The Smithsonian National Zoo held a special birthday party for Xiao Qi Ji‘s 2nd birthday where they brought out a nice popsicle cake and generally made a fuss over the young panda. The crowd was fairly large but all in a good mood since it was a beautiful day.

2022-Xiao-Qi-Ji-2nd-Birthday

National Zoo party for Xiao Qi Ji’s 2nd birthday. Unfortunately he wasn’t all that interested in his treat and mostly sat staring away from the crowds.

In addition to the panda birthday celebration, I had a chance to attend the new bird show, which was pretty fun with a ton of audience interaction with the birds and lots of very informative dialog from the naturalist/bird keeper. If you get a chance I would highly encourage attending the show.

Lastly, the zoo actually ended up feeding the lions, so for once the cats were up and about doing stuff instead of simply laying around zonked out during the daylight (visiting) hours.