For those of you who personally know me, you are aware that I usually seem happiest when busy. For years it was founding, choreographing and directing a dance company. More recently it has been creating art, selling art and learning how to make the art functional with the tiles and tea towels that we put our images on. And of course most recently it’s been directing and making films related to domestic violence. The months of August and September were particularly busy with our Day of Action Against Domestic Violence [1]. When I arrived in Costa Rica a week ago I was pretty exhausted and found myself for the first two days just sitting on the patio of the beautiful home we have rented and mostly doing nothing, with my only interest being watching the birds.
Now it is a week later and I am no longer tired but guess what… I still find it refreshing and a joy to just watch the birds. Sometimes we are amused and have fun watching what we have learned is the Great Kiskadee flycatcher take a dip in the pool. A pair fly back and forth and just love to splash in the pool and then find a banana leaf to rest on before crossing back to the other side and repeating their cute little dive. I find myself just giggling as I watch.
This morning Murray got up just after sunrise and wandered outside to see six very colorful Toucans going back and forth between two very close trees. I got to see one at the far away tree a few mornings ago. I may have to get up at sunrise and check out what’s happening tomorrow or the next day. We are using The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide by Richard Garrigues and Robert Dean.
Not so long ago a black vulture rested again on the leafless branches of a not so close, very tall tree. It seems to be a favorite resting place to look around before taking off again. This time the vulture facing toward me very slowly and elegantly spread his/her wings to their full extent, holding still like this for a good 30 seconds. What an incredible sight. Here’s a link to a photo of the wings of the black vulture. https://ebird.org/species/blkvul [2]
And of course there is a regular chatter going on nearly all the time.
So here’s to just watching the birds!!