snakes – Slow Shutter Speed

It wasn’t supposed to be a journey’s end, but it was. We were going to take a day on our way home, from Sedona, to drive through Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks, but I fell on the way to Bakersfield. It’s amazing how people rush to help when you have gray hair! I’m okay–just a couple scrapes, one big bruise and a sore shoulder. With that happening, I decided it would be best to head home.

Yes, I’m disappointed because those National Parks are my favorite. I’ll try to get there in the fall. In the meantime, I want to show you a little of the Out of Africa Wildlife Park. This isn’t like a safari park where you drive through and the animals are walking about. This park is a sanctuary. On this trip, we saw a small animal show, a tiger swim and play show and rode through an area where the animals roamed free. You’ll see from the pictures that these animals are very used to humans, especially the giraffes! The zebras can become a little testy!

Tuzigoot is a National Monument of Native American ruins. When you see the small rooms, you’ll wonder what the Southern Sinagua tribe would think if they saw our large dwellings! We decided not to visit their other dwellings, Montezuma Castle and Well, because we saw them during our last visit.

Caterpillar Point was our last stop on this trip. It was a rocky stream bed, some small water falls and lots of wildflowers including a century cactus bloom.

Take a look at our last two days before we ended our journey and headed home.

The Tuzigoot ruins. Each one of these sections was a family dwelling.

Not only were they on the top of the hill, but on the slight slope.

This parrot was part of the small animal show at Out of Africa.

I don’t remember what this one is called, but he sure is cute.

Again, I can’t remember this guy’s name either.

I know this one–a tiger. The park has a pair of siblings. But just one performs in the water show.

I just couldn’t focus through the fencing to make it disappear.

This is the tiger that loves to play with toys and in the water.

The toys are inflated and held at the end of a long pole. The handlers could pet the tiger, but do have to be careful during play.

We also attended the snake show. Yes, this is one snake. I had volunteered to enter the grass area where the show was.

Imagine wearing this when you go out for the evening!

Now we are on safari. They gave us celery to feed the giraffes. They don’t get along so one can’t be in the safari area.

And gets a kiss in gratitude from the giraffe.

The zebra is anticipating receiving a cookie.

Ope wide! The zebras are not as polite as the giraffes, so we were not allowed to feed them.

Here are the wildflowers at Caterpillar Point.

The bloom from the Century Cactus. I’ve never seen one in bloom before.

I have a bird book, but not a wildflower book. I think I’m satisfied to enjoy nature’s unamed beauty.

Many of the animals never leave here, so it was like visiting old friends when we photographers made our annual trek to the Suisun Wildlife Rescue Center just outside of Fairfield, California. This was my second trip there through a Meetup organized by the Wildlife and Landscape group. It’s actually a fundraiser for the Center that is run solely through contributions.

This Center is a non-profit volunteer organization, dedicated to the rescue of native California wildlife and to the preservation of the Suisun Marsh, working through the dual avenues of wildlife rescue & release and environmental education. While some animals are able to be released once they are well, many are not. Birds with wing problems, an albino snake, a coyote and many eagles are just some of the wildlife that cannot be released.

But, they do work for their keep. Volunteers take them to schools through an educational program. While they educate, the animals are cared for by an all volunteer staff. And the staff brought out the animals in turns so we could photograph them. While we were shooting, we were told about the animal’s personality, how they were brought into the Center and whether they would ever be released. When you look at the images, in many cases, you can tell why they will remain at the Center.