Tracy Aviary

On July 21st we took a little day trip to Salt Lake City.  We went to Tracy Aviary and most importantly, got to see the newest Barton cousin, Jane Elizabeth Dickson, who was born on July 16th.

We've been wanting to visit the Tracy Aviary ever since we bought this bird there for Trevor's birthday (I just went into the gift shop when we were down there for a family party so we hadn't ever been in the aviary).  Trevor would often talk about the place where we saw the pelicans since he could see them from the parking lot.  We have a family pass to the Hogle Zoo and it gives you a discount to the aviary on Thursdays.  The kids had been having their "We're Bored" summer days so we decided to take a trip.

We got there just before the "Eat or Be Eaten" bird show.  It was quite entertaining and the kids loved it.  I think Trevor knew almost every bird that came out and would shout out it's name.  Just before the next bird was going to come out, he kept asking "What bird is next?"  He couldn't wait to see more!

Kind of hard to see but this first one is Storm, the Red-tailed Hawk (sitting on the branch in the center of the picture)...

This stump was right in front of us so it was cool when the birds flew to it and sat for awhile.  Great Horned Owl...

Toucan...one of Trevor's favorites...

They called a volunteer out from the audience and had her hold a bowl of food.  The audience then had to yell "Dromaius novaehollandiae" (which sounded like a spell from Harry Potter, but is actually the scientific name of an emu) and then an emu came running out straight to the bowl. 

Can't remember the name of this one...

Blue-and-Gold Macaw (another of T's favorites).  The macaw would fly back and forth from the guy to another handler behind the audience and it flew right over our heads...pretty cool!

The King Vulture flying down...

I think this girl's accent (Australian perhaps?) was just as cool as the birds.  I loved listening to her talk about the birds.

Turkey Vulture...

At the end of the show, they brought out a donation box and the crow would take the dollar bills from the visitors and put it in the hole on top of the box.  Talk about an awesome way to collect donations!  Ashlee immediately wanted to do it.  Good thing she brought her own money because I don't carry cash...

After the show, we wandered around.  Two cute little owls...

Silly birds...

Hurry, someone take a picture...they are all looking AND smiling.  Oh wait, I got one.

My favorite exhibit was the South America one.  You walked into this enclosure and it was supposed to be like you were in someone's backyard in Argentina.  In the other exhibits, the birds are behind fences but this one you were actually inside with them.

As we were walking out to the van, I quickly realized I didn't have my keys in my pocket.  When we first got there, I was going to bring my purse so I put my keys in it.  Then I decided I didn't want to carry it along with the camera so I pulled my credit card, zoo membership and cell phone out and put them in my pockets.  Forgot the keys.  Rob was in SLC for a conference that week but we decided there wasn't much he could do to help since he just had a little car and needed to stay for another day.  I ended up calling a locksmith and they dropped the price from $75 to $45 to open my car, which was nice but still bugged me that I had to waste that money for them to take 2 seconds to open my car.  Grrrr, oh well!

Then it was off to see this cute baby, who is the first of 5 Barton/Kovacs babies to come in the the next 5 months.