Classification Matters

One thing a lot of visitors are curious about when it comes to animals is which ones are related to which.  If it's my job to help people learn about the animals around them, I should get this stuff straight.

According to Wikipedia, egrets and bitterns are types of herons.  At CuriOdyssey, we have some herons (green, great blue, and black-crowned night) and egrets (but no cranes or storks).  A lot of children that come through think that the herons are flamingos, and I tell them they're on the right track, since flamingos are also birds that like water. 

Ultimately, the understanding I want to impart to kids is that the way animals look and act is related to how they live.  A lot of times I am not sure what exactly someone thinks it means to call some species "cousins," but just saying that seems to satisfy questioners.

Some egrets at Shoreline.

Uneven Spring

It's chilly today.  I know, I know, I'm from Idaho.  I should be able to handle 55 degrees.  More observations of the Shoreline colony have yielded some snowy egrets in with the great egrets.  I don't think there are more than a half-dozen pairs of birds yet, and I haven't seen any babies. (I see them every evening when I pick up my spouse from work.)  I can't be sure, but the number of birds I've seen this year seems far smaller than last year.  It could still be early to see a lot of animals.

Egrets in the trees at Shoreline.

What I did discover was a big pond of tadpoles at CuriOdyssey.  I was out visiting the roadrunners and finally noticed the frog pool was full of tadpoles.  A few weeks ago a little girl asked me if there were any frogs in the pond, and I told her no.  Oops.  The tadpoles are now in various stages of development.  Some are pretty big, but none have any signs of legs yet.  I noticed them coming up to the surface of the water, and thought they might be taking gulps of air, but a keeper at CO said they're just eating the algae on the surface of the water since they're relying on gills at this point.

Tadpoles at CuriOdyssey