Thursday, March 18, 2010

Grand Cayman: Afternoon Drive






Once Jack started working, I got that restless feeling again and went back to the park. Just after entering the park I had quite a long conver-sation with this bananaquit. I now have some idea what noise draws it, what noise makes it want to talk longer. It's a surprising noise to come out of such a pretty little bird.

Then on to my mission for the afternoon. I drove up and down a lot of..... canals, I guess, cut into the mangroves. Anyway, then, on to the canals! It was mostly boring, punctuated by brief moments of "Wow!" In particular, I came across this one little pool that was cut off from the rest of the water. The water was stagnant, stuff was rotting, bugs were everywhere, and there was a ...... smell. There was also a gloriously beautiful yellow warbler just feasting on the little insects buzzing around! So gorgeous. I just sat in the car watching and snapping pictures, not wanting to startle the bird at all. Then, disaster - a mockingbird came over! All loud and proud, demanding use of the pool. Or at least demanding that the yellow warbler leave. Which it did. Also a bunch of birds I hadn't even seen ~at~ ~all~ who were in the branches nearby left. I got one picture of this one before it completely vanished, but it's not enough for me to identify it. It will remain the mystery water hole bird. But while searching around for more mystery water hold birds, I spotted the green heron trying to be inconspicuous! Looks like a young one from the chest, also it was small, but of course the green heron is not a large heron at all, so, who knows. It ended up being so anxious between the car and the mockingbird that it flew off around the corner. I'm not saying I harassed the poor green heron, but I will admit that I saw it again before leaving the park for the day.

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