Jacksonville FL Zoo

We had a lovely day at the Jacksonville Zoo, arriving at 11:15. It is not a large zoo, but it is well laid out and well-kept. The birds here were amazing. In the first aviary we saw magpies, storks, rollers, and flamingos. Then we took the train (an extra $4) around the park. Next came the big treat: an aviary full of lories. We bought a small cup of nectar for $1 and went in. There were at least 15 lories flying free. Most were rainbow lorikeets with one beautiful black-capped lory. I got one to rest on my hand and drink the nectar while Bill took some photos. Then Bill took the nectar. He got three lorikeets on his arm and the black-capped one on his head. I got some neat photos of that. These are amazingly beautiful birds.

We had a hamburger that wasn’t too bad and continued on our tour. We wandered though the new bamboo gardens and saw the two komodo dragons they have there. We saw red kangaroos, wallabies, spider monkeys, river otters, giant otters, poison dart frogs (I love these guys because they are so colorful), two-toed sloth, a beautiful ant-eater, capybaras.

Then we entered another aviary where we saw some really unique and very beautiful birds: white-headed piping guan, an awesome pair of Inca terns, a chestnut mandible toucan, a totally amazing black-throated magpie jay, scarlet ibis, and just a whole host of amazing birds. I got some really awesome photos which I will get posted soon. It truly was awesome.

We then saw gorillas and bonobos. They have a special platform to look at the giraffes. Bill bought some lettuce, and we got to feed one. The giraffe was very gentle and just curled her tongue around the lettuce to take it from us. Being above the giraffes was certainly a unique way to view them. We saw lions, tigers, elephants, cheetahs, cape buffalo, zebra before we wandered into a reptile building to cool off. We saw the neatest snake ever, a gaboon viper. It had beautiful gray and light blue markings plus rectangular markings on its back that looked like stubby pencils sharpened at both ends.

As we came to the last open viewing area, we could see lots of white birds in the trees. Turns out they are nesting wood stork (endangered and not part of the zoo collection). There were tons of them up close and personal. It was kind of funny that we searched high and low at Six Mile Slough and Corkscrew Swamp preserves to catch a glimpse of just one, and her there were at least 50. They were building nests in the trees next to the zoo boardwalk. And we also saw a new kind of heron for us, a goliath heron. There was a nesting pair down below the boardwalk, and they are also magnificent birds. I love the African crowned crane, but it paled in comparison to these other birds.

We saw kudu, bongos, warthogs, finally a red wolf, sandhill cranes. We took the train around the park one last time before the zoo closed. I took way too many photos, but many of them turned out quite well, and once I process them, I hope to get them uploaded.

We got back to the RV at 6. At 7 we went to the Irish Pub at the bowling alley (this was Bill’s idea) for a light dinner. There wasn’t much of a selection, so I got a Rueben, and Bill got fish and chips. It was a long, hot day, but a really fun one. We can recommend the Jacksonville zoo to anyone if they get in the area!