot and grabbed the camera. I dropped to my knees next to the pen trying to get some nice close up shots of the kids. They are such teases. They’d look at me and just as I got the camera focused they’d bounce away. While I was so engrossed a heard a man’s voice right behind me ask me “You want to buy a goat?”

 Turns out the young man was the owner of this little family and the small produce stand that was offering vegetables, flowers, maple syrup and manure ( for fertilizer) for sale.

After getting a good chuckle I asked him seriously why he brought the goats. He said he would sell them but also people stopped to see them and that gave them a chance to see  his farm stand. I guess it works. It got me to stop! 🙂

I began to chat with him and a couple of young ladies that were there as well. It turns out that he runs a farm called Lally Laggy Farm. The actual farm is located in Lydon and is farmed the old-fashioned way, with draft horses. Molly and Maggie are American Creme Draft horses and are very rare. There are fewer than 400 alive today. He is working 186 acres that he leases. He raises some grass-fed beef cattle as well as his goats.  He said the farm has a Facebook page so I have to check it out. From the brief visit we had it sounds like he is really trying to make a go of this farm. He said he has hay and firewood as well as seasonal vegetables and flowers for sale. Before I left him we agreed that I can make arrangements to go out to the farm to really see what he’s doing with it. I can’t wait for that visit!

Since it was about lunch time I figured I’d try out the Wagon Wheel Restaurant since I was parked in their lot. I think their slogan was “roadside food the way it should be” or something like that. I liked the sound of it.

There’s seating inside or at the picnic tables outside. I ordered from the window for outside seating. When my number was called I picked up my sandwich and fries and retired to a picnic table to enjoy my meal.  They have a drive-in menu reminiscent of older days: grilled burgers, hotdogs, salads, fresh fish, homemade soup and homemade ice cream plus soft serve ice cream….yum!

Lunch over I chatted with my new friends of Lally Laggy Farm for a few more minutes and then headed off to my next stop; the little town of Turner Falls.

Whales, Seals and Sharks!

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It promises to be great year for sea animals on Cape Cod. Already we have had record numbers of whales feeding off the cape coming closer to land than in recent memory. Now in the news are reports of Great White sightings.

This is not unusual. I chased the Great Whites all last summer without success but it is early in the year for them. Normally they come in search of the seals that live and play on the beaches and barrier islands of Cape Cod. They prefer it when the water has had a chance to warm up a little but the really large sharks can tolerate the cooler temperatures. The reports seem to indicate that this was a large one, 18-20 ft and 2000+ lbs!

The latest news report said the Great White was circling a whale that had become entangled in fishing gear. The Woods Hole people have since towed the whale carcase away to exam it to determine cause of death…could it be its entanglement or the shark? I’m sure we’ll hear more about this as the season progresses.

Speaking of seals, I recently found out that there are 4 different species of seals that like to visit the cape. I was aware of 2.

The big-headed gray seals are also the largest in size of the 4 species. It’s been said that their heads look like horse heads and I guess that’s true. Gray seals are year round residents. Naturalists say that the resident population on the cape is in the thousands. The colony in Chatham is certainly large and boisterous. Gray seals were on the decline because of over hunting until 1972 when the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed. Removing that pressure has allowed their population to increase dramatically.

The 2nd species of seal that is a familiar sight on the cape is the one we think of at the aquarium. They have a cute upturned muzzle and are smaller than the grays. While the grays are said to look like horses these seals are most often compared to cocker spaniels. These little cuties are the curious Harbor seals.

Both the Gray Seals and the Harbor seals will interact with boaters. They swim up  to the boat and pop up out of the water to stare. Curiosity is certainly a trait they share with us humans.

The other 2 species are more rare. I don’t think I’ve ever seen either one in the wild. The first is the Harp seal which gets its name from the distinctive dark wish-bone shaped pattern against a silver-white coat. When you see all of those horrible posters protesting the seal hunts with the baby white coated seals about to be clubbed, you are looking at baby harp seals. The Cape seems to get the “in-between” harp seals. Still juveniles they are too old for the creamy white coat and too young for the silver-gray with the harp pattern. Most have a light-colored coat with irregular blotches of brown.

Last but not least is the Hooded Seal. These seals are the most rare of the 4 species. They, along with the Harp seal, are considered “ice seals” because they prefer to live on the pack ice of the Arctic. Still the long stretches of secluded shoreline and abundant sea food make Cape Cod an attractive place for these seals to visit.

I think it’s safe to say that as long as the seals keep coming to Cape Cod we will be hearing of Great White Sharks patrolling our shores. I can see I will have many entertaining hours to look forward to this summer on the Cape.