Rocco
http://modernsmile.com/apple-app-site-association Rocco staring down intruders
Little Ninfa on the left
I call him Rocco, even though male and female Colibri Canelos, Cinnamon Hummingbirds, appear identical. I intuitively judge Rocco a male. He’s a tuffy, and he guards the feeder on our terraza against all invaders.
buy neurontin no prescription Starthroat
A relatively large Colibri Picuda, a Plain-capped Starthroat, is a frequent trespasser. When the Starthroat goes for the feeder, Rocco becomes so preoccupied with discouraging the bigger bird that tiny Ninfa Mexicanas, Mexican Woodnymphs, slip by Rocco and take a quick sip.
Together these speedy birds drive Rocco mad.
The Angels of Ek’ Balam
Mayan Angels
Angels in a Mayan pyramid? Surely not Christian angels as we think of angels in a church or pictured in an illustrated Bible with pseudo-Renaissance prints…
No. Although they do look a lot like the kind of angels we think of seeing in a Christian context, I prefer to understand these angels as naturalistic people dressed up like birds.
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The Mayan archaeological site of Ek’Balam, Black Jaguar, in north central Yucatán is not only home to angels, but also to a monster.
Motmots at Uxmal
In 1989 while working on a business venture in Belize, I took several days to look for wildlife around the Coxcomb Reserve.
I am interested in birds and was lucky to see Scarlet Macaws near the village of Red Bank. One dark night on a mountain trail I saw a small wild cat, a Margay, exposed by the headlights of our jeep. Also I saw some huge snakes, boa constrictors—locally called Wolas, and one aggressive venomous Fer de Lance—a serpent Belizeans call a Tommygoff.
One bird I was particularly interested in seeing was the Motmot. These birds have long ‘paddle tails’ and electric coloring. They are easy to identify. For me however, finding the Motmot in the wild proved elusive. After spending a good part of three days looking around the edges of the Coxcomb Reserve and adjacent banana plantations, I gave up and decided that Motmots were just not destined to make my list.
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When Alice and I were driving around Mexico looking for a place to settle, we spent six weeks in Mérida—trying the city on for size.
Formal Attire
Black-necked Stilts
Candelero Mexicano
Picture a busy business executive dressed in a tuxedo while grabbing a bite in a sandwich shop at the beach. There’s no reason to wear dull clothing even when eating a mundane meal.
Yelapa, a small coastal village accessible by boat on Mexico’s Bahia de Banderas, is where we first found Black-necked Stilts. Then living in Guanajuato, we had fled a cold snap. After taking a bus to Puerto Vallarta, we traveled by shuttle boat across the bay to Yelapa. Our room overlooked the lagoon formed where a river, Rio Tuito, meets the ocean waters. This was our week to warm up.
On our first morning, as I prepared breakfast while looking out over the lagoon, I was delighted to spot a group of unfamiliar shorebirds. They appeared to be similar to the American Avocets we’d often seen in coastal North Carolina—both with a slight upturns to their thin bills. Watching them forage along the alluvial banks, we noted a most striking difference. These birds were wearing full formal attire.
American Avocet
