Zoo tails....

Another sunny zoo trip. We sure make the most of these annual passes. First a stop at our favourites, the beautiful giraffes. These are Rothschild giraffes, you can tell this as it looks like they are wearing white socks. The young giraffe calves you can see peeking between the legs are Kanzi and Millie. There are lots of these bug hotels around the zoo. They would be a great idea for the garden to make from pallets and filled with recycled materials such as bundles of sticks, straw, logs, bricks and dry leaves. Perfect hiding places for many a creature.

A popular stop for Little Bird is the butterfly house with its humid jungle atmosphere and cascading waterfalls. You can push your way past huge rubbery leaves and through vines, over a bridge to a world of tropical butterflies who spend their days gorging on the fruit buffet laid on for them.

They are much easier to photograph that our British butterflies. Who needs to quickly flutter away when there's so much sugar on offer. There is a great behind the scenes view in here of what the Chester Zoo team do. A puparium shows the emerging butterflies (and moths) from their pupae phase. 

Check for escaping butterflies before you leave!

The mangrove where the pinkest flamingoes you will ever see, chatter and bicker with each other. Every time I see them I think of Alice playing croquet. 

Finally, a comical encounter in the penguin's enclosure that made us all laugh.