Photos published

A few days back I remembered that I had submitted two of my photos for some Turkish publication on wildlife awareness a loooong time ago.. so today I decided to write to them to find out what happened and guess what - they used it!!! .... : )

And this is what it looks like ...

(the cover of the book)

And here's the pages with my photos ...
The photos are of a Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx) which is quiet rare in the wild.. both of my photos are of captive individuals- the portrait photo was clicked at Moscow Zoo and the second one was at Skansen island in Stockholm.

The book was made to help create awareness of some rare species that was thought to still exist in some part of Turkey but there was no sightings in a loong time so they feared that it could have gone extinct locally. However seen the publication of the book the researchers of the book succeeded in getting camera trap pictures of some real wild Turkish lynx.

Moscow Zoo

Some snaps from the Moscow Zoo - is the largest and oldest zoo in Russia.It was founded in 1864

This is the main duck pond in the centre of the zoo.

Tiger (Panthera tigris)

Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx)

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)

Eurasian Wolf (Canis lupus lupus)

The world's largest land carnivores Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus)

These smart - Hooded Crows (Corvus cornix)- were stealing some of the Polar Bear's meal.

This is a small enclosure for a species of monkey.

The highly entertaining Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta)

These amazing lemurs (like all other members of the Lemur Family) are only found on the island of Madagascar.

Orangutan (I'm not sure which of the two species of the ape this is)

The Orangutan enclosure with one the city famous Seven Sister buildings in the background.
This photo was taken from the bridge that connects the two parts of the zoo.
The highly endangered Victoria Crowned Pigeon (Goura victoria). One of three superficially similar species of crowned pigeons (the others being the Western Crowned Pigeon and the Southern Crowned Pigeon),unlike the other two species the Victoria has white-tipped sagittal crest.
One more snap of the Seven Sister building as seen from inside the zoo. The view reminded me of walking inside New York's Central Park and looking at the city's sky-scrapers towering above the park's beautiful trees.

View Larger Map

The above Google map shows the Moscow Zoo. You can zoom in to see the park better.

A few common birds from St.Petersburg

I had to contend myself with watching birds from Urban areas or Tourist destinations since I was on strictly family tour. So here what I saw along the river and bay area of this great city.

The super common Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus)

And this one below - I had initially dismissed as the Common tern but on closer inspection it looks like I might just have caught myself another 'lifer' in this Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea)
I came to this conclusion because the rump is white, the underparts are darker and the wing lacks the dark wedge on the outer edge, which is a key identifying feature of common terns.

And these two snaps of the Pied Wagtail also know as the White Wagtail (Motacilla alba), the most common bird in the palace grounds around the city.