Tuesday, July 13, 2010

At the zoo

The Smithsonian's zoo has an agave plant that recently started blooming. The age of this plant is unknown, but they bloom somewhere between 10 and 25 years of age. It blooms once and then dies. The blooms can last quite awhile. I'm using a definition of "quote awhile" that includes a nice moderate temperature like that seen in Arizona, not the blazing heat of Washington, DC. The blooms were good and dead when we got there. The rest of the plant will still put off runners and pups to reproduce before we can call it properly dead.The Agave would be that tall sucker

The nectar from these plants is thin and sweet. It's added to drinks as sweetener, fermented for tequila, and is what we model the juice in hummingbird feeders after.

See? Dead.


We got some lemonade and got a bit on our hands. Yummy found a Prevost's Squirrel who was happy to help us get it off our hands.

Here's his indoor friend.


This King Vulture hadn't finished it's lunch. It had beheaded and gutted a bunny and left it on the cage floor for later.



We lucked upon the porcupine feeding. They love their bananas.


Owls.


Dragonfly. (Maidenfly not shown)

2 comments:

GreenCanary said...

These are AWESOME! I love it when you and I take photos of the same things, because seeing how different they are just amazes me. P.S. I'M-A GONNA STEAL THAT SQUIRREL! And the owl. And also the porcupine. LET'S GET A GOAT! The end.

Jon Q. Citizen said...

It's just a shame that the beautifully ugly King Vulture is an endangered species.....great pics though!!!!