Visiting The Zoo

One of my favorite places to go for animal photography is the Catoctin Nature Preserve and Zoo, in Thurmont, Maryland.  I’m pretty sure I’ll never get to Africa for that camera-safari I’ve always dreamed of, so for me the local zoos are the next best thing.

You’d think as close as I am (well, relatively speaking) to the National Zoo in Washington DC, that I’d be hanging around there pretty often.  Truth is, I’ve been meaning to get into DC, but haven’t made the effort in recent years.  Note to self:  must do that this spring.  But I do manage to get up to the Catoctin Zoo almost every April … and it’s always been a great source of interesting animal images for me.

The latest addition to my website, a glorious jaguar who seemed to love posing, was actually photographed in April of 2012.  I’ve done a bit of tinkering with it over the years, but only recently found just the right textures and background.

And speaking of posing, the beautiful macaws did, too.

There’s a fun petting zoo area at The Catoctin Zoo as well.  I loved this particular guy … amazing eyes … and I’m so envious of his pretty curls.

And another birdie image … I found this sweet, sweet barred owl peeking out at me from the comfort of his cozy shed …

Another glorious kitty, this time a beautiful white bengal tiger.  We were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time when his handler came into his area.  The tiger’s affection for her was beautiful to see.  These guys purr loud!!

And … do flamingoes count as birdies?  I think they do … in which case …

And last but not least, a fun, fun emu who … well … there’s no other word for it … flirted with me!!

So here I sit at the end of March … can you tell I’m looking forward to visiting my friends at the zoo soon?

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As always, comments are welcome (just scroll all the way down on this page) … and … a click on each of the images above will take you to my main website where you can view them at a better size and resolution and less obnoxious watermark.