The SC Aquarium – Charleston, SC

Last weekend Neil and I spent in Charleston, SC. Mostly we just wandered around, took some photos, and ate some fabulous food. Friday we went to the SC Aquarium –

I want to start by saying, I can’t imagine what the costs and time and effort must be to run a place like an aquarium or zoo, but being that this aquarium is fairly new (opened May 2000), I was surprised at how small most of the tanks and habitats were. Especially the brand new penguin exhibit. There were 4 penguins in a tank that would have fit in my living room. Now maybe it extended back into an area not viewable by the public, but I don’t actually think so. They had a bald eagle on exhibit…by itself, inside, in a netted in area that was no longer than the main hallway that runs the length of my house…and ceilings of about 15 feet, maybe 20. The part the bothered me the most, was that this eagle was still young. It didn’t even have a fully white head yet. I understand the need to find spaces for birds and other animals that cannot be released back into the wild for whatever reason, but to me, this was close to being utterly unacceptable.

Waiting

These alligators were in a habitat that in my estimation, would not hold even one full sized one. If memory serves, there were 3-5 young ones, all about the size of the guy pictured above.  Granted, I don’t think alligators are extremely active, but still…the room was small.

SCAquarium21

Overall, I was not impressed with the place – one of the largest areas in the entire building was the gift shop. I left there feeling like all the animals were living in conditions that would be the equivalent of having Moo live in a 5’x8′ dog run her entire life. Maybe I was just having a bad day, but regardless, those were my impressions of the place.

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New backyard friends…

Yesterday, my disabled finch friend hung out with me while I refilled all the bird feeders. She is deaf, blind in one eye (I think), and cannot fly well – she can barely make it up to the roof of my house and has to take several attempts in order to land on any of the feeders…though I think the latter has to do with depth perception.

She wasn't too sure about me being right there at first and flitted off into the maple tree a few feet away. But then she decided I was OK and came right back…almost landing on me during her first attempt to make it back to the feeder. I feel somewhat guilty, I think this is a bird I saved from Bonnie earlier this Spring. However, she seems to be getting along just fine, so I will continue to make sure the feeders are full for her, there is clean water in the bird bath and she has a safe-as-possible roost in the maple tree.

This pretty lady is my other new backyard friend:

Mini Sunshines

I am pretty sure it is a 'she' – according to this website article, the female Eastern Box Turtles have brown eyes whereas the males have red. They can live to be 80 in the wild, but usually only 30-50 years in captivity. It also stated that the colors tend to be more vibrant in the young…I wonder how old this one is? It is hard to tell how 'vibrant' the colors actually are, since it was raining and the shell was wet.

I moved her over to the hill area since the lawn guys are due to come today – I didn't want her to get mowed!!! When I picked her up, she pulled in and closed her shell tight! There is a hinged area under the front part that pulls up to completely close up the shell.

Nobody’s Home!

When I went back out later, she had moved on…I am wondering if it was the same one I saw earlier in the year near the top of the hill munching on some weeds.

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