Special event "Up North."
Guess what kind of baby!
No that was not a Canada goose chick. These geese were outside the gates of the Franklin Park Zoo eating some Chinese takeout someone had left for them. I was at FPZ on my day off to get some elements of my uniform so I could represent the Zookeeper Association at a Stone Zoo event. The title of this post refers to the shorthand some staff use to refer to Stone Zoo. Usually those using this phrase have that accent Massachusetts is famous for (and that an ever-slim minority of Bay Staters actually have) and say it without the R. "You goin' Up Nawth? Can you bring the paychecks with you?"
The route between the two zoos passes by the Strand Theater, where that evening Louis Farrakhan was scheduled to speak. The sight of several dozen men in suits and bowties lined up an hour early in the the summer heat caught my eye.
Once there I caught up with my vice president, Sarah, and we went to gawk at the animals we don't usually get to see!
This meerkat appears to be keeping a sharp lookout for jelly donuts.
And look who has babies! It was very cool to see these Chilean (dammit I always get that wrong!) Caribbean flamingoes feeding their chicks.
Back at the AAZK table we talked to people about what zookeepers do, what the animals eat, and that sort of thing. It was a good event for us. Since we were in uniform, many people thanked us for the work we do, which was very nice and quite gratifying. I let people know that I appreciated them making the zoo part of their lives. It was a pricey fundraiser (by my humble standards) so people were not attending lightly. These are people who truly love their zoo.
Our table was directly across from the reindeer exhibit. His coat is shaggy because of the summer shed, but Cornelius has a truly heroic rack of velvety antlers this year!
Don't pay any attention to me, I'm...a baby reindeer, yeah that's it.
On the way back I tried to grab a shot of that Supermoon, which was stunningly beautiful, but to get a spectacular shot of it you really need a telephoto lens. (Neil DeGrasse Tyson said so.)