Sea World, con't

Sea World, I didn't realize, has a state-of-the-art veterinary clinic and has facilities for healing and releasing injured wild animals of all kinds, not just sea animals.  We found a couple of birds that were resuscitating, including a Brown Pelican and Sandhill Crane:

The Sandhill Crane appeared to have an injured wing, but its mate was nearby so it was not alone.

I am no expert, but I believe the bird below is a White Ibis X Scarlet Ibis.  The Scarlet Ibis, from the Caribbean and South America, is a deeper scarlet color.  Mark Catesby, Alexander Wilson, and John James Audubon all illustrated the Scarlet Ibis (sometimes called the Scarlet Curlew back then), since it was occasionally found in Florida through the 19th century.  

As I said earlier, interaction with the animals is encouraged.  Below, I am feeding shrimp to rays.  You hold the shrimp by the tail on the bottom of the pond, and the rays very eagerly slurp them up! 

I had hoped to feed the dolphins, but just missed the last feeding of the day.

Sea World has must have hundreds of aquariums, of all sizes.  One is a tube, where you walk under swimming sharks, similar to the one at the Camden Aquarium in New Jersey.  In another, you stand underneath a glass flat bottom, and watch the rays swim overhead.  In the photo below, the bottom of the ray isn't really blue, it's white, but in fiddling with the colors this is what I came up with.  I love the effect, even if not quite realistic:

Another ray, below:

I always love sea horses and sea dragons, such exquisite creatures:

Sea World also has a building for penguins and puffins.  I loved the puffins, put wasn't able to get any good photographs.  They swim like fish underwater, and "pop" up like inflated balloons when they surface!  They can stay under far longer than I ever could, and seem to be happy little birds, in the same way my parakeets always seem to be happy.

The penguin enclosure is the largest I have every seen, and it contained at least five species, if not more.  It is far larger than the one at the Cal Academy or the Camden Aquarium, very impressive:

Lee and I did go to the dolphin show, how could you not?  But I was disappointed - it was more of a theatrical experience than a learning experience.  I wish they had talked about dolphin behavior, life history, and so on, but they did not.  They didn't even tell us what the small whale was that performed with the dolphins.  I think it was a Pilot Whale, but I am not certain.  Very disappointing.  The show was lovely to watch, but I believe Sea World has a moral obligation to teach us about our world.  I find the more I know, the more I am amazed by the world around me.

And a parting shot, a "water garden":

A post script:  The common names of animals are not really supposed to be capitalized (Scarlet Ibis would normally be scarlet ibis), but I find it is more clear to the reader if I capitalize names.  For example, how would one know that the little blue heron (Little Blue Heron) is not a small great blue heron (Great Blue Heron)?  See what I mean?  So please excuse my switching back and forth.  If I think the meaning is clear I will sometimes use lower case.  If I think clarity is important, I will use upper case.