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Trip to South Carolina's Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden
Blythe Birdwatchers decided to spend the last weekend of spring break visiting a couple new zoos. After exploring Google maps, we were happy to find that not one, but two South Carolina zoos were within only a few hours-drive to our location here in Dacula, GA: Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden in Columbia and Greenville Zoo in Greenville. I wanted to share some photographs of some new (and some previously seen) species we saw at each zoo, starting with Riverbanks. The Greenville Zoo will be covered in my next blog.
Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden, Columbia, SC:
Located in the middle of South Carolina's capital, this zoo and botanical garden was like getting two different parks for the price of one. Between the two parks is the Saluda River, with a large bridge that you can easily walk to access either one. The park also offers a tram on the botanical garden side for those who would rather not climb the steep hill to see the gardens. Parking is available at both parks. On Friday when we went, the traffic was HORRIBLE and we had to cross the river and park on the botanical garden side. We didn't get to spend much time at the gardens, but what we did see was really beautiful (and I got a few new flowers for my watercolor collection I've been working on!)
After walking the half a mile or so, we crossed the bridge over the Saluda River and entered the Riverbanks Zoo. The aviary building was near this entrance, complete with American Flamingoes, a Black-Necked Swan, and two Demoiselle Cranes.
American Flamingoes
Black-Necked Swan
Demoiselle Cranes
Inside the Aviary, each section was divided by regions in which each species comes from. Some highlights include:
South America
Venezuelan Troupial
Asia and surrounding Area
Red-Billed Leiothrix
Asian Fairy Bluebird
White-Rumped Shama
Green Broadbill
Africa
Spotted Dikkop (aka thick-knee)
Snowy-Crowned Robin Chat
Golden-Breasted Starling
New Guinea
Raggiana Bird of Paradise (Sketch by Megan Blythe, medium Prismacolor colored pencil)
Green-Naped Pheasant Pigeon
Victoria-Crowned Pigeon
There was also a neat penguin exhibit, although the crowd of people in there was so big that we barely got a chance to really get any good views of them. Regardless, I took a few photos. They had three types of penguins; the Rockhopper, Gentoo, and King Penguin.
Gentoo Penguin
King Penguin
We explored just about all of the zoo. Once again, the weather was perfect and it was Spring Break, so the crowd was pretty overwhelming at times. We would definitely love to return on a weekday to really experience each section and animal. Some other birds (and animals) around the zoo included:
Red-Billed Hornbill (Africa)
Blue-Bellied Roller (Africa)
King Vulture (South America)
There was also a really cool Rainbow Lorikeet feeding area that you could walk through and feed nectar. These birds were extremely friendly and fun to watch.
The Amur Tiger was also out prowling around his pen
We had a really good time at Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden and would definitely return (When the crowd isn't so crazy though!)
My next blog will be all about what we saw at the much smaller Greenville Zoo. We got some bad news about one of the birds we specifically went to see, which I'll share next time.
