Impromptu Company – Kill Them With Kindness

Tags

baby birds, Birds in the house, Cattle Egret, grackle

Look who came calling!

Hopefully some of you mystics will be able to help with a bird mystery or two…

About four months ago, a pelican left its group on the other side of the river and swam across to the rocks by the house.  I have never seen a pelican swim to this side or stand on any of those rocks that replaced the mangroves!  This particular pelican ambled up the huge boulders and perched on a rock about four feet from where I sat.   It looked as if it had something stuck in its mouth, and I extended my hand.  It quickly snapped at me, and I drew back my hand!   After about five minutes, I slowly backed away to retrieve my camera, paper and a pencil.  When I returned, the pelican was swimming back to the other side.

Two days later it returned for a short visit but did not come up the boulders. It posed for many photos, then meandered away. After that, the pelicans resumed their normal habits and stayed on the other side of the river!

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What Happened to Nature’s Rights?

Tags

Cattle Egret, Comorant, Ecuador Nature's Rights, Frigate bird, Great Egret, Ibiis, Manglar, Mangroves, Night Heron, Rio Jama, Sea Gull, Snowy Egret

* Republished due to technical difficulty.   Thank you, Word Press, for all of your help! Z

“The civilized man not only clears the land permanently to a great extent, and cultivates open fields, but he tames and cultivates to a certain extent the forest itself.  By his mere presence, almost, he changes the natuere of the trees as no other creature does… It has lost its wild, damp, and shaggy look;  the countless fallen and decaying trees are gone, and consequently that thick coat of moss which lived on them is gone too.”  Thoreau – Maine Woods “If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.  As if a town had no interest in its forests but to cut them down!”   Thoreau Life Without Principle

BIRDING AROUND

Tags

Birding in Ecuador, Black-Crowned Night Heron, Cattle Egret, Ecuador, Frigate bird, pelican, Snowy Egret, Yellow Crowned Night Heron, zeebra, zeebra rocks

When high ebb coincides with sunrise and sunset,  a living work of art calls me to the river.  Thousands of waterbirds punctuate certain areas of the mangroves, and to my good fortune, they roost in my little slice of heaven!  During nesting season (now!) their numbers swell, and the cacophony builds as the sun slinks toward the horizon.  With paddle in one hand and camera in the other, I shove the kayak into the water and join them.