Barking Coyotes and Sleeping Mountain Lions

Last weekend we actually got out of the house and went over to the CALM (California Living Museum) zoo on the outskirts of town. It's a very small zoo, with native animals and vegetation. It's a great place for small kids, not too much walking and complete with a train ride and playground.

We did ride the train first thing because, hey, you are never too old for a train ride! It only takes about 7 minutes to go around in a big loop outside the zoo, but you do get a view of the river below, a part of the river that even has water in it before it all disappears underground or is diverted into canals. You also see some beautiful houses along the river and if I lived there I'd be sitting down by the river every day having my morning coffee. Or afternoon iced tea.

After the train we went to check on the mountain lions and bobcats who were all sleeping since it was late in the day and they are cats after all and we all know how cats love to nap. These two were napping right by the viewing window.

This one opened his eyes for a few seconds then right back to sleep.

No pictures of the bobcats since they were not sleeping next to the window but rather up on a rock ledge.

We looked at the birds and then over to the foxes.

As we were in the fox area we heard an announcement over the loudspeaker about something I didn't pay any attention to but apparently coyotes don't like loud announcements and the two coyotes in the enclosure next to the fox area started barking and howling. Their bark sounds just like a dog but that howl is definitely not coming from a dog, very distinctively coyote. A zoo employee was riding by on a cart and said that the coyotes always howl at loudspeaker announcements. I can't blame them, it probably hurts their sensitive ears.

We went by the barn owl cage just in time for him to hoot at us, when they hoot they kind of puff out in the neck area first, something I had never seen up close like that before.

Our little trip wasn't all that exciting but it was really nice to get out in the somewhat fresh air for an hour or so, we hadn't been anywhere in quite a while. We would like to get back to the Fresno zoo sometime this spring, they have a new safari exhibit that we'd really like to see.

Stoppping By The Side Of The Road And Trip To The Zoo

Now, when you take a little road trip up Hwy 65 here in Central California, you don't drink too much coffee before taking off on your trip because there are no rest stops along this road. And there are not too many little towns with a McDonalds or Taco Bell that might have a clean restroom for you to use. No, you don't want to drink too much before leaving town because you really don't want to have to stop at some funky old gas station in the hopes that their restroom might have been cleaned sometime in the last decade.

I didn't drink too much coffee before leaving on our drive last Saturday, but I did drink two big glasses of iced tea at lunch and was hoping I could make it back to the big city or at least a not so small city before needing to pee. I didn't make it. Keith took off on a side road to go look at a silo or whatever it's called near a bunch of dry dusty fields kind of in the middle of nowhere and I absolutely had to go by then. So, while Keith was taking pictures of this big silo thing I was trying to hide behind it to go pee. Men certainly have the advantage when it comes to peeing by the side of the road because they can just stand there and pretend they are looking at the scenery.

This silo was kind of spooky, crows were cawing when we drove up because they had a nest way high up and thought we might be trying to steal their babies. Being in the middle of dry dusty fields and by a road without much traffic, it did feel as if we were in some lost in the desert kind of movie and we would have to try to walk our way back to civilization, rationing what little water we had while crows followed us and cawed at us.

If you look at the very center top of this picture, you can see the nest where two kind of big baby crows were waiting for mom and dad to come back.

On Sunday we decided to go over to the California Living Museum zoo to see the new desert sheep and see if  the mountain lion was awake. He was not but they have five bobcats now and one of them was pacing around by the window where you can sit and see a bobcat up close and personal, like right there. I was standing there not three inches away from the bobcat while he paced back and forth by the window and then maybe it was the red of my purse but he stopped to look at it and here is his nose against the glass.

Here, kitty kitty!

We wandered the zoo for about an hour and rode on the zoo train where we were the only people without small children, which feels a little strange, but when you can take a train ride for $1.00 why not?

It was a gorgeous weekend, weather wise, and after Monday and Tuesday being 94 degrees, we dropped by twenty degrees yesterday and it was almost downright chilly here! We are promised another 7 or so days of nice spring weather, low 80s, just in time for the three day weekend. We have nothing planned since we spent all of our extra money last weekend, but it will be a nice weekend anyway.