BEAR HOLLOW ZOO

Exploring our new home, we found a great park almost in town. The Bear Hollow Zoo is comprised of 225 acres in woods and wetlands, and it offers a home to over twenty-five animals unable to go back into the wild. Many are injured in some way, but there were a few orphans saved and raised by humans (leaving them unable to survive on their own), and a couple of instances where the animal refused to go back into the wild. Following are some pix my guy took:

Here's a hawk:

Notice this owl has only one eye:

The noble-looking bald eagle has a wing injury and can't fly:

The bobcat is named Katie:

Here is the male of the orphaned black bears. Two others are sisters and are several years younger.

This turkey was fascinating! He strutted around like he owned the place, spreading his tail feathers and ambling toward us from behind his fence as if calling for attention. Handsomest bird in the zoo!

This placid deer kept the arrogant turkey company in their large enclosure:

And just to make us feel at home after leaving the island for the hills, the alligator had its own pond:

The zoo is free and the walking is easy! I think we're going to like it here!

ZOO VISIT

A week or so ago, my guy wanted some animal pix so we went to the zoo. I don't really approve of zoos but Jacksonville has a nice one and their citizens contribute greatly to keeping it that way.

There were a few wood storks settling in but most of the spring rookery will come later this month.

My guy spent most of the morning with the big cats, while I walked around, then sat on a shady bench to enjoy the people. Here are a sampling of his photos:

We have a jaguar, monkey (Look at that face!), pink flamingoes (more like RED flamingoes) and two tigers. There is a baby tiger this year, but he wasn't out.

Nice visit!

VISIT TO THE JACKSONVILLE FL ZOO

So my guy gets a new camera lens (no, I don't know what kind; I don't even know why he needed a new lens except that he seems to collect them). He decides to go to the Jacksonville zoo to try it out before we make the long trek to the Alligator Farm down in St. Augustine. Naturally, I go along for the ride.

He wasn't thrilled with the lens but I think he got some great pix.

This is the older jaguar (maybe the mother) taking its bath. Just like my cats!

And here's the cub eyeing something in the water. He was so cute! Just like my cats.

This is one of the latest additions. The Jacksonville zoo now has a tiger exhibit. There are three in all, I believe, but this is the only one showing himself. And boy did he pace back and forth! Just a few feet from all us gawkers! Glad there were a couple of fences between us.

Then we come to the lion and his missus. They were cooling it in the shade but my guy got a good picture anyway.

Not sure what this guy is. Some kind of antelope maybe? Anyway, they'd just put his food out. My guy had to wait for him to stop stuffing his face to get this shot.

And a Komodo dragon that we are all fascinated by, I'm sure. Ugh! Creepy things!

There were a lot more animals -- flamingos, pigs, warthogs, et cetera -- but I wanted to show that deserts aren't the only places cacti grow. This plant is a lot taller than it appears in the photo and it's thriving!