The sounds of birds is a constant backdrop here. When we first moved into the house we had to wear ear plugs to bed to be able to sleep. I think that we are getting used to them now!
I took this picture yesterday from the kitchen deck. It's a Collared Toucan (in the tree) with a Tropical Kingbird flying up top. We see lots of Kingbirds here but these were the first toucans! I was pretty excited! I even left the hockey game for a few minutes to watch and take pictures.
I never thought of myself as a bird-watching kind of person but it really is pretty interesting. Every time I see something new in the yard, I run for the binoculars and camera! And then I head to the internet to find out what I saw!
I took this picture yesterday from the kitchen deck. It's a Collared Toucan (in the tree) with a Tropical Kingbird flying up top. We see lots of Kingbirds here but these were the first toucans! I was pretty excited! I even left the hockey game for a few minutes to watch and take pictures.
I never thought of myself as a bird-watching kind of person but it really is pretty interesting. Every time I see something new in the yard, I run for the binoculars and camera! And then I head to the internet to find out what I saw!
We also have lots of parrots that cruise through everyday. They are really funny. They are all stubby with little wings and don't really look like they should be able to fly. Kind of like penguins! And they are so noisy. There is no sleeping through a flock of parrots! I was lucky to get this picture of the parrot in the tree. They rarely stop where you can see them. They are usually just flying by...and they are very fast.
It's a fairly lucrative black market business to collect the eggs, hatch them and then sell them for pets. We've actually had two guys stop here and ask us it they can check our trees for eggs. We've politely told them 'no'. I think I'd rather see them flying wild. Although it's a little tempting to make a pet of one, I'm not sure that I want a pet that will outlive me! And it's illegal in Belize to keep a parrot unless you have a permit.
It's a fairly lucrative black market business to collect the eggs, hatch them and then sell them for pets. We've actually had two guys stop here and ask us it they can check our trees for eggs. We've politely told them 'no'. I think I'd rather see them flying wild. Although it's a little tempting to make a pet of one, I'm not sure that I want a pet that will outlive me! And it's illegal in Belize to keep a parrot unless you have a permit.
Jeff (our yard guy) has been telling Adam about turkey hunting season. Apparently, the turkeys move into this area in November and people hunt them. We'll have to check into the legality of this.... Hate to get kicked out of Belize over a 'turkey incident'! We saw these Ocellated turkeys in Guatemala a few years ago but none in Belize yet. They are very pretty. And I'm sure they would be very pretty on a plate for Christmas dinner! We'll see.