ABC Wednesday - G is for Giraffe

These are Wellington Zoo's resident giraffes and a mother and daughter pair. They are a hybrid breed.

They can be distinguished by markings on their necks. Zahara has a butterfly half way down her neck (the rear giraffe in the above photo) and Tisa has a heart, as shown below.

Tisa is the mother and the largest animal found at the zoo. She is known for being very slobbery.

Zahara is one of 3 giraffes to be born at the zoo and often the first to arrive at the observation deck for grub. 

In 2012 Wellington Zoo became famous for performing the second successful caesarean in the world. This was performed on Zahara, unfortunately the calve didn't survive. At the time there were only two published reports of surgeries of this kind and only one, published in 2007, that stated the mother survived the surgery. If you look carefully at Zahara's stomach you can see an extra fold which is the c-section scar.

 The giraffes are feed daily at 12.30, with the public being provided with browse to feed them. The browse is usually tree lucerne, silage or another type of foliage. These giraffes seem to love pohutukawa, which is a native to New Zealand and often referred to as the New Zealand Christmas tree.

ABC Wednesday

Little Green Pod

I was fossicking in my mothers garden when I discovered this Monarch butterfly chrysalis. I loved how even in the heat of the day there was still dew drops visible.

I Heart Macro

Macro Monday 2

Summer Gold

This was taken last weekend out the back of my Mum's house with the golden sunset through the Lemonwood and Popular Trees.

Weekly Top Shop

Skywatch Friday

The Blooms and the Bees

Recently there seems to be a lot of Bumble Bees around the place.

Here is an assortment of various flowers I have discovered with Bumble Bees hiding inside.

Floral Friday Foto
Blooming Friday
Today's Flowers

Foggy Wellington

Over the past two days we have been having a very foggy time in Wellington. The hot weather and warm ground temperatures have met with the cooler air over the Cook Strait to create large blankets of fog over the city. Limited wind has prevented it from moving on.

Waking up yesterday the whole of the valley was covered in fog down to the ground, a vast change from the clear blue sky's of the previous few days. Visibility was limited to around 5 meters (16ft) in front of you, which made driving quite fun.

The fog was back again today, though not quite as bad and the airport was able to open, it had been close for most of the previous day and Wednesday night as well.

The central city was just a covered with Parliament buildings looking rather creepy. This shot shows the back of the Parliamentary Library, a building which was completed in 1899 and has survived a number of fires. It still functions as the library today.

The Beehive looked especially frightening, like zombies and ghouls would suddenly appear. This is also a building of parliament, there are three in total, and a particularly iconic one in New Zealand.

Skywatch Friday